Douglas Leone Quotes

There's almost too much venture capital in India - there are issues with seed capital, but for venture capital, there's a lot money chasing deals here.

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.

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

There are lots of ways to make money in venture capital, and there are even more ways to be mediocre. The industry has too much money and too many smart people chasing too few great entrepreneurs.

Generally, you want to raise capital either when you have to or when it's really easy. If the company desperately needs money, and they can't figure out any other way, then they need to raise money. Or if someone's offering you easy money on good terms, you should take it because you can use it for good things.

If private-equity firms are as good at remaking companies as they claim, they don't need tax loopholes to make money.

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

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

How do you make money? Spinoffs, split-ups, liquidations, mergers and acquisitions.

It's always weird when people approach me to make an investment. I tell them, 'I don't need any more money. I'm good.' Then I wait for their expression. That part is entertaining, because people look at you like you're crazy when you say you don't need any more money. Who says that?

There's never been a good period of venture capital when prices weren't high.

I am a partner at CrunchFund, a venture capital firm with investments in many startups around the world. I am also a limited partner in many other venture funds which have their own startup investments.

Most of the money I make now comes from investments from CrunchFund. And the vast majority of that is what's called carried interest.

The amounts of money in Silicon Valley are staggering.

If you're an entrepreneur, and you have a choice to go to a place where there are 250 VC firms or somewhere else where there might be one or two, you're gonna go where all the money is.

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.

For the good producer, raising capital is about the last thing to worry about. If you're good, the money comes very easily.

Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn't willing to.

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

I think 'Shark Tank' is targeting companies that are really trying to raise their very first dollar. A lot of them aren't really tech focused. We're definitely going after companies that are building real technology, either software or hardware, they probably have raised a couple hundred thousand already.

I'm hard-pressed to think of companies that don't need venture capital that are going after big opportunities. I think, in almost all cases, if they're going after big opportunities, they are going to need to raise quite a bit of money.

When I'm raising money, this fundraising, I'm thinking about the next fundraising. I'm thinking how I'm set up for it.

You have to raise $100 million, probably, to be serious.

Learn to raise capital by any means necessary. That's your primary job as an entrepreneur. You must continually raise capital from family and friends, banks, suppliers, customers and investors.