On the record about
4 people · 16 quotes · 25 Jan 2022 to 4 Aug 2026
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.
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?”
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.”
“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.”
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.”
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.”
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?”
“And I paused in each one of them and said, do I want to be here thirty years from now, like in that office?”
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.”
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?”
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?”
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,”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”