Aaron Levie Technology Quotations

The business models in enterprise have changed pretty dramatically. A huge problem with enterprise software traditionally has been usually you sell to the customer and then they adopt the technology. The great thing about 'freemium' and the new way enterprise software is being sold is you get to try it first and then buy it.

It's not accidental that products get worse over time; it's because companies stop paying attention to them. They stop caring as much about maintaining the same quality they did when they were just trying to fight for survival and no one would pay attention unless they had the best technology.

I tend to not discriminate when it comes to people I can learn from. Basically, if someone has built a meaningful business in software, technology or media, faced disruption and adversity, and overcame underdog status, I want to know how they did it.

I interned at Miramax and subsequently at Paramount because I was really curious about the future of entertainment - how were we going to get films online? While the inspiration for Box didn't come from that experience directly, it was very obvious that bigger businesses had a lot of slow processes and cumbersome technology.

In a user lead model, users are bringing in their own technology... and you can build software then, around the user.

They can bring the technology in, then you can sell to the enterprise when they want to have better control, better security... you still have the same biz model as a traditional enterprise sw company, but the way to get into the company is through the end user.

Every single industry is going through a major business model and technology oriented disruption.

Any time where the delta b/w what is possible and how things work today is at its widest, that's an opportunity to go build new technology.

Look for new enabling technologies that create a wide gap between how things have been done and how they can be done.

All we're really doing is repeating technologies that were tried 10, 20, 30 years ago... it's just that it was too expensive, too unusable, and we didn't have the enabling technologies to make it possible.

Modularize, don't customize. Build a platform as opposed to building all of the custom technology and custom vertical experiences.

Always look for these changing technology factors- any market that has a significant change in the underlying raw materials ...or enabling factors, is an environment that is about to change in a very significant way.

The benefit to building a startup is that customers don't have the same kind of friction when they adopt new technology.

The best technology is aimed far enough in the future that it stands out, but close enough to the present that it blends in.