Quotes by Neil Blumenthal - Page 2

During times of plenty - when venture funding is abundant and startups multiply like rabbits - every business looks like a winner.
Neil Blumenthal /
Funding
Looks
Plenty
Rabbits
Venture
Winner
Abundant
Multiply
Startups
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For every Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, there's 30 other entrepreneurs that started their business after working for several years.
Neil Blumenthal /
Entrepreneurs
Mark Zuckerberg
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When my three co-founders and I started Warby Parker in 2010, our primary intention was to sell good-looking, affordable eyewear online.
Neil Blumenthal /
Affordable
Intention
Good-Looking
Parker
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The basic idea of a hackathon is to erase all routine obligations for the day so that employees can clear a mental space for creativity.
Neil Blumenthal /
Erase
Routine
Employees
For The Day
Obligations
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When you look at the reasons people leave companies, it's usually because their boss is a jerk or because they aren't learning and growing.
Neil Blumenthal /
Jerk
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Just as a company needs a strategy to capture market share, a company needs a strategy to encourage actions that reflect their core values.
Neil Blumenthal /
Capture
Core Values
Strategy
Market Share
Reflect
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We have never met with politicians. I don't know the first thing about how to get heard. My suspicion is that it's to donate a lot of money.
Neil Blumenthal /
Donate
Suspicion
Money Never Know
First Thing
The First Thing
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When another editorial pops up denouncing millennials for some perceived generational flaw, I take it with a Miley Cyrus-sized grain of salt.
Neil Blumenthal /
Grain
Millennials
Pops
Salt
Editorial
Flaw
Generational
Perceived
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Every moment contains an opportunity to create feelings of satisfaction and excitement in a customer. It's up to retailers to make it happen.
Neil Blumenthal /
Excitement
Make It Happen
Satisfaction
Contains
Customer
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Businesses should focus on solving problems, putting the customer first, delivering value - not gimmicks - and growing in a sustainable manner.
Neil Blumenthal /
Delivering
Customer
Sustainable
Manner
Solving
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It's impossible to predict crises - or to control them once they hit - but you can absolutely prime yourself to ride them out as best as possible.
Neil Blumenthal /
Impossible
Predict
Absolutely
Hit
Crises
Ride
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Often, companies are trying to chase growth and get into other categories or go international too quickly, and they can get in trouble doing that.
Neil Blumenthal /
Categories
Chase
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I completely believe in the lean startup and minimum viable product; I just I think that people are setting the threshold for minimum viable too low.
Neil Blumenthal /
Minimum
Setting
Threshold
Lean
Startup
Viable
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At Warby Parker, we use the survey platform Culture Amp to take employee engagement surveys that help us become ultra-responsive to the needs of our teams.
Neil Blumenthal /
Engagement
Amp
Parker
Platform
Survey
Teams
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One of the core values of the startup world is that you must have a list of core values. Like all abstract ideas, they're easy to dream up and tricky to implement.
Neil Blumenthal /
Abstract
Core Values
Tricky
Implement
Startup
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I came to Washington primarily to meet other entrepreneurs. That being said, I was also curious to hear how our federal government was thinking about entrepreneurship.
Neil Blumenthal /
Federal Government
Entrepreneurs
Primarily
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At Warby Parker, we moved our focus to promotion only after we'd spent time creating our product, a user-friendly website, and an on-the-ball customer experience team.
Neil Blumenthal /
Creating
Moved
Promotion
User Friendly
Website
Customer
Parker
Product
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The rules of optical dispensing vary from state to state. Dispensing eyeglasses is not that complicated, and even if it were complicated, there should be uniform rules.
Neil Blumenthal /
Vary
Optical
Uniform
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The idea that you don't spam people with five emails a day or that you offer free shipping just seemed obvious to us, because that's how we want to be treated as consumers.
Neil Blumenthal /
Consumers
Obvious
Shipping
Spam
Treated
Day Free People
Emails
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People who are passionate about Warby Parker are passionate about creating a company that can scale, be profitable, and do good in the world - without charging a premium for it.
Neil Blumenthal /
Charging
Premium
Profitable
Good World People
Scale
Parker
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We've built a company that distributes a pair of eyeglasses to someone in need for every pair sold; that purchases carbon offsets; and that hosts mentoring programs at the office.
