50 great quotes from Dublin Web Summit 2014

Web Summit is Europe’s largest festival of ideas and has been called “Davos for geeks.” Founded in 2010 when it first had 400 attendees, this year’s Web Summit hosted more than 20,000 attendees and guests.

The schedule run over three days, each day packed with more than 20 talks of 15-20 minutes each over ten different stages. All the founders of key technology young companies who have been changing the way we work (Dropbox, Optimizely, Google, WordPress, to name few), the way  we connect (Facebook, Twitter, Eventbrite) and, even, how we meditate (Headspace). Also, the founders of more recent start-up that are changing the way companies can listen directly to customers (SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, New Relic), the way we live (Nest, Hailo), the way we educate our children (Code.org) and that, very hopefully, will soon change the way we diagnose cancer (Miroculus)

An incredible amount of content and inspiration shared, and so many quotes to keep you inspired for months to come. So much so that I decided to make a collection of the quotes that touched me THE most, professionally and personally, for my future reference and inspiration and yours too. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. I would be happy to hear which one is your favorite in the comments below. Here are more than 50 of my favourite Dublin Web Summit 2014 quotes.

 

DAY 1 Favorite Quotes

More Quotes:

“At age 28 people should be worrying about creating an impactful and successful feature rather than be worrying about a terminal disease growing inside you” Jorge Soto, Miroculus

“Today we have 21^st-century medication & drugs to treat cancer, but we still have 20^th -century procedures and processes to diagnose cancer” Jorge Soto, Miroculus

“We always have this choice at every moment of our life. Seeing a thought and choosing whether to engage in it or going on with whatever we are doing in that moment” Andy Puddicombe, Headspace 

“Company software is now the primary interaction channel with customers” Lew Cirne, New Relic

“Playing offense software means thinking about how 2 improve top line with it” delivering WOW experiences. Lew Cirne, New Relic

“Women need to mentor. Without mentors the system doesn’t work” Eva Longoria, The Eva Longoria Foundation

“Running a startup involves having the focus of a dog chasing a tennis ball” Drew Houston, Dropbox

“At the beginning it was about storage. Now it is about the experience & lot of aspects come into play with it” Drew Houston, Dropbox

“At Dropbox I’m working on something I really love, I’m obsessed with and that really motivates me” Drew Houston, Dropbox

“It’s not just docs sync or storage. We are building a room for all our most important information” Drew Houston, Dropbox

“Fear never goes away. You can’t control that, but you can control how you respond to it” Drew Houston, Dropbox, on being CEO

 

DAY 2 Favorite Quotes

“Revenue is the oxygen of business. It’s necessary to live but is not the goal of life” Adam Bain, Twitter

“There is an incentive on Twitter for advertiser to be good and not just loud” Adam Bain, Twitter

“It’s not about ads or search; it’s about how to change n home. It was a merge of mission, not of money” Tony Fadell about Google purchasing Nest

“Next Google mission could be about positive societal impact and how to accelerate change to remove problems” Tony Fadell, Nest

“Start-ups need a dynamic tension in a positive way for a better outcome for the customers” Tony Fadell, Nest

“Next area up for disruption is transportation. Self-driving cars, assisted driver cars, Uber,..” Tony Fadell, Nest

“Every time someone gives, someone receives” Lily Cole, Impossible

“Start-up should focus on innovation not on building on infrastructure. Thanks to Google cloud service they can.” Urs Hölzle, Google

“Focus on hiring great people. Don’t trade off talent with speed” Urs Hölzle, Google

“Mentions feed” allows celebrities to check when they are mentioned & join the conversation” Dan Rose, Facebook

“Three key lessons in business are:

1. You have an opportunity to transform your business
2. You’ll have challenge along the way to change ingrained habits
3. The catalyst for innovation is optimization “

Dan Siroker (Optimizely)

“Images is the biggest language spoken in the word. Pinterest is the fastest growing site in the word” Jonathan D. Klein, Getty Images

“You can combine family & work by keeping regular structure & setting expectations” Michelle Peluso (CEO of Gilt) and mother of 2 kids.

<Purpose: look at Airbnb mission statement… that’s not just “having a mission,” that’s “being on a mission” – Justin Rosenstein, Asana

“As a leader you are there to define a specific outcome and then give space and autonomy to reach that goal” Justin Rosenstein, Asana

“Having clarity is the difference between having a great dream and doing great things” Justin Rosenstein, Asana

 

DAY 3 Favorite Quotes

“Internet brought us together; mobile gave us the legs and robots will give us the wings” Jay Bregman, Hailo

“Computer science is wider than coding. It’s about problem-solving. It’s not only vocational but also foundational”  Hadi Partovi, Code.org

“The Hour of Code grew to 15 ml users in just five days. Quicker reach than any other network” Hadi Partovi, Code.org

“With the tap of an app you can source everything from cleaners to plumbers. We want to focus on creating the best experience possible” Oisin Hanrahan, Handy

“Best person in the word are everywhere around the word not just in 1 city. That is why WordPress has a distributed workforce” Matt Mullenweg, WordPress

“The model is based on meritocracy. Do you get the job done or not? It’s not about whether you do it 9AM-5PM or 7PM-4AM” Tony Conrad, True Ventures & About.me

“Each of us is searching a way to change the word in his space” Julia Hartz,  Eventbrite

“During our hiring process, we look for the “make it happen skills” Julia Hartz,  Eventbrite

“When wondering whether to start Peek, I thought about three things:

1. Market size
2. Team availability
3. Timing

These things combined made me think that there was an opportunity” Ruzwana Bashir, Peek

“If Amex has been in business for 160 years that’s because reinvention is key for us” John Hayes, Amex

“Things that I look for when deciding who to work with:

1. Purpose
2. How easy are you to work with
3. Do you understand what we bring?

John Hayes, Amex

“Virality is not something you can forecast. You need a bit of luck too” Ryan Smith, Qualtrics

“The way of doing market research has dramatically changed in the past five years” Ryan Smith, Qualtrics

“When we started, we wanted to make sophisticated surveys simple & accessible to all. We have done that!” Ryan Smith, Qualtrics

“We help organization become data driven, then we teach them how to turn that into business decisions” Ryan Smith, Qualtrics

 

Summary

I hope you enjoyed these quotes as much as I did. I would be happy to hear which one is your favorite in the comments below or if you have additional quotes from the Web Summit that touched you too.