“Don’t always go through the tiny little door that everyone’s trying to rush through. Go around the corner and go through the vast gate that no one’s taking.”

This was 5-hour Energy’s side door. It wasn’t a drink, so it wasn’t an immediate threat to Red Bull or Monster Energy. At two ounces, it also didn’t need to be refrigerated or given a large, dedicated shelf, so retailers didn’t have to worry about space.

The goal, when you’re trying to break into an overcrowded market like Tim was, isn’t to make Pumas without the tiger; it’s to make something no one has ever seen before.

word of mouth is not a billboard or an article or an interview. It’s a dialogue. A conversation. It’s a text message from one friend to another telling them, “You’ve gotta try this.”

it’s important to spend enough time in this first phase to really get comfortable with your product and your story and really get to know the business you’re trying to build.

Sadie Lincoln left California as well, except she went north, up to Portland, Oregon, to found a studio fitness business called Barre3, built around the use of the ballet barre and utilizing small isometric movements derived from ballet. Today, barre workouts are incredibly popular. There are a number of popular brands, including Barre3, with

“Where you live matters,” Drew said in his address. “Whatever you’re doing, there’s usually only one place where the top people go. You should go there. Don’t settle for anything else . . . If the real action is happening somewhere else, move.”

all businesses are stories, and all stories are a process.

It sounds obvious to say you should only work on problems that exist. And yet by far the most common mistake startups make is to solve problems no one has.”