All Quotes

# vision — 189 quotes

VISION

“

We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details.

leadershipstrategy— Shareholder letter, 2012
“

All successful people are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be and then work every day toward that vision.

goalssuccess— Maximum Achievement
“

Our whole goal is to make Uber so efficient that it's cheaper than owning a car.

disruptionvision— Travis Kalanick, 2015 interview
“

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. That's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about.

optimismspace— Elon Musk, SpaceX keynote
“

I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.

humormars— Elon Musk, various interviews
“

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.

determinationrisk— Elon Musk, 60 Minutes interview
“

We think of ourselves as the Amazon Web Services of payments. We want to be the infrastructure layer for internet commerce.

infrastructurepayments— Patrick Collison, 2016 interview
“

The way I think about Stripe's mission: if we can increase the GDP of the internet by even a tiny fraction, that's a huge deal for the world.

internetmission— Patrick Collison, interview
“

Arm the rebels. That's what Shopify does. We give superpowers to the little guys.

entrepreneurshipmission— Tobias Lütke, Shopify Unite keynote
“

We don't sell saddles here. We sell the experience of riding.

marketingproduct— Stewart Butterfield, internal memo
“

We sell the reduction of information overload, the relief from stress, and the ability to work more effectively.

productproductivity— Stewart Butterfield, First Round Review
“

Community is the killer app. Not features. Not technology. Just people who want to be around other people.

communityproduct— Jason Citron, keynote
“

Imagine a place where you can belong to a school club, a gaming group, a worldwide art community, or just a handful of friends.

belongingcommunity— Discord rebrand campaign, 2020
“

Our goal is to make Zoom meetings better than in-person meetings. That's the bar.

ambitionproduct— Eric Yuan, shareholder letter
“

Everyone should be able to mold their own tools. That shouldn't require a computer science degree.

empowermentno-code— Ivan Zhao, conference talk
“

The future of work isn't more tools. It's fewer tools that do more.

consolidationproductivity— Zeb Evans, conference talk
“

We don't want to be the best project management tool. We want to be the last productivity tool you ever need.

ambitionproduct— Zeb Evans, marketing video
“

We founded Robinhood because we believed that the financial system should work for everyone, not just the wealthy.

democratizationmission— Vlad Tenev, IPO letter
“

Bitcoin changes everything. It's the native currency of the internet and it will eventually be the currency of the world.

bitcoincrypto— Jack Dorsey, Bitcoin conference
“

We renamed the company Block because we're not just Square anymore. We're building blocks for economic empowerment.

bitcoinrebrand— Jack Dorsey, rebrand announcement
“

We don't want to be a bank. We want to be the financial super-app — everything you need for money in one place.

ambitionsuper-app— Nikolay Storonsky, interview
“

We want to be the number one shopping destination in the world. Not a payment method — a shopping app.

ambitionshopping— Sebastian Siemiatkowski, product launch
“

Money should move as freely as information. An email doesn't cost more because it crosses a border. Sending money shouldn't either.

bordersmission— Kristo Käärmann, conference keynote
“

The cost of intelligence is going to drop to nearly zero. That changes everything about every industry on Earth.

disruptioneconomics— Sam Altman, keynote
“

AGI is going to be the most transformative technology in human history. Getting it right is the most important thing we can do.

agimission— Sam Altman, interview
“

We're in a race to build the most powerful technology in human history. The question isn't whether to race — it's whether to race responsibly.

ai-raceresponsibility— Dario Amodei, essay
“

Data sharing between organizations will be bigger than data warehousing itself. We're building the connective tissue of the data economy.

businessdata— Frank Slootman, earnings call 2023
“

The data warehouse is dead. Long live the Data Cloud.

datatechnology— Frank Slootman, Snowflake Summit keynote 2022
“

We want to be one of the most valuable companies in the world and also one of the most generous. Those shouldn't be contradictions.

philanthropyvalues— Melanie Perkins on Canva's Giving Pledge commitment, 2021
“

The future of design is empowering everyone to design. Not making designers more powerful — making everyone a designer.

