Neil Blumenthal

If you peek behind the curtain at any type of company, you'll see that things are far less organized than you'd expect.

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.

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.

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.

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

Self-aware employees make a self-aware company.

A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed.

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.

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.

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.

Every day, write down a few frustrations. And then at the end of the week, you'll have maybe 10 problems. By the end of the month, maybe you have 40 to 50 problems. And then you can spend time thinking about, Is there a viable business in solving any of these everyday frustrations?

I came to Washington primarily to meet other entrepreneurs. That being said, I was also curious to hear how our federal government was thinking about entrepreneurship.