Neil Blumenthal Quotes

We have been very focused on eyeglasses in particular because it’s a massive industry.

Social enterprise is at its most impactful when the goal is empowerment, not relief.

From the beginning, we believed that it was possible to develop direct relationships with customers at a relatively cheap cost, and our plan was to build a lifestyle brand that was also an Internet company – a rarity for eyewear.

Creativity flows when curiosity is stoked.

Brands are only powerful if they’re real and authentic.

I personally try to buy the best-quality items at the best price that do the least harm and from companies that are striving to do good – many of those companies are run by young entrepreneurs.

In general, obsolete technology is obsolete for a reason. Monocles are no exception.

When another editorial pops up denouncing millennials for some perceived generational flaw, I take it with a Miley Cyrus-sized grain of salt.

Creativity is a business imperative.

All companies – and not just startups – face the same eternal challenge: resource allocation.

Young people entering the job market seek employment at companies with values that match theirs.

Building a consistent experience and firm identity was instrumental in our ability to swiftly build our online presence, open four stores as well as a mobile store in a converted yellow school bus, and launch six shops-in-shops.

Millennials are eager to make an impact, which makes them ideal for start-ups.

Be personable to everyone you interact with.

Every moment contains an opportunity to create feelings of satisfaction and excitement in a customer. It’s up to retailers to make it happen.

Successful entrepreneurs are pretty methodical about the problem they’re trying to solve.

The idea that you don’t spam people with five emails a day or that you offer free shipping just seemed obvious to us, because that’s how we want to be treated as consumers.

Every generation trash-talks younger generations. Baby boomers labeled Generation X a group of tattooed slackers and materialists; Generation Xers have branded millennials as iPhone-addicted brats.

When we were creating Warby Parker, for us it was about having a positive impact on the world and having a strong social mission.

Asking for money can be especially intimidating.

If you think about what are glasses, they are the best example of form and function.

If faced with two competitive candidates, every company will hire the person who evinces more enthusiasm.

It never gets old watching someone receive their first pair of glasses and regain their vision and their life.

Share your personality with interviewers, but keep a professional filter safely adhered to it.

Walking in the morning improves my whole day. I think more clearly, my points of view are sharper, and I’m more decisive.

Hackathons are an amazing way to engage the team, foster collaboration, and knock out great work.

We have never met with politicians. I don’t know the first thing about how to get heard. My suspicion is that it’s to donate a lot of money.

It’s not easy to keep good sleep habits as an entrepreneur, especially at the early stages when there’s always a fire to put out.

Nothing creates cool like scarcity.

For every Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, there’s 30 other entrepreneurs that started their business after working for several years.

I previously worked as the director of VisionSpring, a non-profit dedicated to distributing glasses to people in need.

By creating a feedback culture within your office, you ensure that people continue to learn, grow, and challenge themselves.

For many startups, ideating is the fun part: coming up with ingenious schemes to grab eyeballs and start conversations. But before you dive into that stage, take a step back and define your goals.

The key to an ideal workplace, in one hyphenated word, is this: self-awareness.

For better or worse, cash is the oxygen of your business, and you can’t last long in any environment without it.

For any collaboration to work, each partner must have a strong sense of identity. If one overpowers the other, it’s like mixing lemonade with water – you wind up diluting the brew.

Millennials in particular get a lot of flack for their supposed entitlement and narcissism, but these evaluations have never matched my experience with hiring young people at Warby Parker.

When you look at the reasons people leave companies, it’s usually because their boss is a jerk or because they aren’t learning and growing.

Self-aware employees make a self-aware company.

The basic idea of a hackathon is to erase all routine obligations for the day so that employees can clear a mental space for creativity.

Florence Nightingale. She is one of the most dynamic social entrepreneurs in history.

At Warby Parker, we ask ourselves a number of questions when deciding whether or not to partner up with a designer, or a nonprofit or brand. Is the potential collaboration new? Is it unexpected? Will it result in something worth talking about over dinner? Will it do good? Will it introduce us to a new audience?

If you don’t plan to dive in and dedicate all of your time to your startup, you probably shouldn’t be looking for funding. It’s hard enough asking for money when you believe in an idea; asking for money to fund something you’re iffy about is ten times more strenuous.

If you’re entitled, you likely think you know more than you do.

A workplace that encourages self-awareness is an environment where the most productive, curious, and innovative people thrive.

Warby Parker is a data-driven company.

At Warby Parker, we use the survey platform Culture Amp to take employee engagement surveys that help us become ultra-responsive to the needs of our teams.

During times of plenty – when venture funding is abundant and startups multiply like rabbits – every business looks like a winner.

At its best, entrepreneurship creates jobs, solves problems, and galvanizes creative thinking.

My grandfathers on both sides were entrepreneurs.

People who are passionate about Warby Parker are passionate about creating a company that can scale, be profitable, and do good in the world – without charging a premium for it.

Often, companies are trying to chase growth and get into other categories or go international too quickly, and they can get in trouble doing that.

We all have a personal recipe for productivity. One person may need six cups of autonomy and just a pinch of collaboration. Another person may require heaps of sociability and noise, with just a teaspoon of occasional privacy.

Exploring emerging technologies like new refraction technology will enable people to get prescriptions cheaper and more conveniently, which will, in turn, provide increased access to prescription glasses.

The word ‘hackathon’ was born out of ‘marathon’ for a reason. It’s exhausting.

One of my favorite products at Warby Parker also happens to be our worst-selling item: the monocle.

We’ve built a company that distributes a pair of eyeglasses to someone in need for every pair sold; that purchases carbon offsets; and that hosts mentoring programs at the office.

Just because one company is able to succeed with a specific model doesn’t mean others will follow with equal or any success.

At Warby Parker, we say that we’re customer focused but medium agnostic.

Warby Parker designs experiences, not products.