I love quotes about entrepreneurs & startups.  If you don’t then don’t read on.  When you’re in the muck & bullets of an early doors startup it’s a good idea to take time out now & then to read about the experiences of other entrepreneurs that are a bit further ahead than you.  It gives you the push you sometimes need to keep going.

Below are my favourite 25 with a few extras thrown in here & there for good measure.  I haven’t attributed them.  Sometimes it’s hard to know who said it first anyway.  There’s a famous quote that’s attributed to Reid Hoffmann – the one about how being in a startup is like jumping off a cliff & assembling the aeroplane on the way down – but everyone knows that originally started life as a Kurt Vonnegut quote.  A few of them are my own – see if you can spot mine.

1. Every opportunity is attached to a person
2. Leap and a net will form
3. The best startups come from somebody needing to scratch an itch
4. Surround yourself with people who are better than you – even if that scares you to death
5. If you want to go fast, start with people you already know; when you’re ready to go far, diversify your team
6. If the wheels don’t come off, you aren’t going fast enough
7. Sweat equity is the best startup capital
8. All startups have to over deliver
9. Every conversation you have with a paying customer is too short
10. Better a hole than an a**hole
11. Focus on getting to revenue at lightning speed
12. We can always sleep next week
13. It’s never about the idea
14. Just ask; hardly anyone ever says no
15. When you’re starting out you might not measure much, so be careful what you measure
16. As an entrepreneur, done is better than perfect
17. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is today
18. If you can’t code & you can’t sell then get the f**k out of my way
19. The only way to do great work is to love what you do
20. When qualifying your startup idea, your mum is usually the wrong person to ask
21. If you’re not on the edge, you’re taking up too much space
22. Your product needs to be a painkiller, not a vitamin pill
23. Remember that everything in life and in business is about people; successful people work that one out early on
24. It usually takes 10 years work to be an overnight success
25. It’s amazing how far just being nice will take you

Please add your own favourite startup quote in the comments & I’ll look forward to reading them.