As a founder, your first job is to get the first things right, because you cannot build a great company on a flawed foundation.

As you craft a plan to expand to adjacent markets, don’t disrupt: avoid competition as much as possible.

the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.

if you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business.

In January 2013, Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, tweeted to his 2 million followers: “Success is never accidental.”

is unique, but they usually share some combination of the following characteristics: proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and branding.

In 2001, my co-workers at PayPal and I would often get lunch on Castro Street in Mountain View. We had our pick of restaurants, starting with obvious categories like Indian, sushi, and burgers. There were more options once we settled on a type: North Indian or South Indian, cheaper or fancier, and so on. In contrast to the competitive local restaur

hand. No one can predict the future exactly, but we know two things: it’s going to be different, and it must be rooted in today’s world.

Instead of a healthier planet, we got a massive cleantech bubble.