6 ms·

Q&A with Aaron Levie

55 points by dwaxe 10y ago

untilHellbanned 10y ago
Fairly useless platitude-fest/groupthink. Kinda surprised.
- exolymph 10y ago
  I had the opposite reaction — I found previous entries in this series pretty lackluster, but enjoyed this one. Maybe that's because I was previously biased to like Levie due to his entertaining Twitter presence...
- quizzas 10y ago
  groupthink platitudes are red flags - the beginning to the end of innovation.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
misiti3780 10y ago
Am I the only one here who has never heard of the book Blue Ocean Strategy ?
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  Maybe not the only one but I don't think it's something to be proud of. It's a great book and I'm sure a lot of people are aware of the concept even though they haven't actually read the book.
  - misiti3780 10y ago
    im not proud of it - i love reading im surprised i have never heard of it - as i have read everything else on his list
- steejk 10y ago
  I wouldn't say it's anything revolutionary, but more just rewording of classic strategy. In short it's 'differentiate and don't compete with existing products in existing markets'.
Aelinsaar 10y ago
I generally agree with UntilHellbanned, but I think the closing point about spending time with, and getting to know your customers makes it all worth it. Too many people lose sight of that, or worse, develop adversarial relationships with their customers.
cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
Lame answer to "What do you believe that few people agree with you on?". I don't think "few" people think that think AI will create more jobs than destroy. This type of controversy has existed every time there was any type of technological innovation throughout the history.
doctorpangloss 10y ago
> startups with zero baggage Well, a megalomaniacal founder who wants to hire 10,000 people and run a huge company has the exact same baggage as his large competitors. The baggage is just cultural, rather than business baggage or technical baggage. I think investors like Aaron Levie, who's all around a brilliant and highly accommodating guy, don't recognize that cultural baggage exists at day 0. > Don’t hedge your bets. That makes sense from the point of view of an investment portfolio manager, where you would want all of your companies to do the thing you actually invested in them to do in order to achieve diversity. But from a business point of view, bifurcating strategy could make a ton of sense. Maybe we're talking about different companies. I really admire places like Valve, which definitely regard culture as their main source of enterprise value (rather than some notion of legacy-free competitiveness) and bifurcation (game development and store management) as successful. You could find lots of people who wouldn't care to found a Box.net. But who wouldn't want to found Valve?
- aresant 10y ago
  Valve was formed in September of 1996 to create Half Life. After two years of grueling, insane focus they managed to push out Half Life on November 19, 1998. After four more years of growing into their shoes they launched Steam in 2002. If they hadn't gone all-in and focused on their first idea there would be no steam, no culture, etc. Being Focusing as a startup is the ONLY option if you want all the trappings / options / creativity / line extension that come out of mature / revenue positive companies. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#Founding_and_incorporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#Founding_and...
- manigandham 10y ago
  > You could find lots of people who wouldn't care to found a Box.net. But who wouldn't want to found Valve? How'd you come up with this? I'd much rather build Box than Valve. What's so special about Valve other than making some games? Business != culture.
  - sockgrant 10y ago
    Whaaaat? Maybe you're not that into video games. Valve helped define a generation of gaming. You can't tell the history of video games without devoting some time to them. Box is a great company but I don't think it's as impactful.
tacon 10y ago
>Ten years from now, how have you improved yourself? > >The list is pretty much endless. To name a few: I wish I were better at chess, I wish I could juggle five balls instead of barely four, I wish I were better at piano, I wish I were a speed reader, and I wish I could sleep fewer hours. This is a very disappointing list. He is the CEO of a major corporation, but everything he wants to improve has nothing to do with how he interacts with other human beings, be they family, employees, customers, or anyone else.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  I would have been disappointed if he said something out of your playbook. Those are very cliche feel-good PR comments that anyone can say. It's almost like those people at conferences asking questions they're not even curious about (but for the sake of getting attention). He's just another normal human being and is being genuine about it.
- rokhayakebe 10y ago
  Maybe he is doing this already based on the last question.
- vonnik 10y ago
  He told people to spend more time with their parents. That's pretty good advice about how to relate to other human beings.

