Jay Samit Quotes

Startups are constantly raising money, sometimes before they have even hired a lawyer.

Sometimes people think Y Combinator has big ideas about themes. But really, we just fund the best startups.

In 2007, there weren't any other accelerators, at least that I was aware of. We were almost the prototypical Y Combinator founders: We were highly technical but had never done a startup before. We also didn't know anyone in the Valley - investors, other entrepreneurs, potential hires. YC seemed like a great way to bootstrap that network.

VCs, angels and other networks help you validate your ideas.

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.

Beware angel investors: they can be disruptive.

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

When I was planning LearnVest, everyone told me I had to talk to Ann Kaplan, one of the first female partners at Goldman Sachs. Within five minutes of our meeting, she totally got the idea - and by the time I left, she was a seed investor.

If you're a teenager in Palo Alto launching an app, you know from the outset how you plan to finance your business.

We listen to the entrepreneur. We try to have a fine tuning fork to understand what they are saying and whether that makes sense and know it when we see it. We don't try to do too much predicting.

In the space of three weeks, I met a fair bunch of the guys who were just starting those little programmers' co-ops, and everybody was talking about starting businesses.

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

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

Good companies are always fundraising. Whether you're meeting people or considering firms, you're always fundraising.

VC has always been this high-touch, in-your-face-type business.

I don't know the venture fund terms. I don't know what a seed round is. I want nothing to do with it.

As a serial investor who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, I know that the business plans coming out of incubators tend to be vetted and more thoroughly validated. The incubator's input into your business plan will make you look far more polished and experienced - even if you have never run a business before.

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.

When you have a failed pitch, you meet many more venture capitalists than you really want to.

It can be difficult to find investment for a new business, particularly one which is highly innovative or breaks new ground.

State funds, private equity, venture capital, and institutional lending all have their role in the lifecycle of a high tech startup, but angel capital is crucial for first-time entrepreneurs. Angel investors provide more than just cash; they bring years of expertise as both founders of businesses and as seasoned investors.

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.

I think entrepreneurs should demand transparency for startup accelerators.

In a start-up society, huge sums can fall on innocent parties, almost by accident .

The great danger of dealing with venture capitalists is the 'slow maybe'.