Secrets of Sand Hill Road Quotes

“Ben Horowitz uses the difference between a vitamin and an aspirin to articulate this point. Vitamins are nice to have; they offer some potential health benefits, but you probably don’t interrupt your commute when you are halfway to the office to return home for the vitamin you neglected to take before you left the house. It also takes a very, very long time to know if your vitamins are even working for you. If you have a headache, though, you’ll do just about anything to get an aspirin! They solve your problem and they are fast acting. Similarly, products that often have massive advantages over the status quo are aspirins; VCs want to fund aspirins.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“Whatever the evidence, the fundamental question VCs are trying to answer is: Why back this founder against this problem set versus waiting to see who else may come along with a better organic understanding of the problem? Can I conceive of a team better equipped to address the market needs that might walk through our doors tomorrow? If the answer is no, then this is the team to back.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“Over the past ten years, we’ve gone from $300 million in funds under management and a three-person team to managing more than $7 billion in funds and roughly 150 employees. Most of our employees focus on that “something more,” spending their days building relationships with people and institutions that can help improve the likelihood of our founder CEOs building enduring and valuable companies.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“Whatever the evidence, the fundamental question VCs are trying to answer is: Why back this founder against this problem set versus waiting to see who else may come along with a better organic understanding of the problem? Can I conceive”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“Here’s What I Believe about Good VCs Good VCs help entrepreneurs achieve their business goals by providing guidance, support, a network of relationships, and coaching. Good VCs recognize the limitations of what they can do as board members and outside advisors as a result of the informational asymmetry they have with respect to founders and other executives who live and breathe the company every day. Good VCs give advice in areas in which they have demonstrated expertise, and have the wisdom to avoid opining on topics for which they are not the appropriate experts. Good VCs appropriately balance their duties to the common shareholders with those they owe to their limited partners. Good VCs recognize that, ultimately, it is the entrepreneurs and the employees who build iconic companies, with hopefully a little bit of good advice and prodding sprinkled in along the way by their VC partners. If VCs remain good, they won’t become dinosaurs.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“We call these GPs (or combination of GPs) the “key men” (and, yes, I realize that is not gender neutral, but old habits die slowly in the private equity world). If”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“In fact, you’ll often hear VCs say that they like founders who have strong opinions but ones that are weakly held, that is, the ability to incorporate compelling market data and allow it to evolve your product thinking. Have conviction and a well-vetted process, but allow yourself to “pivot” (to invoke one of the great euphemisms in venture capital speak) based on real-world feedback.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“it’s the process of the idea maze that is the better predictor of the founder’s success than the actual product idea itself.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“you have to be partly delusional to start a company given the prospects of success and the need to keep pushing forward in the wake of the constant stream of doubters.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“The equivalent in founder evaluation for VCs is founder-market fit. As a corollary to the product-first company, founder-market fit speaks to the unique characteristics of this founding team to pursue the instant opportunity. Perhaps the founder has a unique educational background best suited to the opportunity. We at a16z saw this with”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“So how do you evaluate a founding team? Different VCs of course do things differently, but there are a few common areas of investigation. First, what is the unique skill set, background, or experience that led this founding team to pursue this idea? My partners use the concept of a “product-first company” versus a “company-first company.” In the product-first company, the founder identified or experienced some particular problem that led her to develop a product to solve that problem, which ultimately compelled her to build a company as the vehicle by which to bring that product to the market. A company-first company is one in which the founder first decides that she wants to start a company and then brainstorms products that might be interesting around which to build one.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“Live to fight another day” is another great startup mantra to always keep front and center in your mind.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“First, signaling matters. Venture firms develop a reputation for backing successful startup companies, and that positive brand signaling enables those firms to continue to attract the best new entrepreneurs.”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

“(To avoid this problem, some LPAs restrict the GP’s ability from being able to take any carry until she has returned the full $100 million in LP commitments back to the LP in cash. Admittedly, this is pretty rare.)”
― Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It