Roelof Botha

"The best founders are missionaries, not mercenaries. They're building something they believe in."

"YouTube was built by a team of three people in a room above a pizza shop. Great things start small."

"We look for the combination of a brilliant founder with a great market. When those two collide, magic happens."

"We don't invest in business plans. We invest in people with insights about the future."

"When evaluating a startup, I ask: Is this a vitamin or a painkiller? Painkillers build bigger businesses."

"The best time to join a startup is when it's still small enough for you to have impact but large enough to survive."

"The companies that endure are the ones that create real value for their customers, not the ones that extract value."

"Being a CFO at PayPal taught me that financial discipline and growth aren't mutually exclusive."

"At PayPal, we learned that the company that moves fastest wins. Speed is the ultimate competitive advantage."