Jessica Livingston

"I think there are very few people who have a capacity to see the future. So it can be difficult when you are talking about something where nothing about it exists yet"

"Much better to figure out where the marketplace is going to be in a few years, focus on providing a solution to that, and let the market forces catch up to you."

"Venture capitalists, with the exception of people like Don Valentine, would tell you that theyd rather fund a great team than a great idea. The reason is that if they have a bad idea, great teams can figure out a better one. Mediocre people even with a great idea can screw it up in its execution. Or if they have a bad idea, then they arent going to be in a position to think about how to change it. Theyre just going to pursue it blindly"

"Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the rest of the race slowing down. The winners slow down the least. Its that way with most startups too. The earliest phase is usually the most productive. Thats when they have the really big ideas. Imagine what Apple was like when 100% of its employees were either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak"

"Over the years, Ive learned that the first idea you have is irrelevant. Its just a catalyst for you to get started. Then you figure out whats wrong with it and you go through phases of denial, panic, regret. And then you finally have a better idea and the second idea is always the important one."

"If that one didnt work out, if we still had the money and the people, obviously we would not have given up. We would have iterated on the business model and done something else. I dont think there was ever clarity as to who we were until we knew it was working. By then, wed figured out our PR pitch and told everyone what we do and who we are. But between the founding and the actual PayPal, it was just like this tug-of-war where it was like, "Were trying this, this week." Every week you go to investors and say, "Were doing this, exactly this. Were really focused. Were going to be huge." The next week youre like, "That was a lie."

"the less energy people expend on performance, the more they expend on appearances to compensate."

"The goal - at least the way I think about entrepreneurship - is you realize one day that you cant really work anyone else. You have to start your own thing. It almost doesnt matter what the thing is. We had six different business plan changes, and then the last one was PayPal."