democratizationdesign— Melanie Perkins, Canva Create keynote 2023
“

In the world I see, you're going to have a WeWork on every corner. We are here in order to change the world. Nothing less than that interests me.

ambitionhubris— Adam Neumann, interview with Forbes 2017
“

There are 150 million people who wake up every morning and don't want to go to the office. We are going to save those people.

entrepreneurshipvision— Adam Neumann, WeWork co-founder, TechCrunch Disrupt 2017
“

If you can't beat AI, join it. Literally. With a chip in your brain.

aitechnology— Elon Musk on Neuralink's purpose, Joe Rogan Podcast 2020
“

The bandwidth between your brain and a computer is currently about 10 bits per second when you're typing on your phone. We want to make it millions.

innovationtechnology— Elon Musk, Neuralink presentation 2019
“

We're not building a medical device. We're building a general-purpose brain interface that starts with medical applications.

strategytechnology— DJ Seo, Neuralink VP of Engineering, interview 2023
“

If you can't go above it and you can't go around it, go under it. Simple as that.

innovationtransportation— Elon Musk on solving urban congestion, 2019
“

We can have a trillion humans living in the solar system. That means we'd have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. That's the future I want for my grandchildren.

ambitionspace— Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin keynote 2019
“

I don't want to live on Mars. I want to live on Earth. But I want the option of visiting a million-person colony on Mars.

philosophyspace— Jeff Bezos, Axel Springer Award speech 2018
“

Space is the only way to save Earth. We need to move heavy industry off-planet and turn Earth into a residential zone.

environmentspace— Jeff Bezos, Sotheby's event 2019
“

Food delivery is a trillion-dollar market. We're at maybe 10% penetration. The opportunity isn't behind us — it's barely started.

growthmarket— Tony Xu, earnings call 2023
“

The average car is parked 95% of the time. That's not a transportation system — that's a parking system. We want to change that.

sustainabilitytransportation— John Zimmer, Lyft co-founder, TED Talk 2016
“

Seventy percent of adults in our region don't have a bank account. We're not just a ride-hailing app — we're financial infrastructure for 700 million people.

financial-inclusionfintech— Anthony Tan on GrabFin, 2022
“

We want to be the everyday everything app for Southeast Asia. One app, from morning coffee to evening savings deposit.

ambitionsuper-app— Anthony Tan, Grab investor day 2023
“

The camera is the new keyboard. The way people communicate is fundamentally shifting from text to visual, and we're building for that world.

communicationtechnology— Evan Spiegel, Snap Partner Summit 2022
“

Snapchat is not social media. Social media is about performing for an audience. Snapchat is about talking to your friends.

identitysocial-media— Evan Spiegel, Snap Inc. IPO roadshow 2017
“

We're not a social network. We're a discovery engine. People don't come to Pinterest to see what their friends are doing. They come to find what they want to do next.

discoveryidentity— Ben Silbermann, Pinterest keynote 2019
“

Audio will be bigger than video. Not everyone can watch a screen all day, but everyone can listen. We're building for ears, and ears are always available.

audiofuture— Daniel Ek, investor day 2022
“

A robot for every person. That's not a slogan — it's the inevitability. Every knowledge worker will have a software robot handling their busywork.

automationfuture-of-work— Daniel Dines, UiPath Forward conference 2022
“

The mental health crisis isn't a supply problem — there are plenty of therapists. It's an access problem. Insurance is the bottleneck and we're opening it.

accessmental-health— Andrew Adams, a16z podcast 2023
“

The metaverse shouldn't be about trapping people in a virtual world. It should be about enriching the real world. We've been building the real-world metaverse since 2012 — we just didn't call it that.

metaversereal-world— John Hanke, company blog, 2021
“

I want to put a smile on everyone's face. That's the reason I work so hard.

vision— SoftBank World Conference, 2017
“

Jio is India's gift to the world. We are committed to connecting everyone.

vision— Jio Launch Event, 2016
“

Virtual reality is going to be the last medium. Anything you can experience in real life, you'll be able to experience in VR.

vision— Oculus Kickstarter era interviews, 2013
“

We don't want to be a tool people use. We want to be a platform people build on. That's a very different ambition.

