Business Quote by Harper Reed
“Ten Internets ago, when PayPal was started, it was all these tools that no one had built yet to bring commerce to the Internet. My first startup used PayPal.”
About This Quote
Source Speech: Startup Founders Conference, 2005
Early internet commerce required building foundational tools that didn’t exist yet, enabling new business models.
In simple terms: Foundations were built for online commerce.
Key Takeaway
Identify and create missing infrastructure.
Themes
innovation
entrepreneurship
technology
Mood
optimistic
forward‑looking
Type
inspirational
strategic
When to use this quote
- launching a fintech startup
- building e‑commerce platforms
- seeding new markets
- scaling online payments
Key Concepts
firstmover advantage
network effects
Questions to Reflect On
- What essential tool is missing in your industry?
- How can you create it yourself?
A Different Perspective
Assuming all needed tools will appear without effort can stall progress.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)