Neil Blumenthal /
Carbon
Mentoring
Hosts
Programs
Pair
Purchases
Sold
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Giving employees agency over their workspace encourages them to think carefully about the conditions in which they work best, and it gives them the tools to forge that environment.
Neil Blumenthal /
Agency
Conditions
Tools
Carefully
Employees
Forge
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For any collaboration to work, each partner must have a strong sense of identity. If one overpowers the other, it's like mixing lemonade with water - you wind up diluting the brew.
Neil Blumenthal /
Collaboration
Lemonade
Mixing
Wind
Brew
Partner
Strong Sense
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What happens when kids don't have glasses - they get bored in class. They disengage and they may be disruptive. They may be misdiagnosed for A.D.D. or put in special needs classes.
Neil Blumenthal /
Bored
Disruptive
Glasses
Special Needs
Classes
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The trick to maximizing your team's productivity is to create a workspace that's flexible, so it can be altered according to the ever-changing needs of the company and its team members.
Neil Blumenthal /
Altered
Flexible
Maximizing
Productivity
According
Ever-Changing
Trick
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Millennials in particular get a lot of flack for their supposed entitlement and narcissism, but these evaluations have never matched my experience with hiring young people at Warby Parker.
Neil Blumenthal /
Entitlement
Hiring
Matched
Millennials
Narcissism
Experience People Never
Experience People Young
Parker
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I personally try to buy the best-quality items at the best price that do the least harm and from companies that are striving to do good - many of those companies are run by young entrepreneurs.
Neil Blumenthal /
Harm
Items
Entrepreneurs
Striving
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For many startups, ideating is the fun part: coming up with ingenious schemes to grab eyeballs and start conversations. But before you dive into that stage, take a step back and define your goals.
Neil Blumenthal /
Eyeballs
Ingenious
Schemes
Conversations
Define
Dive
Grab
Startups
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Every generation trash-talks younger generations. Baby boomers labeled Generation X a group of tattooed slackers and materialists; Generation Xers have branded millennials as iPhone-addicted brats.
Neil Blumenthal /
Boomers
Branded
Generation X
Millennials
Tattooed
Younger
Baby Boomers
Generation
Group
Labeled
Younger Generations
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Exploring emerging technologies like new refraction technology will enable people to get prescriptions cheaper and more conveniently, which will, in turn, provide increased access to prescription glasses.
Neil Blumenthal /
Cheaper
Emerging
Exploring
Glasses
Technology People New
Technology People Will
Conveniently
Prescription
Technologies
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When a person has work, she has income and can achieve financial self-sustainability. She can prioritize her family's health and education. Her standing in the community is lifted, and so is her confidence.
Neil Blumenthal /
Income
Prioritize
Education Family Work
Lifted
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Theoretically, an open-plan office is a great format for a changeable work environment, a place where employees have a say over how they work and a place that can adapt to their needs and to the needs of the business.
Neil Blumenthal /
Environment
Format
Office
Work Environment
Adapt
Work Business Great
Changeable
Employees
Theoretically
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I wanted to open up a stand to sell dried fruit and beef jerky where we lived in Greenwich Village. I was 8 years old. I had been flipping through TV channels and got mesmerized by this infomercial for a food dehydrator.
Neil Blumenthal /
Beef
Greenwich
Greenwich Village
Mesmerized
Village
Channels
Dried
Flipping
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We all have a personal recipe for productivity. One person may need six cups of autonomy and just a pinch of collaboration. Another person may require heaps of sociability and noise, with just a teaspoon of occasional privacy.
Neil Blumenthal /
Autonomy
Collaboration
Cups
Noise
Occasional
Privacy
Productivity
Six
Personal
Pinch
Recipe
Require
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Building a consistent experience and firm identity was instrumental in our ability to swiftly build our online presence, open four stores as well as a mobile store in a converted yellow school bus, and launch six shops-in-shops.
Neil Blumenthal /
Consistent
Firm
Mobile
Stores
Yellow
Converted
Instrumental
Launch
Presence
Swiftly
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From the beginning, we believed that it was possible to develop direct relationships with customers at a relatively cheap cost, and our plan was to build a lifestyle brand that was also an Internet company - a rarity for eyewear.