platformstrategy— Bloomberg Interview, 2021
“

The COVID vaccine was proof of concept. The real mission is cancer. If mRNA can train your immune system to fight a virus, it can train it to fight a tumor.

cancermrna— Nature Interview, 2022
“

I told my board in 2017 that mRNA could become a universal vaccine platform. They looked at me like I was insane. Now we have vaccines for COVID, RSV, flu, and cancer in the pipeline. Who's insane now?

mrnavalidation— Bloomberg Interview, 2022
“

The camera democratized image-making. Photoshop democratized image editing. Runway is democratizing video creation. Each tool made art more accessible. We're just the latest one.

creative-toolsdemocratization— Podcast Interview, 2023
“

I left Twitter as COO to run SoFi. People thought I was crazy. But SoFi had something Twitter didn't — a clear path to becoming a bank. An actual bank. With a charter and everything.

bankingleadership— CNBC Interview, 2020
“

Dan Gilbert — the Cavaliers owner — invested early. He said: you're building the NASDAQ of things. That phrase stuck. We're not an e-commerce company. We're a marketplace with price transparency. Big difference.

investorsmarketplace— Forbes Interview, 2020
“

I founded Theranos at 19 because I was afraid of needles. I wanted to run hundreds of tests from a single drop of blood. The vision was real. The technology wasn't.

fraudorigin— Stanford Lecture, 2004
“

The future of fashion is circular. The linear model of make, wear, dispose is just not sustainable.

fashionsustainability— Interview, 2021
“

The future of AI is open source. Closed models will always have a place, but the ecosystem that wins is the one everyone can build on.

aiopen-source— Interview, 2023
“

We do not want to be a bank. We want to be the financial operating system for Korea. Banks are one layer. We want to be the layer underneath.

platformstrategy— TechCrunch Interview, 2022
“

There are 280 million cars in the US and most of them sit parked 95 percent of the time. That is not an asset. That is a liability pretending to be one.

“

We are not a payment company. We are a technology company that happens to process payments. That distinction matters.

fintechtechnology— Conference Talk, 2018
“

The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe. That sounds grandiose but every other AI company is just trying to sell ads or automate customer service.

aimission— Twitter Spaces, 2023
“

The fashion supply chain in Asia is a $500 billion market run on WhatsApp messages and handshake deals. We wanted to digitize that entire chain — from factory to customer.

fashionsupply-chain— TechCrunch Interview, 2019
“

Anyone can build a building. The hard part is building a place — somewhere people want to live, work, eat, exercise, and spend their time. That is what Related does. We build places.

placemakingreal-estate— Keynote Speech, 2017
“

Everyone writes. CEOs, students, customer support agents, engineers writing Slack messages at 2 AM. Writing is the most universal skill and the most universally bad one. That is our market — everyone.

marketvision— Conference Talk, 2021
“

People say scheduling is boring. You know what else is boring? Plumbing. Infrastructure. Electricity. The most valuable companies in the world solve boring problems at massive scale.

boring-businessesscale— Keynote Speech, 2023
“

The whiteboard is the most democratic tool in any office. Anyone can grab a marker. Anyone can add a sticky note. We made that digital, infinite, and available to everyone regardless of where they sit.

collaborationproduct— Keynote Speech, 2022
“

Software people have become the most important people in every company. Every company is becoming a software company. And every software company needs communications built in. That is our market — literally everyone.

marketsoftware— Book ("Ask Your Developer"), 2021
“

We rebranded from Matic to Polygon because we outgrew the original vision. We started as one sidechain. Now we're building a whole ecosystem of scaling solutions. The name needed to match the ambition.

“

I co-founded Ethereum because I believed the world needed a decentralized computer. I founded ConsenSys because that computer needed tools, wallets, and infrastructure before anyone could actually use it.

“

Ethereum isn't just a blockchain. It's a global settlement layer for value, identity, and trust. We're still in the dial-up era of this technology. Broadband is coming.

“

I tell my team: we're not building a company. We're building the infrastructure for a new economic system. The timescale isn't quarters — it's decades. Act accordingly.

“

We realized blockchain development felt like building websites in 1995 — unreliable nodes, missing data, no debugging tools. So we built what AWS built for the internet: infrastructure developers can actually trust.

