Words matter. These are the best Brad Feld Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
As an investor, I’m always looking for the next great American company. Who will create tomorrow’s Twitter, Facebook, or Google?
I love near-term sci-fi. I especially love right-now sci-fi: stuff that happens in current time but incorporates a scientific breakthrough that is currently being explored.
Some Sundays, I read it quickly – other Sundays, I savor it. I generally spend most of my time in ‘The New York Times Book Review,’ ‘Sunday Business,’ ‘Sunday Review,’ and ‘The New York Times Magazine.’ I turn all the other pages, only stopping when I find a headline that interests me.
I hear entrepreneurs use the word ‘disruption’ on a daily basis and continuously hear the cliche change the world.
Boulder is a very smart community.
While I live a busy life, the pace ebbs and flows.
I hope more cities engage with immigrant entrepreneurs the way St. Louis has – it’s a great model.
If you are feeling some December blues, or even depression, don’t fight it. Instead, do something for yourself. Be reflective. Let the emotions exist. And be encouraged that, like me, you can get to a better place, but it can take time.
I love using a targeted acquisition approach in conjunction with a business that has a clear strategy and strong organic growth.
A lot of times, when I interact with someone for the first time, I don’t want to see the presentation.
I’m an optimistic person, and I tend to bury my cynicism in what I read and the movies I watch. My optimism holds that the good guys eventually come out on top.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a strong advocate for diversity across all dimensions.
When I struggled with a depressive episode in 2013, I realized that I had a glitch in my thinking about my own motivation. I had separated learning and teaching into different concepts.
I would say my whole universe is probably categorized as guerilla marketing. For a long time, I had a line which was, ‘Whenever I hear the word ‘marketing,’ it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.’
In my world, historical revenue is the least interesting thing to consider in an acquisition strategy. The goal is to acquire technology that is on your product roadmap or people that fit culturally within your organization and help you execute on your roadmap faster.
Part of the power of having startup communities is it continues to challenge the status quo. So for many of these cities that were once very important and powerful that today are struggling, startup communities are a way for them to rejuvenate themselves.
In 2013, when Google announced that Kansas City would be the first city in the country to have Google Fiber, I bought a house in the first neighborhood that was being wired up with Google’s gigabit Internet.
As I continue to believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are the key drivers to our economic future, it’s frustrating to hear such little cogent discussion around it.
I’m hugely intrinsically motivated and have always believed that I’m fueled and motivated by learning.
While we should certainly be investing in our own STEM education, we should take advantage of the thousands of international students who come here to study and are ready to fill these gaps immediately upon graduation.
My optimism holds that the good guys eventually come out on top.
In entrepreneurial circles, it’s clear to me that violence, hatred, and discrimination – or whatever you want to label it – is another category where we need to pay attention to disruption before it changes the world in ways we don’t want it to.
I talk often about being intrinsically motivated by learning. It’s the primary driver of most of my activity.
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.
I’m very comfortable in the U.S. and Europe, but I feel completely out of place in the rest of the world, mostly because I never spent time outside the U.S. and Europe until I was in my 30s.
I’m usually an excruciatingly happy person.
Ever since I learned about the concept of garbage collection in 6.001 at MIT in 1984 while using Scheme on HP Chipmunks, I’ve always thought of dreaming as the same as garbage collection for a computer.
When the entrepreneur is obsessed with the product and the company has organized all of its activities around that, it’s very powerful.
I read a lot of science fiction and biography – these are my two favorite genres. My favorite science fiction writers are Hertling, Suarez, Gibson and Stephenson, but I enjoy many others. I dislike reading business books, although I skim a lot of them.
I think ‘Shoe Dog’ by Phil Knight is the best memoir I’ve ever read by a business person.
That’s the problem with so many organizations around entrepreneurship. They’re driven by metrics that don’t matter.
One of my core values is diversity of everything.
St. Louis is a good example of a vibrant city. Having stayed in a hotel in 2011 overlooking Cardinals stadium when they won the World Series, their fans definitely show up loud and proud.
I often get asked how I write so much. As any writer knows, the answer is to write a lot more than you actually publish.
America’s future as the global leader in innovation remains in the balance until our immigration system is fixed. A large portion of a reform package should focus on updating our system to better reflect the business landscape and market realities of the 21st century.
Don’t be afraid to have a big vision, but make sure it’s a clear one.
Technology doesn’t address everything – for example, air travel still sucks.
The super awesomeness would be a portable teleportation machine that I could take with me. I go wherever I want, and then I can go from there to wherever I want. Instantly. Without having to go through TSA. One can wish.
The first thing that any city that’s trying to create a startup community or an entrepreneurial ecosystem that’s vibrant should do is get rid of the idea that they’re trying to be like Silicon Valley.
It’s time to focus on what I care about and not let the noise take over my brain.
I have shifted my mindset in terms of how companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial.
Q1 is the easiest quarter to make. If you miss your Q1, regardless of the type of revenue you have, you aren’t going to make your revenue plan for the year because your budget process isn’t accurate.
While I’m a venture capitalist who invests in early-stage tech companies, I often feel like a professional emailer and conference call maker.
If I have a golden touch, I’d also say that I have the opposite of whatever a golden touch is, because I’ve had a lot of things fail. I think part of the experience of being successful is that you have to have a lot of stuff not work.
We should explore ways to make us a more amazing species. A more fascinating society. We should embrace our innovations and evolve with them.
While the line between stress, deep anxiety, and depression often blurs, most entrepreneurs struggle with broad mental health issues at various points in their lives.
If you don’t have a VP Finance on your team reporting to you, do yourself, your team, and your investors a favor and go hire one right now.
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.
At Foundry Group, we always look for companies that we think build magic into their products. Occipital has been one of those companies.
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.
St. Louis has a great startup scene and a vibrant business community.
In my world, historical revenue is the least interesting thing to consider in an acquisition strategy.
A rite of passage in America when you turn 50 and have good health insurance is a colonoscopy.
My weight fluctuates between 205 and 220, depending on how much I pay attention to it.
I love dreams.
By 2002, I realized that what was classically called a rollup strategy was not generally effective, at least not for me.
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.
I especially love right-now sci-fi: stuff that happens in current time but incorporates a scientific breakthrough that is currently being explored.
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.
I know a lot of companies that have a very well defined post-acquisition process. However, many of them don’t take into consideration the dynamics and personalities of the acquiree. Instead, they assume that everyone will happily be assimilated.
Many people, companies, and organizations are trying to protect the past at any cost. We see this regularly in business as the incumbent vs. innovator fight, but I think it’s more profound than that. It’s literally a difference in point of view.
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