Box CEO: These Are the 3 Things Startup Founders Should Do

Aaron Levie, the cofounder and CEO of cloud-storage giant Box, said founders need to build strong teams and ride disruptive trends to launch successful startups.

Levie was speaking to participants at startup incubator Y Combinator’s AI Startup School, which ran from June 16 to 17, when he was asked for advice on building a startup. Levie’s remarks were published on Y Combinator’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old said there were three things startup founders should do to be more effective.

First, Levie recommended that founders read three books: “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen, “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey Moore, and “Blue Ocean Strategy” by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim.

“If you do what’s in those books, and you are going after the B2B market, I guarantee you, you will be 10 times better off than any other startup that is just starting from scratch,” Levie said.

“You will have a way to think about markets, disruption, what incumbents are vulnerable, and which ones aren’t. If you really deeply internalize them, you will be so much better off,” he added.

Second, Levie said that founders should try to assemble an “incredible founding team” to deal with the challenges that come with running a new business.

“I know solo founders, that will happen for sure, but just try and grab one friend. They could be the least technical friend of all time,” Levie said.

“Just be in the grind with somebody because you’re going to have more fun. You’re going to see through more difficult times together. So have a team that you really are excited to work with to kind of get through anything,” he added.

Third, Levie said it was important for founders to identify disruptive forces like AI and develop business ideas that can leverage them.

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“If your market is not truly transformed by AI, don’t touch it. It’s just not worth it because you’re going to be fighting against a headwind that is just unnecessary to fight against,” he said.

Levie said founders have a limited opportunity to start a great company within “two or three years from now” amid the AI boom.

“Be ambitious because these windows don’t come for more than 10 to 20 years. So I would exploit that, take advantage of that,” Levie said.

“In five years from now, you can be less ambitious, but in the next four years, you’ve got to go big because there are these windows that give you that opportunity,” he added.

Representatives for Levie at Box did not respond to a request for comment at Business Insider.

This isn’t the first time Levie has emphasized the importance of tapping into AI to supercharge one’s career trajectory.

Levie said in an episode of the a16z podcast that aired in July that fresh graduates should master AI and tout their familiarity with it to employers.

“If you’re a company, you should be prioritizing this talent that’s just like: ‘Why does it take you guys two weeks to research a market to enter? I can do that in deep research and get an answer to you in 30 minutes,” he said.