Fred Wilson famous quotes

I don't like to talk about myself. I like to talk about stuff that's happening, stuff that's going to happen, and the people who are going to make it happen.
-- Fred Wilson

#People #Stuff

Marketing is for companies who have sucky products.
-- Fred Wilson

#Marketing #Company

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

#Kids #Google #Adults

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

#Kids #Long #Skype

The companies that do the best job on managing a user's privacy will be the companies that ultimately are the most successful.
-- Fred Wilson

#Jobs #Successful #Privacy

The entire world is now a rival to Silicon Valley. No country, state, region, nor city has a lock on innovation in technology anymore.
-- Fred Wilson

#Country #Technology #Cities

The more entrepreneurs in the world that are getting their ideas financed, the more great companies there are going to be that we can all invest in.
-- Fred Wilson

#Ideas #Entrepreneur #World

There is a difference between hiring a CEO and turning over control of the business.
-- Fred Wilson

#Differences #Ceo #Hiring

To see things differently requires you to be wired a little differently.
-- Fred Wilson

#Littles

When I see people laughing at ideas and companies we have backed, I smile. It means we are going to make a lot of money on that investment.
-- Fred Wilson

#Mean #Ideas #People

Certainly anything that is news or opinion needs to be free on the Web, because the Web is this very fluid medium that is very much driven by links and the flow of visitors through a discussion via links.
-- Fred Wilson

#Needs #News #Links

Customers are a great way to finance a business for many reasons. First, customer financing is typically non dilutive. They want something from you other than equity in your business. Customers also help you fit your product to the market. And customers will help debug and improve the quality of the product.
-- Fred Wilson

#Educational #Quality #Want

If you have a native monetization system where the atomic unit of content is the ad unit, that scales down all the way to a small screen experience. That's why Twitter is performing so well on mobile.
-- Fred Wilson

#Way #Scales #Performing

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#Thinking #Entrepreneurship #Good Things

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#Strong #Years #Long

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

#Upset #Millionaire

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

#Identity #Reputation #Intersections

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

#Thinking #Speech #Censorship

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

#Equity #Raises

I generally blog between 5:30 A.M. and 7 A.M. I will from time to time add something during the day, but for the most part blogging is an early morning activity for me.
-- Fred Wilson

#Morning #Add #Blogging

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

#Thinking #Venture #Venture Capital

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

#Caring #Entrepreneur #Supportive

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

#Drawing #Cost #Share

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

#Senior #Team #Boards

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

#Team #People #Building

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

#People #Juggernaut #Unstoppable

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

#Want #Profile

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

#Crazy #Thinking #People

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#Space #Energy #Needs

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

#Believe #Stronger #World

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

#New York #Cities #People

Games are the most social of all things on the web.
-- Fred Wilson

#Playing Games #Games #Social

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

#Clever #Games #Adoption

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#New York #Real #Technology

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#Needs #Pace #Use

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.
-- Fred Wilson

#Years #Careers #Long