StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Mark Pincus

13 statements across 4 episodes · 3 bullish · 1 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Jul 24, 2018 by Mark Pincus · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Mark Pincus's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Everything said about Mark Pincus, oldest first

Jul 24, 2018
Insight
Pincus: Good founders have 95% right instincts but 25% right ideas
“The lesson from Tribe that came resoundingly out for me and still stands out, that as entrepreneurs, part of the journey that we're on is learning how to separate our winning instincts from our losing ideas. I think as a rule of thumb, if you're a good entrepr…”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 10:21 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
Jul 24, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pincus: Legacy studios spent $15M-$20M over two years before testing demand
“At the time, game companies would build an entire game and take even two years and 15, twenty million dollars before they even know if anyone wanted it, and we could come out with it on the web, maybe only spend four weeks.”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 18:06 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
Jul 24, 2018 positive
Insight
Pincus: A focus group of one can outweigh other data
“Sometimes you can get a focus group of one that's more powerful than the rest of your data, and that one was probably it.”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 9:33 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
Jul 24, 2018
Disclosure
Pincus: Zynga operated on willingness to try and rapidly kill any idea
“Out of that, for me, came this mentality that I brought into Zynga of, I'm not wedded to any idea. Whether it's mine, yours, someone else's, I'll try anything, and I'll kill anything, and I'll kill it quickly.”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 14:42 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
Jul 24, 2018
Insight
Pincus: Customers Care About Experience, Not Operational Scale
“What really matters to your customer is that they have an amazing experience. They don't give a how it got there. You're at your favorite hamburger joint. You want a great fresh burger. And if you find out that the owner of the company was there back there mak…”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 29:42 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
Jul 24, 2018 neutral
Insight
Pincus: Software migration friction was the primary barrier to PC upgrades
“The insight we had from that was that the number one thing stopping people from ever going and getting a new PC was this fear of moving their software and the idea of having to reinstall their kids' games and everything else.”
Mark Pincus Jul 24, 2018 ▶ 6:53 How to kill your bad ideas (with Zynga's Mark Pincus)
May 12, 2023
Insight
Pincus: Good entrepreneurs' instincts are right 95% of the time, ideas 25%
“I think as a rule of thumb, if you're a good entrepreneur, you can assume that your instincts are right 95% of the time, and your ideas might be right 25% of the time.”
Mark Pincus May 12, 2023 ▶ 16:26 Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO): Innovation is managed chaos
Aug 9, 2023
Disclosure
Pincus: Zynga's early policy was answering every employee and customer email
“Yes, I made it my policy early on to respond to every single email from every employee and every customer, and I have pretty much to this day been true to it.”
Mark Pincus Aug 9, 2023 ▶ 20:20 Let your customers be your scout (with Eventbrite's Julia Hartz) | Masters of Scale
Jul 2, 2026 negative
Insight
Pincus: Founders should not accept coaching from non-operator VCs
“I actually have a lot of coaches, but I've chosen all them, and I'm not coachable by a VC who's never held this job, who never sat in this seat, and so I guess it's not exactly advice, but it was implied advice of, you know, I should pretend that I'm going to …”
Mark Pincus Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 30:25 Mark Pincus unpacks his "Proven, Better, New" framework (with Reid Hoffman) | Masters of Scale
Jul 2, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Pincus and Hoffman invested in Friendster without expecting it to succeed
“I remember when we both wrote Checks for Friendster, it was not because we thought it had any chance. We just were like, this is an experiment that needs to happen, because this is important for the consumer internet.”
Mark Pincus Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 13:56 Mark Pincus unpacks his "Proven, Better, New" framework (with Reid Hoffman) | Masters of Scale
Jul 2, 2026 neutral
Opinion
Pincus: AI is not yet a platform at the consumer level
“I would argue it is not yet a platform at a consumer level.”
Mark Pincus Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 11:53 Mark Pincus unpacks his "Proven, Better, New" framework (with Reid Hoffman) | Masters of Scale
Jul 2, 2026 neutral
Insight
Pincus: Novel features drive initial product adoption but usually fail
“New is your novel idea that will probably be the reason why people will try this product, and it will probably also fail.”
Mark Pincus Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 7:58 Mark Pincus unpacks his "Proven, Better, New" framework (with Reid Hoffman) | Masters of Scale
Jul 2, 2026 bullish
Insight
Pincus: AI lets people build and experiment without raising VC or quitting jobs
“In this AI era, we are just hurtling towards living our lives at the speed of play. And I think that that's more and more accessible to all of us, that this idea that we don't, you don't have to quit your job to try out, build an idea that you've been thinking…”
Mark Pincus Jul 2, 2026 ▶ 3:19 Mark Pincus unpacks his "Proven, Better, New" framework (with Reid Hoffman) | Masters of Scale
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, about 200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more