korrents

Mark Pincus

@mark-pincus · 22 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and former CEO of Zynga, the social-games company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker and Words with Friends, and before that of Freeloader, Support.com and Tribe.net.

Mark Pincus did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    A founder's gut instincts are almost always right and the ideas built on top of them are usually wrong, so the work is to isolate the instinct and test many ideas around it.

    Their wordswe have these instincts like in our gut, these human level instincts that are pretty much always right. And then we put these ideas on top of the instincts that are usually wrong. And my rule of thumb is your instincts are right 95% of the time.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:04:29 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 1st of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    A team has not earned the right to innovate on a product until it is the world's leading expert on the best versions of that product that already exist.

    Their wordsAnd I like to say we we don't we haven't earned the right to innovate on the camera until we are the world's leading PhD on the best mobile cameras that already exist.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:08:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 2nd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    The genuinely new idea in a product will probably fail; its job is to give people a reason to try the product at all.

    Their wordsAnd we have to accept that that new idea is probably going to fail. It's a reason to try it for people, but it's probably going to fail.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:10:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 3rd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    The taboo against copying is a moral one, which is exactly what makes copying an arbitrage available to founders with less ego invested.

    Their wordsin the Peter Teal sense it's almost a moral arbitrage because there's something in our gut as a product you you became a founder an entrepreneur because you wanted to go be an innovator and so it can feel like a beatdown that your path to innovation starts with copying other people's work
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:15:27 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 4th of 22 in this recording

    startups

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Ambition should be measured in the eyes of your customer rather than your peers, which means being willing to take the best ideas wherever you find them.

    Their wordsif you're truly ambitious, burn your resume. If you and if you define your ambition in the eyes of your consumer, not your peers, you're not trying to win awards and respect from your peers.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:16:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 5th of 22 in this recording

    ambition

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Taking something a person already loves and making it one inch better wins more of them than showing them something they have never seen and did not know they wanted.

    Their wordsBut if you took something that she loves and you make it one inch better, she might love that more than if you showed her something she's never seen before and didn't wake up knowing that she wanted.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:17:04 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 6th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    People feel ownership of the products they use every day and are angry when those products change, even when the change is an improvement.

    Their wordswe feel this sense of ownership of products that we rely on every day. And we're angry when they change. Even if they change for the better, we're like angry because we go through life faster because of pattern recognition.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:18:48 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 7th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    Being too ambitious and visionary at the outset is how founders miss product-market fit, because it stops them starting somewhere small and humble enough.

    Their wordsif if we're if we're too ambitious and we're at the outset and too ambitious and visionary about the product we want to build, then we will probably miss product market fit because we won't start at a small enough humble enough place
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:24:25 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 8th of 22 in this recording

    startups

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    A first-time founder has an advantage over a repeat winner, because past success makes it too easy to raise money and hire against a big vision before there is product-market fit.

    Their wordsit almost gives a new founder an advantage over a multi-time successful founder because we have too much rope to hang ourselves. It's too easy to raise money and recruit teams against a big vision before we've gotten to product market fit.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:27:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 9th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Hope is confidence without basis, and a team running on hope rather than belief keeps shipping releases while waiting for something magical to happen.

    Their wordsthere's a difference between belief and hope. Hope is confidence without basis. Hope is just, you know, it's it's a prayer, but it's but it's it's not it's not founded in anything that your your lived experience.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:33:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 10th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    The word to kill in "minimum viable product" is viable, because viability is where hope comes from — aim at a maximum launchable product instead.

    Their wordsMinimum viable. that the viable is the the word we got to kill along with hope because viable is where hope comes from, right? If it's viable, it might make it, right?
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:35:04 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 11th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    AI should be used as a failure machine that tests many ideas cheaply, not as a way to build one idea faster.

    Their wordsthe way we should be using AI is as a testing machine, a failure machine, and a way to vibe code, cloud code, but but build build the, you know, the the lowest possible cycled version of your product that you can get signal back on.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:39:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 12th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    The most valuable companies in the world are the ones with the highest day-365 retention, and a team can build against that number long before day 365 arrives.

    Their wordsI believe that the most valuable companies in the world, well, statistically this is true. They have the highest day 365 retention.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:44:19 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 13th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    A company that grows on virality rather than retention is a sinking speedboat, trying to drive faster than it takes on water.

    Their wordsI like to say viral-based companies, and there's been many, you know, be real, there's, right, we've seen these, they're sinking speedboats. They're trying to drive faster than they're sinking, right?
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:45:30 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 14th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    There is enormous unmet demand for social, because the social products people already use have lost their adrenaline.

    Their wordsI believe that we have beyond a latent demand for social we are being social right online. We are on Snapchat and Instagram and and Tik Tok, but I believe it's it's lost the adrenaline.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:52:06 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 15th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    If you are asking whether your product is an A, it is not an A — real signal never leaves you asking.

    Their wordsIf you're asking whether or not your product is an A, it's not an A. And you're you're full of hope.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:58:07 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 16th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    AI is an important technology but is not yet a platform, because nothing has been opened up for other apps, experiences and developers to be built on.

    Their wordsthere there's a one question we got to back up and really explore which is is AI a new platform and I would argue that it is not yet a new platform. It is an important technology.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:02:08 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 17th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    Distribution has to be part of the product and proven from the beginning; building and hoping people come is a hope strategy, not a belief strategy.

    Their wordsDistribution has to be part of your product and part of baked into the strategy deeply and and proven from the beginning. And if you're just building this product and hoping they will come, hoping it'll spread virally or word of mouth, you know, that's hope strategy, you know, not a belief strategy.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:05:34 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 18th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    The best product CEOs stay in the minutiae: micromanaging pixel-level details is not a failure of leadership but the job itself.

    Their wordsAnd I believe the best product CEOs are in the minutia of the details. you know, all the stories about Steve Jobs. I was so impressed when I heard that he insisted on picking out the carpeting in the conference rooms, you know, and and I tried to have that same mentality of micromanaging the really small pixel level details that matter.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:19:48 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 19th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    The number one job of a CEO is to be right — being in the right body of water matters more than having the right boat.

    Their wordsif if I got to pick one if I get to pick one thing that you do as CEO, I'm going to pick that you're right. So even if you don't, you know, even if you don't operate the ship or the factory that well, I'd rather that you picked the right product, the right strategy than you were phenomenal at execution or inspiring people or managing because, you know, being in the right body of water matters more than the right boat.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:25:15 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 20th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  41. Our reading

    Schools are still preparing children to become knowledge workers, and that game is over.

    Their wordsmy kids are in this educational system that is trying to prep them to get into a good college and to be a knowledge worker and I know that game is over
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:31:25 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 21st of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  43. Our reading

    The greatest thing a product maker can build is an internet treasure — a service people cannot remember life before or imagine life without.

    Their wordsit's to build an internet treasure which is a service we can't remember life before or imagine life without. And I believe as product makers that that's the greatest ambition and the greatest thing that we can offer the world.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:36:18 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 22nd of 22 in this recording

    ambition

    Interesting