as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination. You're going to hit a lot of obstacles. You can't be the sort of person who gets demoralized easily.

When you're starting a startup that depends on deals with big companies to exist, it often feels like they're trying to ignore you out of existence.

The world of startups is so unpredictable that you need to be able to modify your dreams on the fly.

He's determined to get downfield, but at any given moment he may need to go sideways or even backwards to get there.

It seems like the type that matters most is imagination. It's not so important to be able to solve predefined problems quickly as to be able to come up with surprising new ideas. In the startup world, most good ideas seem bad initially.

Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good.

They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter.

Empirically it seems to be hard to start a startup with just one founder. Most of the big successes have two or three. And the relationship between the founders has to be strong. They must genuinely like one another, and work well together.

I'm sure they argue, like all founders, but I have never once sensed any unresolved tension between them.