Fred Wilson's Quotes

My venture investing career has three phases, all roughly 6-8 years long. The first, at Euclid, was software to Internet. The second, at Flatiron, was Internet to bubble. And the third, at USV, has been web 2 to mobile. I have always used a new firm to denote a new investment phase for me. Throw away the old. Start with the new.

New York's niche is content, and content is becoming more valuable. Just think about what is more valuable: MTV or the cable system that you use to get MTV? Howard Stern or the radio station you use to listen to him? Ultimately, technology becomes a commodity, and content - real, true branded content - becomes more valuable.

One of the great things about young entrepreneurs is that they don't know that something can't be done. So they try something that's so audacious and usually end up pulling it off.

Politics and government have been a terrible place to invest; education has been a terrible place to invest, but that is because the entrenched interests make it a terrible place to invest. The way you invest in those sectors is you go against the entrenched interests; you try and disrupt the entrenched interests, not to service them.

So many folks in the venture capital business are sheep that just want to follow the herd. They are momentum investors purchasing highly illiquid investments. That is a recipe for disaster.

Startups are rapidly changing systems. If you use an annual review cycle, you aren't getting feedback at the same pace that you need to adapt and change the business.

The most common way customer financing is done is you sell the customer on the product before you've built it or before you've finished it. The customer puts up the money to build the product or finish the product and becomes your first customer. Usually the customer simply wants the product and nothing more.

The venture business is a bit of an apprenticeship business, so the firm I worked for didn't let me make an investment until I was 30. That was probably a very smart thing.

The Web is going to capture an increasing share of people's attention, and billions of dollars are going to flow in. What Web 2.0 is about is harnessing those dollars in highly leverageable ways.

There are so many startups out there raising money. I don't think this is a bad thing. It's a good thing. Entrepreneurship is in vogue. Innovators are innovating. Makers are making.

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.

We need new medical approaches to preventing and/or curing disease. We need new scientific approaches to generating, storing, and being more efficient with energy. Maybe we need more space exploration. Maybe we need more undersea exploration.

When there were not very many Internet companies, the supply of Internet companies to the market was small and the appetite for them was large. Therefore, if you were in the business of creating Internet companies in 1996-98, you had a market that provided massive demand for that.

All markets have boom and bust cycles, and I think venture capital market has even more exaggerated boom and bust cycles.

Being an entrepreneur is hard. Having supportive and caring investors helps.

Blog-based businesses have lower cost structures and are more 'authentic,' and as a result are drawing larger shares of ad budgets.

Board meetings should not be for the benefit of the board. They should be for the benefit of the CEO and the senior team.

Building product is not about having a large team to manage. It is about having a small team with the right people on it.

Equity capital is expensive. Every time you do a raise, you dilute.

Facebook is not an unstoppable juggernaut. There are a lot of other things people can do on the web.

Foursquare's adoption of a game dynamic when it launched is a particularly clever implementation of a social hook.

Games are the most social of all things on the web.

Given New York City's cultural diversity, it has always attracted creative people.

I believe Android will be stronger in the developing world than it is in the developed world.

I think 'crazy' is a compliment. I think you make money with people who are crazy.

I would like to reiterate that I don't want any profiles of me. I am not newsworthy.

I'm a free speech bigot. I don't like censorship; I just don't think it's a good thing.

I'm really interested in the intersection between reputation, identity, and knowledge.

It takes great salesmanship to convince a customer to buy something from you that isn't built or isn't finished.

It's upsetting to me that you have to be a millionaire to invest in your friend's start-up.

Many artists stick to making and hire a manager to focus on their business. Artists that build websites and mobile apps can do that, too.

Marketing is for companies who have sucky products.

Money is information, like bits.

Most adults I know start their Internet session at Google, and most kids I know start their Internet session at either Facebook or MySpace.

Not only do you have to put yourself in harms way in service of your country, you have to leave your families at home. It is a great sacrifice.

People already love to play casual games. But when you take a casual game and stick it inside a social network, it becomes way more exciting.

Profiles aren't journalism.

Skyping with your spouse works well enough, but apparently it is hard to get the kids to hang out on Skype for long.