“

Blockchain will be bigger than the internet. I know that sounds insane. The internet sounded insane too. The question isn't whether it happens — it's who builds the infrastructure when it does.

“

We built Ripple to fix the plumbing of global finance. It's not sexy. It's not consumer-facing. But trillions of dollars move through broken pipes every day, and we're replacing those pipes.

“

I've started three companies. The first made Flash Player. The second made video streaming. The third makes digital dollars. Each one was about moving something analog to the internet. Money was just the last thing to go.

“

When I bought UBA, people said I was crazy — the bank was nearly dead. I saw a platform that could reach 20 African countries. They saw a corpse. I saw a sleeping giant.

“

The Transformer paper changed AI forever. I want Near to do the same for decentralized computing. One foundational technology that enables everything that comes after it.

“

Chain abstraction means users shouldn't know or care which blockchain they're on. Do you know which cloud server hosts your email? No. And you shouldn't have to know which chain processes your transaction.

“

I co-authored "Attention Is All You Need" — the paper behind every modern AI model. Then I pivoted to blockchain. People thought I was crazy. But I saw that decentralized AI needs decentralized infrastructure. The two are inseparable.

“

Everyone said a battery company had no business making cars. But I knew that eventually, cars would run on batteries. I just had to wait. In 2003, I bought a car company. In 2024, we outsold Tesla globally. The wait was worth it.

“

Solid-state batteries are the holy grail of energy storage. If we crack it, electric cars charge in 15 minutes, go 500 miles, and never catch fire. That's not incremental — that's transformational.

“

When we started Apollo, everyone wanted to do buyouts. We saw that the real scale was in credit. Thirty years later, they are all trying to catch up.

“

The future of energy is not one big power plant. It is a million rooftops, each one a tiny power plant, all connected.

“

The question is not whether plant-based meat will succeed. It is how long it takes. I am betting my life that the answer is within my lifetime.

“

CUDA had zero customers for years. People said we were wasting money. Now every AI model on earth runs on CUDA. Patience is a competitive advantage.

“

The iPhone moment for AI has arrived. Everything that happened in mobile over the last 15 years is about to happen in AI over the next 5.

“

The 7-Eleven of the internet is still a $100 billion idea. We just need to get the unit economics right before the money runs out.

“

Mark Cuban invested because he understood that 3D printing a rocket is a 10x improvement, not a 10% improvement. You need to think in orders of magnitude.

“

Neutron is our bet on the next decade. Reusable, medium-class, optimized for constellations. That is where the volume is going.

“

We are not just a rocket company. We are a manufacturing company. The 3D printing technology we built has applications far beyond space.

“

I moved to Singapore because Southeast Asia is where the growth is. 700 million people, rising middle class, mobile-first. This is the next Silicon Valley.

“

Bitcoin will be the native currency of the internet. Everything we are building at Block is designed around that inevitability.

“

New York to London in 3.5 hours. That is not a luxury — it is a productivity tool for anyone whose time is worth more than the ticket price.

“

Autonomous driving is our future. The regulatory relationship is complicated, but the technology is real and the opportunity is massive.

“

We are going to put a driverless car on every road in America. That is not a goal — that is an inevitability.

“

The energy of we is greater than any one of us but is not equal to the sum of all of us. The energy of we is exponential.

“

There are 150 million orphans in the world. I want to solve that. I want to be elected president of the world.

“

We are not building a game. We are building a platform where imagination can be expressed.

“

Real-time 3D will be as important as the web browser. Every industry will need it.

“

We are not building a social network. We are building a camera company.

“

Southeast Asia will follow China's digital transformation with a ten year lag. We are positioning for that future.

“

We are building the Vanguard of real estate. Low fees. Diversified. Accessible to everyone. It will take decades. We are patient.

“

We will be here when rates come back down. The question is whether we will be stronger. I intend for us to be.

“

Ten-minute delivery is not a gimmick. It is a new category. Quick commerce will be bigger than traditional e-commerce in India.

“

Every building in the world will have a digital twin. The question is not if but when.

