Most venture capitalists won't read a business plan unless the entrepreneur is introduced to them by a contact.
I watch 'Shark Tank,' of course. It's very entertaining. I think it's actually good to help people think about the business they might start, and sometimes you get encouraged by looking at someone going into business and saying, 'Hey, I could do that.'
We have this powerful lever at Google Ventures, which is to invest $200 million a year. This is a huge lever. It's not all going into one place; it's going into lots of start ups and founders and entrepreneurs, all of which are levers to try and change the world in one way or another.
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.
For me, seed investing isn't just a good return area but a big part of how we network in Silicon Valley. A lot of our best deals have come from being active in the seed stage.
There I was - 20 years old, living in Ireland, and I'd never heard the word 'venture capitalist.' But I'd said that I wanted a job that involved a lot of negotiation, a lot of yelling at people on the phone, and for it to be high-risk, high-reward.
When deciding whether to fund and build a company, we start from basic principles and because many of the businesses and products that our companies create are a complete novelty to us, them and the market, we have to do the math.
A lot of people want to start a business, and they're like, 'I wanna start a business, give me some money to invest.' Where is your business plan? Are you investing money yourself into your own business? How is this going to work? People think that they can just come to you with an idea and have money.
Entrepreneurial education in grades K-12, if it exists at all, still focuses on teaching potential entrepreneurs small business entrepreneurship - the equivalent of 'how to run a lemonade stand.'
A lot of times when you're an investor, it's very easy to lean back and say, 'Well, people should come to me in Silicon Valley.' YC has the opposite opinion.
The JOBS Act will allow entrepreneurs to utilize 'crowdfunding,' which permits them to raise equity capital from a large pool of small investors.
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.
The idea is that angel investors are supposed to be wealthy people supporting people who need funds, typically who are not wealthy, and don't have the ability to do it themselves.
Some investors may grumble about entrepreneurs wanting 'unicorn valuations.' But let's be honest: most investors want them, too, and are supporting the massive capitalization of these companies.
Our main funders... a lot of them are entrepreneurs and technologists themselves as well and familiar with iterative development processes.
One thing I would like to see in Vancouver and Canada is something similar to the PayPal mafia. They were all early employees of PayPal. They all had monster exits with PayPal, and they were able to take their winnings and form a syndicate that co-invests.
The San Francisco Bay Area has more VC firms and dollars invested than all East Coast cities combined.
We have co-opted seed funds. You know, Y Combinator, that was completely our money. We have secret handshakes with a whole bunch of people. Very dangerous, because word gets out that so-and-so's money is Sequoia's money, that would not be a good thing.
Every venture capitalist says at some point, 'I wish I could run this company myself' - to be the entrepreneur instead of the investor.
Venture capitalists certainly create value for themselves, but they also singularly create value for the rest of the world.
There's never been a good period of venture capital when prices weren't high.
We like to say at Khosla Ventures, and this is one of the reasons to do what we do, we'll take technical risks that nobody else will.
You know what works in venture capital? A group of incredibly smart, connected people who have the financial wherewithal and risk appetite to make multi-million dollar bets on unproven ideas and inexperienced founders. People who can make decisions quickly, and who spend their time trying to help entrepreneurs make the most of that cash.
VCs invest in innovation and disruption, but how often do they innovate themselves?
Silicon Valley has infinite access to capital and can lose money indefinitely.
