25iq

My views on the market, tech, and everything else

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Jenny Lee about Investing and Business

“Jenny Lee joined GGV Capital in 2005 as a managing partner and was instrumental in setting up the GGV presence in China. Her previous operation and finance work experience with Singapore Technologies Aerospace, Morgan Stanley and JAFCO Asia enhanced her role as a preferred board mentor and investor to many entrepreneurs in China. She graduated from Cornell University with a Masters and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an M.B.A. from […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Eugene Kleiner about Investing and Business

Eugene Kleiner was an Austrian-born American engineer and venture capitalist. He worked for William Shockley at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory starting in 1956. The next year he and seven colleagues (the so-called the “traitorous eight“) famously left Shockley to found Fairchild Semiconductor. They left because did not like Shockley’s management practices or his plans to use germanium to make semiconductors. “Using just $3,500 of their own money to get started, these […]

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A Dozen Entries from the Venture Capital Devil’s Dictionary

The Devil’s Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by the American journalist and author Ambrose Bierce. This humorous book was originally published in 1906 as The Cynic’s Word Book. One of my favorite writers, Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal, is the author of the newly published and wonderful book: The Devil’s Financial Dictionary. What follows are a dozen terms used in the venture capital industry, defined in Devil’s Dictionary fashion. […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned From Mike Maples Sr. About Business and Investing

  It would be difficult to overemphasize how important Mike Maples was to the success of Microsoft. Even more difficult would be trying to explain his personality which someone who knew him very well said to me “is several standard deviations away from what you would expect from a tech executive who started his career at IBM.” His personal impact on the lives, beliefs and skills of many people I know […]

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A Dozen Things Someone Might Learn about Investing and Business from the Simpsons

    You can learn as much from anti-role models as role models.  Knowing what not to do is valuable. While Homer and other characters in the Simpsons are often among the more classic anti-role models, they are sometimes role models on issues like family loyalty. 1. HOMR-   Broker: “Okay, now before I execute this order, are you sure you understand the risks of stock ownership?” Homer: “Absolutely!” [picture […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Elon Musk About Business and Investing

  Elon Musk is a classic missionary founder who is more interested in changing the world and creating enduring businesses than just the financial rewards that may flow to him from the product or service. Mercenaries may sometimes succeed financially, but they do not bring as much lasting value to their communities. What a city and nation wants in terms of economic development are businesses that produce jobs, innovative products […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Pitch Johnson about Venture Capital and Business

  I decided last week that the next post in this series should be about Franklin “Pitch” Johnson, Jr. who has been a venture capitalist since 1962. It is a good follow up to my previous post on Georges Doriot and posts I have written on Arthur Rock and Don Valentine. These people and a few other innovators created the venture capital industry. Johnson is a founding partner of the […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Georges Doriot (the Founder of the Modern VC industry)

Why should people want to read about an ex-U.S. General born in France who taught at Harvard Business School and formed the first venture capital fund? The answer is that this fellow unleashed an industry that is harvesting optionality in ways that are dramatically changing the world. Once people saw that was possible to generate 5,000X returns on a single investment as was the case with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Louis C.K. about Money, Investing and Business

The comedian Louis C.K. was born Louis Szekely in 1967. He began his career writing for other comedians including David Letterman, Dana Carvey, Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock and has created several video series including the FX comedy show Louie, which he wrote, directed and edited. Louis has been a notable innovator in the business of comedy including releasing his debut standup routine Live in Houston directly through his website in 2001. He […]

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Steven Crist About Investing and Handicapping Horses

You may be wondering: what does horse racing have to do with investing? Charlie Munger answered this question in his famous Worldly Wisdom speech: “The model I like — to sort of simplify the notion of what goes on in a market for common stocks — is the pari-mutuel system at the racetrack. If you stop to think about it, a pari-mutuel system is a market. Everybody goes there and […]

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