Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes

I invest in stubborn entrepreneurs who chase huge opportunities

What gives you an early sign that a company is getting off track? Lee: Adoption and engagement. That is what matters. If people start talking about the product less or they are using the product less over time, those are two big signs that there is a problem. Really great products continue to show linear growth in both adoption and engagement.

the entrepreneur has to be receptive of the value that the VC really brings to the table—the knowledge and network and the been-there-done-that scenarios.

What you see in these very successful companies fairly early is a higher repeatable sales model. You also see them zooming into first place.

We do not look at serial entrepreneurship as a positive trait. We look at authenticity and unconventional, proprietary insight as the key difference.

You really drew a great distinction here that a start-up’s job is to create that distinct value, and if it is big enough, someone is going to pick it up one way or the other.

Maybe not disrupting a market per se. There may be markets to the left and to the right that are affected, but really I think more value is created when the company ends up becoming synonymous with its market. It defines the category in such a way that it’s not just a better implementation of something that has been done before, but in fact is some

If you want to start a company, you really have to go to people who will talk to you. Entrepreneurs have to go out to get objective feedback on their ideas.

technology is not kind to gatekeepers,