“Private equity is a growing form of financing.”
“It's not that Twitter isn't successful, it just isn't successful enough to justify all the money investors have pumped into it.”
Source: Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
“If you're not constantly testing, you're going to be tested constantly.”
“Amidst all the hype and hoopla around this business, I wanted to emphasize the challenge—it is seductive but the failure rate is very high. And those who fail have no good place to go.”
Source: The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies
“A good portfolio manager knows which companies to keep and which ones to let go. Many a GP has struggled with portfolio companies that cannot meet their value-creation milestones, or raise additional follow-on rounds of capital, or generate target returns in a time span of, say, five to seven years. The faster you recognize those losses, the better it is.”
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“As David Cowan says, “Just focus on your top five—the rest is distraction.” The harder part of the investor's discipline is to know when to quit.”
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“You have to constantly scan all of those things and be willing to adjust your own sense of what's a reasonable outcome and move the company into a position where it has the maximum chance to succeed. ”
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“Time is your enemy: Portfolio companies always take twice as much capital and twice as long to exit. Early-stage companies rarely meet milestones as planned and always burn cash faster than anticipated.”
Source: The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies
“more than just a corporate thriller, its about the lifestyle and culture of Silicon Valley”
Source: Sand Hill Road
“I got into business to help others achieve “self-reliance through self-employment” (the slogan of my first real company - an international mentor venture capital enterprise). ”
“The night slowly opens before us,
and we step inside,
while all around us turns to distance.
A new world will soon be born
from the fading traces of our tears.”
Source: The Void That Reflects Your Beauty
“Shareholders are demanding that Twitter find better ways of monetizing its users Tweets.”
Source: Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
“But there may never be enough to satisfy shareholders who expect to win back one hundred times their initial twenty billion dollar bet.”
Source: Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity