Bing Gordon, partner at Kleiner Perkins and former Electronic Arts executive, contrasts M&A pricing strategy with early-stage venture capital valuation sensitivity.
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“My math is never do a merger and acquisition deal if you wouldn't pay double. Because the ones that work, basically a year later, they're twice as valuable as you thought they were. And the ones that don't work, the amount you spend probably doesn't matter.”
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
Gordon: No successful startup investor completely ignores valuation
“I don't know any successful investor in companies who invest that way.”
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Gordon: VCs cannot help failing CEOs, only help successful ones scale
“You can't much help them when they fail, but how do you help them scale when they succeed?”
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Insight
Gordon: Great investors optimize for expected value, not loss avoidance
“And Mark, I think great investors think about expected value, not loss avoidance.”
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Insight
Gordon: Overpaying by 2x cuts a VC fund's at-bats in half
“The negative about that is most of the things that you think you're big game hunting for don't work out, and if you can do 30 investments in a fund and you overpay by double, and there's x percent are gonna be big winners, now you've cut your at-bats in half.”
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Insight
Gordon: Controversial startup deals are better VC investments than obvious ones
“The other thing that we've discovered is we go around the table and it's controversial. That's often a good thing. And at that point, we depend on one person being a fervent champion on behalf of the company. But if it's really obvious to us, it's probably obv…”
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