Alan Schaaf Quotes

Alan Schaaf is an American entrepreneur and the founder of the image hosting and sharing platform Imgur. He created Imgur as a simple and user-friendly platform for sharing images online, and it has since become one of the most popular image hosting sites on the internet. Schaaf's innovation has had a significant impact on online image sharing.

The Imgur community, as a whole, is generally a lot more positive and a lot more funny than other communities.

If there is a viral video on the Internet, you know it's on YouTube. You can search for it, find it, see the view count, and then take that link and share it with whomever you want. That's what we are doing for images.

One of my favorite sci-fi books is 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card. I would recommend it to anyone who loves sci-fi. It's a perfect intro to sci-fi.

I'm proud that I've been able to attract an incred... -Alan Schaaf

I'm proud that I've been able to attract an incredible team to work with me.

Honestly, I could care less about business develop... -Alan Schaaf

Honestly, I could care less about business development.

We're trying to be a content destination for viral images and to be an entertainment destination in general.

Imgurians increasingly live on their mobile devices, and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to browse and discuss Imgur's content wherever and whenever they want.

Entrepreneurship, to me, means that you're a psychopath. The world doesn't work in the way you want it to, and you have a vision for how it should work. Unlike everyone else, this isn't OK with you. You have to go out, against every possible odd, and do something about it. That's what makes you crazy.

When I come into the office, the first thing I do is I plan out what I want to accomplish that day. I write it down in my notebook and make sure I accomplish it before I leave that day.

Ultimately, you have to provide value to the user.... -Alan Schaaf

Ultimately, you have to provide value to the user.

Being bootstrapped is great. You own 100 percent of it. But the downside is that you aren't able to move as fast as you want.

I'm the type of manager who doesn't really like the word 'manage.' Nor do I really like the word 'boss.' I like to look at myself as more as a leader.

The only thing that matters on Imgur is the qualit... -Alan Schaaf

The only thing that matters on Imgur is the quality of the content.

We want people on the Internet to go to Imgur for their viral image fix. And what's so awesome about images vs. videos is that instant gratification.

In many ways, products are a reflection of their founders, and I consider myself a geek. But aside from that, Imgur just organically evolved into the epicenter of geek culture.

In the early days, it was enough for Imgur to have a team that was focused on building product and engineering. But I realized early on if we were going to be successful, we needed someone who would be a bridge between the company and community.

It's gotten more open and easy to create a business on the Internet. That's a really awesome thing for entrepreneurs and for the world.

Not only do Imgurians get the opportunity to find the content that they love but also serve up their favorite content to others who visit their profiles.

Imgur isn't about following a celebrity, and it's not about following a person in real life. You don't have to build up a massive following and use that to get your distribution.

I'm against the SOPA act, and Imgur, as a company,... -Alan Schaaf

I'm against the SOPA act, and Imgur, as a company, is against it.

I ran a profitable boostrapped company for five years, then raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz.

GIFs work because the punch line is instantaneous. It's entirely different from almost any other form of content on the Internet, which takes time to consume.

The reason I want to be able to teleport is that I don't like waiting around. It's one of my pet peeves. I also don't like traveling, because I don't like sitting on a plane for six hours, doing nothing, essentially wasting time. You know what would be awesome? Bam, I'm in New York.

The successful entrepreneurs that I see have two characteristics: self-awareness and persistence. They're able to see problems in their companies through their self-awareness and be persistent enough to solve them.

It's not always about 'Can you do the job?' It's a... -Alan Schaaf

It's not always about 'Can you do the job?' It's about 'Can you fit in with the team?'

Imgur is a data-driven company, and our community is our most important signal. But you can't perfectly plot humans neatly into a chart. It takes someone with instincts and empathy to truly understand the community and represent them in all of the company decisions.

If you're even on the fence about hiring someone, that person is a no. You have to feel it in your gut.

Revenue is not where the focus of the company is at. We are focused on pushing out cool products like our analytics.

I don't have much time to read. I'm more of a problem solver. I'll have an idea or a problem, and I'll learn what's necessary in order to do the idea or solve the problem. If I need to read a book, then I will, but it usually comes down to researching on the Internet and reading blog posts.

We're not going the photography route. I think there is a real distinction between photos and images, and Flickr is for photos, and Instagram is for photos. You wouldn't put a filter on a meme; you'd put a filter on top of a photo that came from your camera.

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