Joe Lonsdale Quotes

Venture capital today is clustered in just a few locations - Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and D.C. It's far from efficiently distributed and accessible.

Access to capital is important for all firms, but it's particularly vital for startups and young firms, which often lack a sufficient stream of earnings to increase employment and internally finance capital spending.

We are seeing a lot of cases where the startups are writing the term sheet, dictating the terms, selling common stock instead of preferred stock, where they don't give the investor veto rights or board seat or privileges, and they are really asking the investor -- why should I take your money when there is other money available.

I remember going out to raise my Series A and ending up with multiple term sheets when I had gone to Silicon Valley probably four times at that point and coming back with nothing.

Our experience is that most entrepreneurs are able to attract debt, even for risky and early stage investments. There are investors who provide debt, but very few who fund through equity.

Would I advise early-stage companies against taking debt? One hundred percent yes.

Beware angel investors: they can be disruptive.

We need to encourage investors to invest in high-technology startups.

Our Sheffield and London homes are worth well over a million but the bank owns most of them - we are mortgaged up to the gills.

If you want to invest in early-stage technologies, putting a timeframe on it does behold you to Silicon Valley economics. You've got a certain time period where you have to make the money. And you have to invest that money whether you find good companies or not.

There aren't many sources of money in San Diego, apart from local partnerships and local investors. It's pretty starkly polarized to Silicon Valley.

I keep anywhere between 5-10 percent of my net worth in venture ideas.

We own only a small percentage in Omnivore, but we manage it. It is basically a venture capital fund to help newer enterprises and provide them with the funding they require in their early stages of development.

The City of London has never been known for understanding technology and has never matched Silicon Valley's tradition of knowledgeable investment in technology start-ups, just as the U.K. government has never matched the vast investment made by the U.S. government.

The San Francisco Bay Area has more VC firms and dollars invested than all East Coast cities combined.

I think this is also a great time to invest in private equity, helping companies grow from the ground up.

I certainly agree that capital is not a one-dimensional object, and that the return on capital takes very different forms for different assets or different people.

Groupon looked like a very high valuation, but any investment in a great company at any stage is almost always a good investment.

We have to develop the whole system of early stage investors and a tax system around it. For every Google that has come on the scene, there are hundred entrepreneurs who never did.

The amounts of money in Silicon Valley are staggering.

Because of the love affair between the American public and the stock market, it is possible for entrepreneurs, technological visionaries and inventors of every sort to get financing.

Venture capital is about capturing the value between the startup phase and the public company phase.

Equity capital is expensive. Every time you do a raise, you dilute.

We have a tax code that favors debt over equity.

With tech startups, it's all loose-goosie. You raise money as you go, often from friends, family and investors.