Quote

You can look at the cost structure of an incumbent company and discover: where are they not going to be able to drop their prices... because that business model is fundamental to the existence of the company.

Aaron Levie

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Aaron Levie
Age: 38
Born: 1985
Born: December 27
Entrepreneur
Seattle
Washington
Existence
Fundamental
Company
Model
Business
Fundamentals
Able
Discover
Look
Models
Incumbent
Looks
Structure
Incumbents
Going
Cost
Prices
Building
Drop

More quotes by Aaron Levie

Image
Your product should sell itself, but that does not mean you don't need salespeople.
Aaron Levie
Image
What happens to the Microsofts, Oracles and IBMs of the world is that when they get big enough, they don't think they need to bring that same level of focus and energy to the end-user experience.
Aaron Levie
Image
Innovation is hard because solving problems people didn't know they had & building something no one needs look identical at first.
Aaron Levie
Image
The most customer-centric organizations can answer any question by deciding what's best for the customer, without ever having to ask.
Aaron Levie
Image
Always look for these changing technology factors- any market that has a significant change in the underlying raw materials ...or enabling factors, is an environment that is about to change in a very significant way.
Aaron Levie
Image
You intentionally start small, because you will not be able to compete with an incumbent... because the incumbent is always going to go for the full solution.
Aaron Levie
Image
Modularize, don't customize. Build a platform as opposed to building all of the custom technology and custom vertical experiences.
Aaron Levie
Image
Too little process and you can't get good work done. Too much process and you can't get any work done. Most companies never find the middle.
Aaron Levie
Image
A lot of being productive personally is determined by how you organize your entire business. You can't separate those two things.
Aaron Levie
Image
I tend to not discriminate when it comes to people I can learn from. Basically, if someone has built a meaningful business in software, technology or media, faced disruption and adversity, and overcame underdog status, I want to know how they did it.
Aaron Levie
Image
If you don't go to every level of your company, you distance yourself from the marketplace and from your people.
Aaron Levie
Image
If people don't think the odds are against you, you're doing it wrong.
Aaron Levie
Image
The benefit to building a startup is that customers don't have the same kind of friction when they adopt new technology.
Aaron Levie
Image
Companies have never won. You're always either fighting for survival, or fighting for relevance.
Aaron Levie
Image
Start with something simple and small, then expand over time. If people call it a 'toy' you're definitely onto something.
Aaron Levie
Image
Innovation in tech favors the naive and the stubborn. If you are too rational you won't tackle problems that others once failed at.
Aaron Levie
Image
The IT model of the enterprise has become a lot more user lead.
Aaron Levie
Image
Listen to your customers, but don't always build exactly what they're telling you. This is a really key distinction around building enterprise software.
Aaron Levie
Image
We didn't really start the company to go build an enterprise software company.
Aaron Levie
Image
Tip: Take the stodgiest, oldest, slowest moving industry you can find. And build amazing software for it.
Aaron Levie