Who is on this subjectordered by the date of their first quote here
3 of 4 lanes rest on fewer than 5 quotes and are marked thin. Offsets are days from the middle first-quote date, 20 Jul 2023 — a date, and nothing else. It is not a claim about who reached a view first.
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Gavin Baker
2
thin
25 Jan 2022 – 8 Jul 2026
-541 d
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Bill Gurley
17
20 Jul 2023 – 4 Aug 2026
+0 d
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Howard Marks
2
thin
22 Aug 2025 – 21 Apr 2026
+764 d
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David Friedberg
2
thin
9 Oct 2025 – 9 Oct 2025
+812 d
The chronologysourced and dated, oldest first
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Gavin Baker
Baker says the key trait for public equity investors is the ability to be rational when wrong.
“If I could know one thing about a person to know whether or not they would be a good public equity investor, it would simply be, are you capable of being rational when you're wrong?”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley's learned habit is waiting rather than reacting, citing Silicon Valley Bank crisis as example where panic was unnecessary.
“For me, I've learned that if you just wait a little bit of time, a lot of problems go away.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley advocates waiting rather than reacting, citing Silicon Valley Bank weekend as example where panic proved unnecessary.
“I've learned that if you just wait a little bit of time, a lot of problems go away.”
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Howard Marks
Marks explains his logic for investing during 2008 crisis despite apocalyptic fears.
“But if I don't invest it and the world doesn't melt down, then we didn't do our job. QED, you have to move forward.”
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David Friedberg
Friedberg's data science lead taught that any amount of data provides predictive capability beyond none.
“this guy always said, you can never have too much data, and you can never have too little data. Any amount of data gives you more than none and gives you predictive capability.”
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David Friedberg
Friedberg's data science leader taught that any amount of data provides predictive capability, with more data improving predictions.
“Any amount of data gives you more than none and gives you predictive capability. And the more data you get, the better your predictive capability gets.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley used a thirty-year thought experiment to test career fit, mirroring Bezos's eighty-year self framework.
“I don't know that I said, I'm doing this exercise kind of like Bezos did when he started. But I said to myself, do I see myself doing this thirty years from now?”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley says Benchmark quarterly studied missed deals extensively but never beat up partners over failures after Google miss.
“Bruce Dunleavy in our shop started saying what could go right as a theme. And I will tell you from that day on, we never spent much time talking about the failures.”
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“And I paused in each one of them and said, do I want to be here thirty years from now, like in that office?”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley says venture capital requires breaking your own rules or you'll say no to everything.
“venture capital is a game where you have to one of the reasons, group decision making works so well is you're you're gonna have to break one of your rules or you're gonna say no to everything.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley recommends annually asking yourself if you want to do your current job thirty years from now.
“I would encourage people to at least once a year rise up and say, is this what I wanna do with the rest of my life?”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley offers heuristic for career decisions: ask yourself if you see doing current job thirty years from now.
“But I then had a reflection and this is the heuristic I think people can use. I, I one day thought to myself, do I see myself doing this thirty years from now?”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley describes his heuristic of asking whether he could see himself doing the same job thirty years later.
“I one day thought to myself, do I see myself doing this thirty years from now?”
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Howard Marks
Marks describes Oaktree's crisis investing logic: if world melts down, nothing matters; if not, they must invest.
“If the world melts down, it doesn't matter what we did today. But if it doesn't melt down and we didn't invest, then we didn't do our job.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley changed careers twice using the thirty-year test before finding his path to venture capital.
“I went to MBA school, I went to Wall Street, worked there for three years, had the same discussion with myself, which got me looking in a different direction,”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley advises people may not find career fit until 30s or 40s and should check yearly.
“Some of these people didn't find their perfect fit until they're 30 or 40. And so get as many shots on goal.”
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“I asked myself a question which I think anyone can use in any job you're in I said do I still want to be doing this thirty years from now and when I got when I asked myself that question it was a quick no like a quick no and then I moved”
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Gavin Baker
Baker quotes mentor Jennifer Yurig: investors either panic early or double down late, not both.
“Ultimately, as an investor, you either have to panic early or double down late. And essentially no one does both. And know thyself.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley explains VCs can only join two boards yearly so must emotionally commit, not just meet hurdle rates.
“But venture capitalists have a limited number of boards they can go on, probably two a year. And and so they don't have limited shot unlimited shots on goal.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley explains VCs invest in only two boards yearly requiring emotional commitment not just IRR.
“venture capitalists have a limited number of boards they can go on, probably two a year. And and so they don't have limited shot unlimited shots on goal.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley shares Toby's meeting framework that explicitly removes status quo as an option.
“We are here to solve a problem. So the one option that we know we're not gonna leave the room doing is the status quo.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley says he learned waiting solves many problems, citing Silicon Valley Bank weekend as example.
“And I used I I I used to go deep in them, and this weekend was a perfect example, and there's a good transition to Silicon Valley Bank.”
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Bill Gurley
Gurley says many people acted manically during SVB crisis weekend but problems resolved by morning.
“But a lot of people did a lot of crazy manic things this weekend that didn't matter. Yeah. Because it all got solved this morning.”
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