Steve Blank Quotes

I've been a customer of the top venture capital firms, so I know exactly what they do and don't do.

Venture capitalists are professional money managers. We are provided capital to invest as long as we can return it to our investors with a strong return in a reasonable amount of time. A strong return is three times cash on cash. A reasonable amount of time is ten years max.

Investors who find the best businesses to put their money behind are rewarded for their research.

Some of my best friends are Venture Capitalists, but let's face it, a hamster with Alzheimer's could make those kind of numbers. It's great work if you can get it.

Picking winners among the many young companies seeking money is a tough business, even for the most sophisticated investors. Indeed, most professionally run venture funds lose money. For individuals, it's pure folly. Buy a lottery ticket instead. Your chance of winning is likely to be higher.

Many of the best firms historically in venture capital have been multi-sector.

I think one of the key differentiators I bring to the table as a venture capitalist is a solid understanding of the public markets and how they operate.

I think good private equity investors create a lot more economic value than they destroy.

The better I get at investing in and helping companies, the result is more founders who are excited to work with me and more of my wonderful limited partners insisting I take piles of their loot to keep it all going.

One of my rules for investing is, I don't invest in a deal where I don't think I have an unfair advantage and where I don't think I can personally impact the outcome.

I have a long history of looking at things from an investor's perspective by training and background.

As a company, we are not interested only in investments.

Math people are math people. When you approach them with investments and business, they don't just ask the soft questions but eventually get to the hard questions.

Some big banks remain wary of venture capital.

I'll say this: I can't think of one instance in my 20 years in venture capital in which I have wanted to sell a company before the entrepreneur.

Zeroing in on the best sectors or the best regions of the world is great, but zeroing in on the very best individual stocks is the key to making truly impressive profits.

The ability to select stocks, manage them over time and know when to sell them is incredibly difficult, even for professional fund managers.

Whatever the potential pitfalls, banks are increasingly enthusiastic about venture capital, particularly in new companies with strong prospects in fields like health care and technology.

I like to invest in companies where I can really add value from my experience, network, etc., so checking out my portfolio of other investments, and my background, will generally give some guidance there.

I started a business with two guys I played with, Ronnie Lott and Harris Barton: Champion Ventures, it's a fund of funds. We have $400 million or so under management.

It is intellectually dishonest to lump venture investors with hedge fund and buy-out investors.

Internally, when we manage portfolios, we figure out what works in large cap, what works in mid cap, what works in small cap. Generally speaking, large cap stocks want earning stability, strong cash flow, margin expansion.

We got to know a lot of investors and know what they like and don't like. Through many co-investments opportunities, we have built trust among these investors. So when it came to investing in Xiaomi, things were a lot easier.

Both from the standpoint of stocks and bonds, an investor wants to go where the growth is.

I have invested in the stock market since I was very young.