55 points by dwaxe 10y ago

untilHellbanned 10y ago

Fairly useless platitude-fest/groupthink. Kinda surprised.

exolymph 10y ago
I had the opposite reaction — I found previous entries in this series pretty lackluster, but enjoyed this one. Maybe that's because I was previously biased to like Levie due to his entertaining Twitter presence...
quizzas 10y ago
groupthink platitudes are red flags - the beginning to the end of innovation.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

misiti3780 10y ago

Am I the only one here who has never heard of the book Blue Ocean Strategy ?

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
Maybe not the only one but I don't think it's something to be proud of. It's a great book and I'm sure a lot of people are aware of the concept even though they haven't actually read the book.
- misiti3780 10y ago
  im not proud of it - i love reading im surprised i have never heard of it - as i have read everything else on his list
steejk 10y ago
I wouldn't say it's anything revolutionary, but more just rewording of classic strategy. In short it's 'differentiate and don't compete with existing products in existing markets'.

Aelinsaar 10y ago

I generally agree with UntilHellbanned, but I think the closing point about spending time with, and getting to know your customers makes it all worth it. Too many people lose sight of that, or worse, develop adversarial relationships with their customers.

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago

Lame answer to "What do you believe that few people agree with you on?". I don't think "few" people think that think AI will create more jobs than destroy. This type of controversy has existed every time there was any type of technological innovation throughout the history.

doctorpangloss 10y ago

> startups with zero baggage Well, a megalomaniacal founder who wants to hire 10,000 people and run a huge company has the exact same baggage as his large competitors. The baggage is just cultural, rather than business baggage or technical baggage. I think investors like Aaron Levie, who's all around a brilliant and highly accommodating guy, don't recognize that cultural baggage exists at day 0. > Don’t hedge your bets. That makes sense from the point of view of an investment portfolio manager, where you would want all of your companies to do the thing you actually invested in them to do in order to achieve diversity. But from a business point of view, bifurcating strategy could make a ton of sense. Maybe we're talking about different companies. I really admire places like Valve, which definitely regard culture as their main source of enterprise value (rather than some notion of legacy-free competitiveness) and bifurcation (game development and store management) as successful. You could find lots of people who wouldn't care to found a Box.net. But who wouldn't want to found Valve?

aresant 10y ago
Valve was formed in September of 1996 to create Half Life. After two years of grueling, insane focus they managed to push out Half Life on November 19, 1998. After four more years of growing into their shoes they launched Steam in 2002. If they hadn't gone all-in and focused on their first idea there would be no steam, no culture, etc. Being Focusing as a startup is the ONLY option if you want all the trappings / options / creativity / line extension that come out of mature / revenue positive companies. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#Founding_and_incorporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#Founding_and...
manigandham 10y ago
> You could find lots of people who wouldn't care to found a Box.net. But who wouldn't want to found Valve? How'd you come up with this? I'd much rather build Box than Valve. What's so special about Valve other than making some games? Business != culture.
- sockgrant 10y ago
  Whaaaat? Maybe you're not that into video games. Valve helped define a generation of gaming. You can't tell the history of video games without devoting some time to them. Box is a great company but I don't think it's as impactful.

tacon 10y ago

>Ten years from now, how have you improved yourself? > >The list is pretty much endless. To name a few: I wish I were better at chess, I wish I could juggle five balls instead of barely four, I wish I were better at piano, I wish I were a speed reader, and I wish I could sleep fewer hours. This is a very disappointing list. He is the CEO of a major corporation, but everything he wants to improve has nothing to do with how he interacts with other human beings, be they family, employees, customers, or anyone else.

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
I would have been disappointed if he said something out of your playbook. Those are very cliche feel-good PR comments that anyone can say. It's almost like those people at conferences asking questions they're not even curious about (but for the sake of getting attention). He's just another normal human being and is being genuine about it.
rokhayakebe 10y ago
Maybe he is doing this already based on the last question.
vonnik 10y ago
He told people to spend more time with their parents. That's pretty good advice about how to relate to other human beings.