Uri Levine Quotes

“My focus is on solving 'big problems' with great impact, empower consumers and save them time and money. In addition, I take special interest in transportation and mobility industries.”

“I hear friends saying they hate their car, they hate traffic jams, they hate looking for parking, they hate to drive (it is a waste of time), and I myself hate waste.”

“When we founded Waze we had the dream of helping people avoid traffic jams and we genuinely believed there would be fewer traffic jams because of Waze. That was back in 2007-8 and here we are today, 10 years later, and traffic jams are more severe than ever before.”

“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

“If building a startup is a roller-coaster ride, then fund-raising is a roller coaster in the dark – you don't even know what's coming!”

“Make your mistakes fast.”

“Product market fit or die.”

“VCs are slow, until they think they're going to lose the deal.”

“Firing is a hard decision. Hiring is an easy decision. This is why you need to learn to fire before you can even hire.”

“If you make multiple attempts to do to do something, then you essentially increase the likelihood of being successful.”

“If you’re a troublemaker, then you already increased the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. And as a result, you already increased the likelihood of being successful because if you don’t try it, then you will definitely not going to be successful.”

“In order to become successful you need the perseverance, you need the conviction that every time that you go, this time, it’s going to work.”

“It’s guaranteed that you’re creating value because you’re solving a problem. If you start with the solution, you might be building something that no one cares about, right?”

“Retention is going to be the only indication that you have reached product market fit.”

“The first users are always going to be enthusiastic amateurs.”

“When you hire a new person, mark in your calendar for 30 days down the road to ask yourself one question, 'Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person?'

If the answer is no, I fire them immediately. Because you already set the trajectory for this person not to be successful. And it’s not about you and not about the company. It’s about that person – that person deserves an opportunity to become successful. And it’s not going to be here. Yeah, we’re letting that person succeed someplace else by doing that, because here, the person is not going to be successful.”

“you need to fall in love with this journey, you need to have enough passion to decide that this is what you’re gonna do, you need to be in love. And I would say you’re in love with the problem to the level that you’re willing to sacrifice because you need this being in love in order to cross the challenging period. Everyone is going to tell you 'this will never work' and you will have no traction. And this is going to be a nightmare journey that that you might face. And you need to be in love in order to go into this journey.”