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.
While I wouldn't say that most entrepreneurs find it easy to get funding, there are certainly more people out there funding technology and healthcare companies than in other areas.
VC has always been this high-touch, in-your-face-type business.
Private equity funds a substantial amount of new businesses and is the source of capital to rejuvenate failing businesses, which are major drivers of job growth in this economy.
It's tough for entrepreneurs when they're small to get good prices on stuff.
I'm invested in about 13 private companies. I've advised probably another 50 private companies.
I wanted to be a venture capitalist and join Sequoia Capital. They've financed and helped built some really special and enormously successful companies, including Google, Yahoo, Paypal, YouTube, Cisco, Oracle, Apple, and also Zappos.
Venture capital is debt. People don't understand that.
When I read about young designers selling 51 percent of their company to someone else, I cringe. I want to say, 'Don't do it - call me first.'
My early interactions with VCs were really, really poor.
You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.
I hired a guy named David Sze to do consumer investing at Greylock. And he went on to invest in Facebook and LinkedIn. So I guess I did something right.
I'm a venture capitalist. I like to say my job is to help and support entrepreneurs. I can play a leadership role, but my organization can't be the leader.
Kickstarter has been such a heads-down thing.
I had done six or eight traditional angel investments and basically just thought it sucked.
There are not many people from top-tier venture capital firms who are focused on the seed stage.