Neil Blumenthal /
Customers
Lifestyle
Rarity
Cheap
Relatively
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It may seem premature, but you need to be thinking of your exit from the moment you accept capital, because at that moment, you've made an explicit agreement with an investor that he or she will eventually be able to gain liquidity.
Neil Blumenthal /
Agreement
Exit
Explicit
Liquidity
Premature
Gain
He Or She
Investor
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I believe that the concept of 'design' encompasses every aspect of customers's exposure to a brand, from the moment they hear about us to the first time they visit our store to the process of ordering and anticipating the arrival of their glasses.
Neil Blumenthal /
Aspect
Exposure
Glasses
Anticipating
Arrival
Ordering
Visit
Copy Quote
If you don't plan to dive in and dedicate all of your time to your startup, you probably shouldn't be looking for funding. It's hard enough asking for money when you believe in an idea; asking for money to fund something you're iffy about is ten times more strenuous.
Neil Blumenthal /
Fund
Ten
Idea
Time Money Believe
Dedicate
Dive
Times
Ten Times
Plan
Startup
Strenuous
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At the end of the day, an entrepreneurial journey is all about de-risking: How can you spend the least amount of time and money to accomplish your goal? The more information you can gather, the more comfortable you'll be investing time and money into a particular offering.
Neil Blumenthal /
Accomplish
Entrepreneurial
Investing
Offering
Time And Money
Gather
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There are two elements to nailing a job interview: form and substance. 'Form' describes the outer layer of your character - your manners, your demeanor, your social skills. 'Substance' describes the inner core of your character - your intellect, your empathy, your creativity.
Neil Blumenthal /
Character
Core
Demeanor
Elements
Form
Intellect
Manners
Skills
Social
Social Skills
Substance
Two
Job
Inner
Interview
Layer
Outer
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Every day, write down a few frustrations. And then at the end of the week, you'll have maybe 10 problems. By the end of the month, maybe you have 40 to 50 problems. And then you can spend time thinking about, Is there a viable business in solving any of these everyday frustrations?
Neil Blumenthal /
Everyday
Month
Time Business Thinking
Frustrations
Solving
Viable
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Avoid the 'squeaky wheel gets the grease' habit of overreacting to the loudest feedback. The first time you hear a particular piece of feedback, treat it like a clue and do some investigating. Find out how deep it goes - maybe it stops at the surface and won't be an issue, maybe not.
Neil Blumenthal /
Clue
Feedback
First Time
Grease
Habit
Investigating
Particular
Surface
Avoid
Deep
Gets
Goes
Hear
Issue
Loudest
Maybe
Stops
Piece
Treat
Wheel
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I want to go at least 11 hours without food. I sat next to Hugh Jackman at a conference, and he told me he fasted 12 to 14 hours when he was training for the Wolverine movies. I've deluded myself into thinking I can effortlessly achieve the same body type as Hugh Jackman if I keep up this eating schedule.
Neil Blumenthal /
Deluded
Conference
Effortlessly
Hugh
Schedule
Wolverine
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Self-awareness is a trait - or maybe 'practice' is the more accurate way to put it - that everyone can always improve at. It is part emotional intelligence, part perceptiveness, part critical thinking. It means knowing your weaknesses, of course, but it also means knowing your strengths and what motivates you.
Neil Blumenthal /
Accurate
Critical
Critical Thinking
Emotional
Emotional Intelligence
Practice
Self Awareness
Thinking
Also
Everyone
Part
Course
Trait
Improve
Put
Maybe
Motivates
Strengths
Weaknesses
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At Warby Parker, we ask ourselves a number of questions when deciding whether or not to partner up with a designer, or a nonprofit or brand. Is the potential collaboration new? Is it unexpected? Will it result in something worth talking about over dinner? Will it do good? Will it introduce us to a new audience?
Neil Blumenthal /
Collaboration
Designer
Unexpected
Deciding
Introduce
Nonprofit
Parker
Partner
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Regardless of what you plan to use it for, the goal should always be to raise money right before you need it. You don't want to get into a situation where you need cash and you're unable to raise it - or you're unable to raise it on favorable terms. As with any negotiation, you want to raise from a position of strength.
Neil Blumenthal /
Cash
Negotiation
Favorable
Regardless
Unable
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