Quotes from Neil Blumenthal

I want to go at least 11 hours without food. I sat next to Hugh Jackman at a conference, and he told me he fasted 12 to 14 hours when he was training for the Wolverine movies. I've deluded myself into thinking I can effortlessly achieve the same body type as Hugh Jackman if I keep up this eating schedule.

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

When it comes to marketing, creative resources are often worth far more than dollars.

Giving employees agency over their workspace encourages them to think carefully about the conditions in which they work best, and it gives them the tools to forge that environment.

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

Creativity is a business imperative.

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.

My grandfathers on both sides were entrepreneurs.

Be personable to everyone you interact with.

Asking for money can be especially intimidating.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The trick to maximizing your team's productivity is to create a workspace that's flexible, so it can be altered according to the ever-changing needs of the company and its team members.

One of the core values of the startup world is that you must have a list of core values. Like all abstract ideas, they're easy to dream up and tricky to implement.

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.

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

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

All those articles that scold Millennials for their supposed entitlement? Forget them. Millennials are great employees.

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.

Regardless of what you plan to use it for, the goal should always be to raise money right before you need it. You don't want to get into a situation where you need cash and you're unable to raise it - or you're unable to raise it on favorable terms. As with any negotiation, you want to raise from a position of strength.

What happens when kids don't have glasses - they get bored in class. They disengage and they may be disruptive. They may be misdiagnosed for A.D.D. or put in special needs classes.