“

We have scanned 40 billion square feet. That sounds like a lot until you realize there are trillions of square feet of buildings on earth.

“

Going public was not the finish line. It was the starting line for the next chapter.

“

Colombia is where we started. Latin America is where we are going. Six hundred million people deserve better delivery infrastructure.

“

Layer 2 is not a compromise. It is the future. Ethereum will settle. L2s will execute. That is the endgame.

“

The next wave of blockchain adoption will come from institutions not crypto natives. We are building for that wave.

“

We process 6 billion transactions a quarter. India does not need banks on every corner. It needs a phone in every pocket.

“

India will have a billion digital payment users. We intend to serve most of them.

“

Instagram was always about one thing: making photos beautiful. The moment it became about everything else I knew it was time to leave.

“

Lots of companies do not succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future.

“

We can grow food anywhere on earth regardless of climate. The technology works. The economics have not caught up yet.

“

New York to JFK in 10 minutes instead of 90. That is not science fiction. That is the Midnight aircraft.

“

Autonomy is not optional for the future of drones. Every drone will fly itself. We are just getting there first.

“

Mach 5. New York to London in 90 minutes. That is not a dream. That is an engineering problem. And we are solving it.

“

Capital isn't scarce; vision is.

“

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further.

“

We want to bring the next billion software creators online. Most of them won't look like traditional programmers.

“

Music creation should be as easy as typing a text message. That's what Suno is.

“

Creating a video should be as easy as writing a document. That's what we're building.

“

We're building the rails. Every e-commerce transaction, every school fee, every subscription in Africa will eventually flow through infrastructure like ours.

“

Video creation should be as easy as taking a photo. We're getting there.

“

Data at rest is history. Data in motion is opportunity. Confluent powers data in motion.

“

We're building the operating system for Indonesia's digital economy. That takes time and patience.

“

India runs on two-wheelers. If you electrify scooters, you electrify India.

“

We're not just insurance. We're a health platform — telemedicine, mental health, prevention, all integrated.

“

I look for big thinkers. I want founders who want to transform the world, not just build a company.

“

Being willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time is the price of doing anything worthwhile.

“

I signed that MLS contract because I saw what Miami could become, not what it was.

“

Miami is becoming a global financial capital. I've been saying that for 30 years. Now everyone agrees.

“

Build where the people are going, not where they've been.

“

Every American should own a piece of the companies they buy from. That's what Stock-Back does.

“

Genome sequencing will become as routine as a blood test. That's where we're heading.

“

Buying a rental property should be as easy as buying a stock. That's what Roofstock does.

“

Israeli military intelligence taught me to see the whole picture. That's what Orca does for cloud security.

“

If mechanical compression works, fusion reactors could be mass-produced. That's the prize.

“

Amazon knows where every package is in real time. We give every company that same capability.

“

Every employee deserves a digital assistant. We're building that future.

“

Multi-cancer blood screening — detecting dozens of cancers from one blood draw. That's the holy grail.

“

A $2,499 device that images every organ in your body. The stethoscope of the 21st century.

“

Every doctor visit that doesn't require touching the patient should be virtual. That's still true.

“

We spent twelve years building before we shipped a single vehicle. Most people thought we were crazy. Now they think we were early.

“

The future of transportation is electric, autonomous, and connected. GM will lead that future or it won't exist.

“

I backed a 23-year-old who wanted to kill music piracy by giving music away for free. Everyone thought we were insane.

“

The best investments are in companies building a future that sounds crazy today but obvious in ten years.

“

We wrote our senior thesis about car-sharing in 2006. Investors told us nobody would get in a stranger's car. Twelve billion rides later, they were wrong.

