Brad Feld Quotes
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Over the years, I've been involved in many business crises. I qualify this, since my crises have never involved life and death or the survival of the human race. But they are still crises.
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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.
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Immigrants have historically been an entrepreneurial bunch.
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December used to be very difficult for me. For many years, I fought the transition to the new year, was generally exhausted at the end of the year, and just wanted to hide. I described myself as a 'cranky Jewish kid who felt left out by Christmas.'
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I'm usually an excruciatingly happy person.
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I've been traveling more and feel like I've figured out a comfortable way to do it. The biggest shift is that I spend my traveling time 'in the moment,' I don't over-schedule when I'm somewhere and instead focus on longer time with less people. I also give myself plenty of me time on the road.
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I have several close friends who are insomniacs. Over the years, I've heard their stories about being up in the middle of the night, completely awake. I see them yawn at 11 A.M. and know that, regardless of what they are doing, they'd probably rather be in bed sleeping. I've always had sympathy for them, but I've never really understood it.
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I can now check Oregon off the 'marathon in every state list.'
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One of the consistent characteristics of the tech industry is an endless labelling of technology and approaches.
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If you aren't going to make your revenue plan, it's unlikely you'll make your EBITDA or Net Income plan. You don't even have to get complicated and look at Gross Margin or more derivative metrics - if you are off in Q1 and have any sort of growth expectations , you are going to miss for the year.
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I'm a huge believer in the importance of vacations for leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyone else. I work extremely hard - usually 70+ hours a week.
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If you sell a physical product, you have a lot of Q4 upside and unpredictability, but now you have to manage your cash to get to Q4 so that you can invest in building inventory to over-perform.
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When I think about the books I've written, it probably takes 150,000-200,000 words to get a 50,000 page book. Highlighting something and hitting Cmd-X is second nature.
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Silicon Valley has been developing as a startup community for over 60-70 years. This notion that you can create something in two or five years is foolish.
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In 2016, you no longer have to be in Silicon Valley to launch a successful startup. Colorado is home to many.
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Usually, the first three months post acquisition are up and down. The acquirer and the acquiree are trying to figure out how to interact. The founders of the acquiree are usually tired from the deal process and adjusting to their new reality.
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Twitter has always been that refreshing place where I can quickly find out what is going on in my tech world. I follow mostly entrepreneurs and VCs - some who I know and some who I don't know. I have a few companies in my feed. But no newspapers, no magazines, and no mainstream media.
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I talk often about being intrinsically motivated by learning. It's the primary driver of most of my activity.
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In my world, historical revenue is the least interesting thing to consider in an acquisition strategy.
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I have trouble sleeping maybe one night a year. On that special night, I get up and read on the couch until I fall asleep.
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A typical leader has - a natural tendency is to be defensive in the face of a crisis. The first reaction is to blame someone - or something - else. Often, the blame is aimed at something abstract or non-controllable, which often has nothing to do with the crisis but is adjacent to whatever is going on, so it's an easy target.
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Kauffman Fellows is not necessarily for people just entering the venture industry but for experienced VCs looking to accelerate their growth. The program is centered around established innovation leaders - if you are looking to grow and become a better investor, you should think about doing this program.
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Periodically, at the end of a conversation, someone will ask me, 'Is there something I can do for you?' I used to answer with 'Do something that is helpful to something or someone in my world.'
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I'm not deeply involved in politics, but about 25% of the people I interact with in politics went to law school.