The only barrier to entry you can create is to consistently build a great product.

Start with something simple and small, then expand over time. If people call it a 'toy' you're definitely onto something.

Listen to your customers, but don't always build exactly what they're telling you. This is a really key distinction around building enterprise software.

I believe there's plenty of market for each; we're talking about an ecosystem that is going to support billions of devices, so a competitive landscape is good for consumers, developers, and the platforms alike. Apple brings a smooth elegance to its devices and platform, with the best marketplace experience to boot. Google brings a higher volume of devices as well as a more diverse ecosystem to interact with. The real story here is that Microsoft is nowhere to be seen, ending a two-decade monopoly and creating biggest opportunity for software startups probably ever.

My co-founder Dylan Smith and I left our junior year of college to move to the Bay Area. To the horror of our friends' parents, we actually had two other friends drop out of college to work on the product. The four of us were just working non-stop growing Box.

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.

Start with the assumption that the best way to do something is not the way it's being done right now.