Latest Keith Rabois Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• The key to culture is it's a framework for making decisions. And if it's baked into your culture, people learn how to make decisions across that culture without you ever saying anything. You never have to really do anything except watch and promote and move people around.

  Keith Rabois

  Moving, Keys, People

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• Some people can't learn to play the guitar by reading a book. You have to actually try to manage a bit and you won't do well at first.

  Keith Rabois

  Reading, Book, Guitar

  Source: genius.com

• Being a venture capitalist to me is like being more of a psychologist. So if you come to my office we have two chairs with a table in the middle. And we sit down and it's like, Tell me your problems.

  Keith Rabois

  Two, Office, Venture Capitalists

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• Every good startup is a cult. And it's really hard to create a cult if you are sharing space with people. Because a cult means you think you are better than every other startup, you have a special way of doing things that's better than anyone else in the world.

  Keith Rabois

  Mean, Thinking, Space

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• I think you must have your own office. I don't believe ever in shared office spaces.

  Keith Rabois

  Office Space, Believe, Thinking

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• Transparency people talk a lot about, it's a goal everybody ascribes to but when push comes to shove, very few people actually adhere to it.

  Keith Rabois

  People, Goal, Transparency

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• The office environment that people work in everyday dictates the culture that you are going to be in.

  Keith Rabois

  People, Office, Everyday

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• It's actually a good thing if you do reference checks on somebody and half the people you call say they are a micromanager and the other half say they actually give me a lot of responsibility. That's a feature not a bug.

  Keith Rabois

  Responsibility, People, Giving

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• You can build the most important companies in history with a very simple to describe concept. You can market products in less than 50 characters. There is no reason why you can't build your company the same way. So force yourself to simplify every initiative, every product, every marketing, everything you do. Basically take out that red and start eliminating stuff.

  Keith Rabois

  Character, Simple, Marketing

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• Don't accept the excuse of complexity. A lot of people will tell you, this is too challenging, this is too complicated, yeah well I know other people simplify but that's not for me, this is a complicated business. They're wrong. You can change the world in 140 characters.

  Keith Rabois

  Character, People, Challenges

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• The first thing that editor does is they take out a red pen, or nowadays you go online, and they start striking things. Basically eliminating things, the biggest task of an editor is to simplify, simplify, simplify and that usually means omitting things.

  Keith Rabois

  Mean, Editors, Red

  "How To Start A Startup". Y Combinator’s CS183B Stanford Class. Lecture 14: How to Operate,

• The more you simplify, the better people will perform. People can not understand and keep track of a long complicated set of initiatives. So you have to distill it down to one, two, or three things and use a framework they can repeat, they can repeat without thinking about, they can repeat to their friends, they can repeat at night.

  Keith Rabois

  Night, Thinking, Two

  "How To Start A Startup". Y Combinator’s CS183B Stanford Class. Lecture 14: How to Operate,

• When you start a company everything is going to feel like a mess. And it really should. If you have too much process, too much predictability, you are probably not innovating fast enough and creatively enough.

  Keith Rabois

  Too Much, Enough, Process

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate" by Keith Rabois, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

• If the Martians took over eBay it would take 6 months for the world to notice.

  Keith Rabois

  Ebay, World, Months

  "How To Start A Startup". Y Combinator’s CS183B Stanford Class. Lecture 14: How to Operate,

• Build a company that idiots could run because eventually they will.

  Keith Rabois

  Running, Idiot, Company

  "How To Start A Startup". Y Combinator’s CS183B Stanford Class. Lecture 14: How to Operate,