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Mark Pincus

What Mark Pincus thinks about startups

@mark-pincus · 38 positions · On ppll ↗

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.

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Only Mark Pincus on startups. See everyone on startups

11 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Mark Pincus has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingA 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.

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

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

    innovation

    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

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

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

    humilityproduct management

    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

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

  7. Our readingA 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.

    product management

    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.

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

  9. Our readingThe 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?

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

  11. Our readingIf 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.

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

  13. Our readingDistribution 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.

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

  14. 12 days earlier

  15. Our readingFounders who fail early tend to attach themselves to that failure and start being defined by it, and the line between success and failure on a first company is very fine.

    Their wordsI I definitely think I'm so aware of the fine line between success and failure, especially on your first company. And and and it's so it pains me how much founders and es especially I see it in men, not all men. And I have four sisters and a bunch of daughters. But I would say I see it in a lot in men and and friends, college friends, people I've grown up with that if they had an initial failure, if they had failures, they get attached to it and they start feeling defined by it

    ↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 3rd of 16 in this recording

  17. Our readingA founder has to run on what if everything goes right; starting from what if everything goes wrong is playing defense and losing before the start.

    Their wordsAnd I don't know how you're going to get yourself there, but you've got to be in this place that you're thinking, you're also thinking, "What if everything goes right? What does right look like? How am I ready for everything going right?" If we're starting with what if everything goes wrong, you're playing defense and you've lost before you're even out of the gates.

    ↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 4th of 16 in this recording

  19. Our readingEvery founder falls into a structureless period after a company ends, and it is a dark place that seems to offer freedom before it starts to feel permanent.

    Their wordsThe way I think of the abyss is it's this place that we go to as founders and entrepreneurs after our thing, after it dies or it's bought or it's over for whatever reason. It's this amorphous place that we are in our life that has no structure.

    ↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 6th of 16 in this recording

  21. Our readingA founder who does not know their own goal dies by a thousand compromises and ends up running a company they do not want to work at.

    investing

    Their wordsknow your goal or suffer a death by a thousand compromises. Because what I had done my whole career and most of us do is compromise to get that next engineer, CTO, investor. You put a jerk on your board because you impressed with their firm name and the valuation and all your friends are going to be impressed and it's going to be so much easier. We make all these compromises and contort ourselves and eventually we wake up and it's company we don't want to work at.

    ↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 9th of 16 in this recording