Andy Dunn Quotes
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To an entrepreneur, closing a financing often feels like the end of a marathon. It's actually the starting gun.
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Growing up, my religious identity was primarily one of confusion. Nothing was pushed on me; nothing was overtly offered.
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The prescience of the founding fathers continues to astonish me. They were freedom fighters. They made America. They gave us this magical country. They also were slaveowners - which is confusing to their legacy. How could such brilliant men have only secured freedom for themselves, but not their wives or their slaves?
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Tenacity is not about avoiding being overwhelmed but being indomitable in the face of the overwhelming odds of your venture's failure.
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I have always loved the Day of the Dead - a chance to celebrate death rather than to treat it like that awful scene in the cemetery.
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Since its founding, I've been friends with ModCloth's cofounders and many of its executives and investors. I have long imagined we would one day belong under one roof with that brand as a force in the future of apparel.
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Empathy is the bridge to understand those who you may be lucky to one day lead, and it is - in my opinion - the most under-appreciated human skill in business.
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Being a founder is about being so driven to distraction by the world that you want to put something new in it. It's an act of creation, of irreverence, of defiance, of hope, and arguably one of narcissism.
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The history of innovation is the story of ideas that seemed dumb at the time.
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The digitally native vertical brand (DNVB) is born on the Internet. It is aimed squarely at millennials and digital natives. It doesn't have to adapt to the future; it is the future. It doesn't need to get younger customers. It starts with younger customers.
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In a conversation with a male executive, he tells me that he doesn't hire women because 'it's not worth the trouble.' I mentally blacklist him.
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The act of founding a company is its own act of narcissism: 'I alone can do this.'
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We do not talk enough about spirit in business, yet it is what moves employees, customers, and shareholders alike.
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Good parents are always on time. So are good CEOs.
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Oddly, I believe that emotional proximity we feel to close loved ones makes it hard to be honest with them about feelings of depression.
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A founder is the emotional energy aorta of a company. The energy that emanates from a founder attracts people and capital to the endeavor. When that energy goes away, it can feel impossible to do the job.
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There are five kinds of great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and the one which people always think of last: Humans!
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I have come to an odd belief, which is that we don't make decisions so much as the decisions make us. The goal of a decision isn't just to find the path forward, but to become someone entirely different than who we might have been as a function of the path we take.
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Tolerance, diversity, and inclusion are not political opinions. They are non-negotiable human rights - hard fought and secured in America.
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The people that elected Donald Trump are Americans. They are every bit as entitled to weigh in on who should lead as any of us. The fact that they disagree with the values some of us hold dear is the point - America has always been about a battle of ideas that plays out over time.
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We built Bonobos, with more than a few dozen customers and counting, and the industry we were disrupting didn't seem to care. Then we 'sold out' to Walmart. Abracadabra. The red carpet rolled open.
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Everyone knows robots write the best books and make the best music. Just look at Daft Punk.
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People who are great at making decisions in the face of uncertainty have great judgment.
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No one gave me a recipe for how to create company culture. I wish I had had one.