The part of capitalism that doesn't work for me is when capitalists make decisions in the way that Adam Smith suggested, which is that as long as you do everything in the interest of the investor, you're going to actually make the best decisions for all other stakeholders. I don't happen to agree with that.
There's this myopia among American venture capitalists to not go anywhere beyond Silicon Valley and New York.
When Japan was on the rise, American governors would come to inspect Toyota City and study 'just in time' manufacturing to increase efficiency; when America was at its peak in the late 1990s, the world beat a path to its venture capitalists.
Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure - the law firms, the real estate, all that - that are all actually geared toward being accepting of startups.
Venture capitalists Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital, Steve Jurvetson of DFJ, and Dave McClure of 500 Startups all left their firms following accusations of misconduct.
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.
Venture capitalists don't pay attention to you unless you have an app or a widget.
The most important question venture capitalists ask is what prevents your company from growing faster.
We are turning all Bolivians into capitalists.
The more activity around Chicago-based companies, and the more success that entrepreneurs have in Chicago, the better we as venture capitalists in Chicago will do.
