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Very, very sad indeed. I had far too few chances to interact with Bill, but when I did, they were always incredibly memorable.

One of my favorite quotes came at the SV Angel CEO conference a few years ago. When asked about culture, Bill said: "Culture is not about the free food or the ping pong tables. Culture is about how you treat your people and how they treat each other."

Rings very true to me. My condolences to his family, Bill was a great man.

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Says volumes about our level of discourse that this is considered a pearl of wisdom.

Unfortunately this was particularly the case around 2011 :(

Can you think of any examples of wisdom that don't seem blatantly obvious on hindsight? Would sincerely love to hear them

I've said the same thing to leaders at multiple startups (some well known) and they all gave me a look like I was a neophyte who didn't understand the motivating power of ping pong tables.

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