Quotes by Douglas Leone - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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Be incredibly, ruthlessly selfish with your equity.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Equity
Selfish
Selfish Acts
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Guys like me on the investor side are a dime a dozen.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Dimes
Dozen
Guy
Dime
Investor
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In a downturn, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Communication
Keys
Strategy
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The venture industry is both quite vibrant and quite competitive.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Industry
Venture
Competitive
Vibrant
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We want people who come from humble backgrounds and have a need to win.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Backgrounds
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I was working on boats as a teenager, sweating like a pig during a summer job.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Jobs
Summer
Sweating
Teenager
Boats
Pig
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Crystal-clear thinking is one of the things we look for - not a fancy slide pitch, but crystal-clear thinking.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Fancy
Looks
Thinking
Pitch
Slide
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We like companies that can get big and powerful on $50 million or less and not two, three, four or five billion.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Billion
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A tremendous chief executive in a small market will never be great. All great companies start with great markets.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Chief Executives
Chiefs
Great Company
Great Start Will
Chief
Chief Executive
Tremendous
Companies
Executive
Market
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There's a number of companies clearly that we wish we had invested in either at the early or at the moderate stage.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Invested
Moderate
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We see China as a large market opportunity with similar cyclical economic cycles that occur throughout every economy.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Cycles
Occur
Similar
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Give me an entrepreneur with a lot of courage, gusto and who iterates rapidly, and I will back that person day in and day out.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Courage
Entrepreneur
Give Me
Giving
Gusto
Me Day Will
Rapidly
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We've tried to build Sequoia Capital with an eye for the long term that we really look for in the companies we like to partner with.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Term
Capital
Partner
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Our business is all about helping someone - a founder, a CEO - building a great business. It's not about seeing our names in the press.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Ceo
Great Business
Helping
Founder
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If I could press a button and have all of Sequoia Capital on the Midas List, I would choose to do that over a honoring a single individual.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
If I Could
Button
Capital
Honoring
List
Single Individual
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I'll say this: I can't think of one instance in my 20 years in venture capital in which I have wanted to sell a company before the entrepreneur.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Entrepreneur
Instance
Venture
Venture Capital
Capital
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We look at the number of engineers coming out of India; we look at the growth of the economy, and it's clear that India is a place we want to be.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Engineers
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I routinely make trips to China and India where we have offices to continue to maintain the linkages that are necessary to run a successful business.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
China And India
Maintain
Offices
Trips
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The trick is, a market has to be nonexistent when you start. If the market is large early on, you will have too many competitors. You have to make it large.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Competitors
Trick
Nonexistent
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In a globalized world, one application can spread like wildfire and there's only one winning company, which means you have to invest more than you've ever had.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Application
Spread
Invest
Wildfire
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During dark times, real entrepreneurs come out. They are not competing with 10 look-alike companies for engineering talent, so it's a great time to invest and help build companies.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Competing
Engineering
Time Great Talent
Invest
Entrepreneurs
Great Time
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We work as a team. I think having the individual being shown as a star actually creates problems internally. We encourage all our investors to work as a team for the benefit of the founders.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Founders
Investors
Benefit
Creates
Shown
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If you choose a market that already exists, say, networking equipment, you have to compete with an established company like Cisco. Even if your product is marginally better, Cisco can fudge it and outsell you.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Equipment
Networking
Established
Compete
Exists
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You meet with a CEO or founder. You talk about sales, engineering, product management and give some ideas or suggestions. And the founder quickly understands that you really can help them both operationally and from a strategic standpoint.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Ceo
Engineering
Management
Standpoint
Strategic
Suggestions
Founder
Sales
Understands
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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.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Bunch
Good Money People
Funds
Good Thing
Seed
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Raise as little as you can to get you to something that you can show - plus maybe a quarter or two so you have a little bit of cushion - and then raise some more money. Raise as little - not as much - as you can because that's the most expensive equity you're going to sell.
Douglas Leone / Venture Capitalist
Equity
Expensive
Little Bit
Plus
Cushion
Sell
Quarter
Raise
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