QuoteProject
Whenever I talk to people who founded a company, I often like to ask the prehistory questions 'When did you meet? How long have you been working before you started the company?' A bad answer is, 'We met at a networking event a week ago, and we started a company because we both want to be entrepreneurs.'
Peter Thiel
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of deep relationships and a shared history in founding a successful company.

Peter Thiel suggests that successful companies are often founded by individuals who have established a meaningful relationship and a solid understanding of each other's strengths over time. Quick connections formed merely for the sake of entrepreneurship typically lack the foundational depth needed for enduring collaboration and success.

Themes

EntrepreneurshipRelationshipsSuccessFoundersBusinessCompany

In practice

Example use cases

In a conference about startup success stories, I might share this quote to emphasize the importance of building strong relationships.

More from Peter Thiel

It's good to test yourself and develop your talents and ambitions as fully as you can and achieve greater success; but I think success is the feeling you get from a job well done, and the key thing is to do the work.
Peter ThielRead
The first question we would ask if aliens landed on this planet is not, 'What does this mean for the economy or jobs?' It would be, 'Are they friendly or unfriendly?'
Peter ThielRead
People working on bigger ideas on a more protracted timeline will be more on the stealth side. They aren’t releasing new PR announcements every day. The bigger the secret and the likelier it is that you alone have it, the more time you have to execute. There may be far more people going after hard secrets than we think.
Peter ThielRead
What is it about our society where anyone who does not have Asperger's gets talked out of their heterodox ideas?
Peter ThielRead
Every time you write an email, it is in the public domain. There are all these ways where security is not as good as people believe.
Peter ThielRead
Creating value isn't enough - you also need to capture some of the value you create.
Peter ThielRead

Similar quotes

The mark of a successful organization isn't whether or not it has problems, its whether it has the same problems it had last year.
John Foster DullesRead
You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.
Georgia O'KeeffeRead
Success is relative. It is what we make of the mess we have made of things.
T. S. EliotRead
What you hear and what the research shows is that gentlemen negotiate for their first job. Women do not negotiate from their first job and on. And I tell women there is no H.R. fairy godmother. There might be, but you better not count on it.
Sallie KrawcheckRead
Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day. Comes from taking little steps, consistently. Comes from a making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary, so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is The Extraordinary.
Robin S. SharmaRead
The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
George EliotRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.