“

The SPAC was not the destination. The destination is being the infrastructure of daily life for 680 million people. We are early in that journey.

grablong-term— CNBC interview post-NASDAQ listing, 2022, 2022
“

Gaming is not a niche. It is the largest entertainment category on the planet. The people who treated it as niche built small companies.

gamingmarket-size— Razer IPO roadshow, Hong Kong, 2017, 2017
“

Snapchat paid me real money before anyone in the music industry understood what social media was worth. I saw it early. That is the key — you have to see it early.

investingmedia— New York Times, 2016
“

Gaming and music are the same audience. They always were. The industry just didn't see it.

gamingmusic— GQ interview, 2020
“

The rarest thing in this business is someone who sees where culture is going before it gets there.

businessculture— Complex interview, 2019
“

I'm not just making music — I'm building a world. Every album, every tour, every collab is a piece of that world.

brandcreativity— Rolling Stone interview, 2018
“

Most VCs passed on WhatsApp because it had no revenue. They were looking at the wrong spreadsheet.

contrarianinvesting— Interview, 2015
“

I backed SpaceX because Elon wasn’t building a company. He was building the future. You don’t model that in a spreadsheet.

contrarianspacex— Podcast, 2020
“

Dreaming big or dreaming small take the same amount of effort so you might as well dream big.

vision— Brazil Conference Interview, 2016
“

When I met Jack Ma, I didn't see a struggling startup. I saw someone who understood something about China's future that nobody else did.

“

I invested in Twitter when people told me it was a toy. Turns out the toy became the town square.

“

We're not selling technology to construction companies. We're selling certainty.

“

Imagine if every building had a time machine. You could rewind to any day and see exactly what was there. That's what we built.

“

We're not building self-driving cars. We're building the eyes for self-driving cars. There's a big difference.

“

I don't design clothes. I design dreams.

brandingfashion— Various interviews
“

I grew up in the Bronx with nothing. I had a vision of how I wanted the world to look, and I built it.

“

Chase the vision, not the money. The money will end up following you.

entrepreneurshipmoney— Delivering Happiness
“

I wrote the Yellow Paper because Vitalik had the vision but someone needed to write the spec.

engineeringethereum— Interview
“

Dubai is proof that if you dream big enough and execute well enough, geography is irrelevant.

“

If you are going to build, build something the world has never seen. Otherwise, why bother?

“

Eko Atlantic will change the face of Lagos forever. It is not just a real estate project — it is a solution to flooding and a new beginning for the city.

infrastructurenigeria— Eko Atlantic Press Conference, Lagos, 2012
“

We believed in Hong Kong's future as a global connectivity hub. That conviction hasn't changed.

hong-kongtelecom— South China Morning Post, 2000
“

The ICC Tower is not just our tallest building — it is a statement about Hong Kong's place in the world.

developmenthong-kong— ICC Tower inauguration speech, 2011
“

Artists and entrepreneurs are the same. They see what does not exist yet and make it real.

artentrepreneurship— World Economic Forum, Davos, 2017
“

Badya is not a project. It is a 15-year bet on where Egypt is going. You either believe in this country or you do not.

egyptlong-term— Financial Times Arabic Interview, 2020
“

Mumbai is not just a city — it is a dream that millions come to build. Our responsibility is to build the right homes for those dreams.

mumbaireal-estate— CREDAI Annual Conference, 2018
“

When we started in Powai, people thought we were mad. They said nobody would live there. We said: build the right township and they will come. They came.

contrarianreal-estate— Times of India Interview, 2010
“

Gurugram was farmland when my father saw it. That vision — seeing what a place could become, not what it is — is what separates great developers from good ones.

gurugramindia— Forbes India, 2021
“

I left college because I could see the web was going to change everything. I have made the same bet three times now. The pattern recognition gets easier.

entrepreneurshiptech— TechCrunch Disrupt interview, 2022
“

We are building the internet of money. Value should move as freely as information does today.

blockchaincrypto— MIT Bitcoin Expo keynote, 2019
“

We're going to make the best camera in the world. I don't care if anyone believes that today.

productred-camera— RED user forum post, 2006
“

I don't even think we mentioned the word cloud networking when I joined Arista.

cloudtechnology— American Bazaar interview, 2024
“

We set out to build the Salesforce of security.

cloudvision— Interviews on CrowdStrike's founding, 2012
“

Entrepreneurship is my way of changing the world. I hope to live in a world I want to live in, and I cannot wait for someone else to build it.

“

Our vision is to find the truly top entrepreneurs, build a relationship with them at the very start, and grow alongside them.

entrepreneursvision— Chinese business media interview