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Geoff Ralston

18 statements across 4 episodes · 2 bullish · 3 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Feb 7, 2018 by Geoff Ralston · said 9 times in 3 episodes since 2018 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Geoff Ralston's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Patrick Collison (6), Brad Flora (2), Sam Chaudhary (1)

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2023 2 mentions in 1 episode
2018 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Geoff Ralston, oldest first

Feb 7, 2018
Insight
Ralston: Founder resilience and belief matter more than market size, capital, or intelligence
“You know that if you don't have the resilience you need, the toughness you need, the determination you need, the belief you need, it, none of the other things matter. Nothing else. How big the opportunity is, how much of competition there is or isn't, how much…”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 9:32 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Feb 7, 2018
Disclosure
Ralston: Angel investments should default to zero value until proven otherwise
“You have to be prepared to zero out that investment. In fact, you know, my default position when I invest in a startup is that that investment is not worth zero. It's not like if I put, pick a number, 25,000 dollars in a company, And then I track that. Its val…”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 17:46 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Feb 7, 2018 negative
Insight
Ralston: Angel investors should never invest in family
“I've invested in family. Don't do that.”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 34:11 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Feb 7, 2018
Disclosure
Only one company in Geoff Ralston's angel portfolio has IPO'd
“And so I only invested a little bit, and that was so far the only company that has IPO'd.”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 32:59 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Feb 7, 2018
Insight
Ralston: First-time angels must calibrate by meeting multiple startups before investing
“But it is true in the very beginning, before you've made your first angel investment, calibrate. So do spend, I don't know if it's a hundred or 10 or 15, you should.”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 16:26 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Feb 7, 2018 neutral
Disclosure
Geoff Ralston avoids international investing outside YC because it is complicated
“When I was investing pre-YC or outside of YC, I haven't. It's too complicated. I can't get my head around it. Talk about investing in, in, in ecosystems you don't understand.”
Geoff Ralston Feb 7, 2018 ▶ 35:25 Startup Investor School Preview with Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Mar 7, 2018 neutral
Insight
Ralston: Picking multi-billion dollar startups does not prove investor skill
“Just because you've made a lot of money investing, do not forget there's a significant component of luck. Involved. And it's great if you all are the lucky ones that pick the one or two or three companies in this batch or YC, for example, that become multi-bil…”
Geoff Ralston Mar 7, 2018 ▶ 27:40 Michael Seibel - Startup Investor School Day 2 · Y Combinator
Mar 7, 2018 positive
Insight
Ralston: Founders must target problems so dire users accept imperfect solutions
“You need to find problems so dire that users are willing to try half-baked The one imperfect solutions.”
Geoff Ralston Mar 7, 2018 ▶ 1:47 Michael Seibel - Startup Investor School Day 2 · Y Combinator
Mar 7, 2018 neutral
Insight
Ralston: The best startup founders are often unemployable
“One thing to remember and keep in mind is that often startup founders are unemployable. Not always, but often. The best ones.”
Geoff Ralston Mar 7, 2018 ▶ 20:33 Michael Seibel - Startup Investor School Day 2 · Y Combinator
Sep 1, 2018 positive
Insight
Ralston: Unequal equity splits like 51/49 are better to maintain control
“It's usually better to have somewhat equal shares, not, not, but not completely equal, and if one person has 51% and the other person has 49%, then they can control.”
Geoff Ralston Sep 1, 2018 ▶ 47:04 A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Sep 1, 2018 negative
What-if
Ralston: Y Combinator would not have funded a young Steve Jobs
“I don't think we'd fund a Steve Jobs at YC. Well, that's not good. Yeah. And the reason is, especially when Steve Jobs was starting off, he was an asshole.”
Geoff Ralston Sep 1, 2018 ▶ 39:09 A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Sep 1, 2018
Insight
Ralston: Building extensive features assuming you know the solution is always wrong
“Like, what happens if you think you know the solution and you build lots of stuff for it, you're going to be wrong. Cause you just don't know it.”
Geoff Ralston Sep 1, 2018 ▶ 26:55 A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018 neutral
Insight
Ralston: The right investor is often whoever writes a check first
“Sometimes the right investors will be the investor With whom you resonate the best and who you think is going to be the best added value. Sometimes the right investor be the person who is willing to write you a check first.”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 3:54 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018
Insight
Ralston: Founders should raise enough capital to reach profitability
“One thought process to go through is assume when you raise money that this is the last time you'll ever be able to raise. So raise enough so you won't need more, so you can get to profitability.”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 7:00 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018
Insight
Ralston: Top investors prefer backing startups before they gain expensive traction
“Interestingly, the very best investors want to get you before you have all that stuff, because you're expensive by then. The greatest, best investors are Airbnb before they're Airbnb, before they have traction.”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 10:21 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018 neutral
Assertion Supported
Ralston: Magic Leap raised billions of dollars purely on a story
“Look at Magic Leap. If you've heard of Magic Leap, they raised billions on just a story.”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 10:03 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018
Insight
Ralston: Startups should ideally raise capital when they don't need it
“The best time to raise money is when you don't need it. This isn't always possible. But when you don't need money, investors see the biggest opportunity.”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 6:26 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Oct 10, 2018 negative
Insight
Ralston: Setting too high a valuation cap can kill a fundraising round
“It is really dangerous to choose too high a valuation. And in fact, it can kill your fundraising, because it's quite difficult to go to, ah, an investor who might kind of be interested, and you say, I'm gonna raise at a twelve million dollar cap. On my safe. A…”
Geoff Ralston Oct 10, 2018 ▶ 11:50 Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
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