Michael Arrington Quotes

Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.

A business model that hasn't been tried before is always interesting, even if it's likely to fail.

There are lots of things that I will probably never experience in this life. Military combat. Being dictator of a small central American country. Dunking a basketball. Being a famous rock star. Or walking on Mars. But one thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur.

We live in a world where you're not being eaten by a lion when you fail, you just have to get another job.

I believe the term "blog" means more than an online journal. I believe a blog is a conversation. People go to blogs to read AND write, not just consume.

Write good content about stuff that you love. Readers will find you.

Friendships and marriage are far more potent than financial conflicts.

Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

Just pick a political story at random and read the comments. There is no logic or reason on either side - only hypocrisy and hate.

I always try to find the truth in a situation. That unvarnished, pure nugget of truth at the core of every issue that I write about.

The problem isn't that Silicon Valley is keeping women down or not doing enough to encourage female entrepreneurs. The opposite is true. No, the problem is that not enough women want to become entrepreneurs.

Journalists hold themselves apart, and above, the common person. They have rules designed to ensure their objectivity and impartiality.

Im nearly certain that Google accessed my Gmail account after I broke a major story about Google.

I dont claim to be a journalist. I hold myself to higher standards of transparency and disclosure.

Everyone wants the rich to pay more in taxes.

Customer research produces bland products. We're producing a piece of art.

Our government is just way too interested in mucking around in Silicon Valley by creating and enforcing rules based on little or no understanding of the consequences.

I live a fairly simple life, and that didnt change much after I sold TechCrunch in 2010. I didnt buy a new house or even a new car. The one thing I did splurge on was a boat. Nothing too fancy or large.

The main thing to know about me is that I'm a champion of entrepreneurs and the startups they build. They are my rock stars. If in doubt, I side with them, and that's clear from my writing.

Women in my world are respected as much as men.

Most of the money I make now comes from investments from CrunchFund. And the vast majority of that is what's called carried interest.

The payouts for starting a business are just terrible when you account for risk. A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.

That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists - nearly $30 million - but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a 'real job.' That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted Technicolor.

Leaving America means renouncing your citizenship, moving out of the country and leaving family and friends behind. You can retain your citizenship if you like, but you'll still be away from loved ones and still be paying taxes. You lose all the good stuff about America and have to keep all the bad stuff.

Generally speaking, experience counts for something. So you'd expect entrepreneurs who've been through the ups and downs of a tech startup to have an advantage over the newcomers. Or at least have an equal chance at success. But in fact the opposite may be true. A number of venture capitalists I've spoken with have said that too many "old guard" entrepreneurs are not being bold enough in their business decisions, and it's hurting their startups.

Success in Silicon Valley, most would agree, is more merit-driven than almost any other place in the world. It doesn't matter how old you are, what sex you are, what politics you support or what color you are. If your idea rocks and you can execute, you can change the world and/or get really, stinking rich.

America is an unsolvable problem: a nation divided and deeply in hate with itself. If it was a startup, wed understand how unfixable the situation is; most of us would leave for a fresh start, and the company would fall apart. America is MySpace.

Most people have an aversion to risk, my college economics professor told me. Which means they have to be rewarded to take on that risk. The higher the risk, the higher the possible payout has to be for people to jump.

One thing I know from personal experience, judges hate it when parties talk publicly about their cases. There are a lot of things about our criminal legal system that need to be changed, and this is just one of them. Prosecutors know how to play the press. Most defendants don't.