Jason Calacanis: Aussie founders should think bigger

“The worst thing you can do is talk to people about it. If you talk to people about it you will talk yourself out of it 100 percent of the time.”

For those of us who can’t decide on a new smartphone without reading several dozen reviews and asking everyone in the office for their advice, this may seem like impossible advice to follow, but it’s what high profile Silicon Valley investor Jason Calacanis believes is the key to angel investing.

“The chances of why these companies will fail is 100 to 1 the reasons they’ll succeed,” he told a gathering while in Sydney last week for LAUNCH festival’s first foray outside the United States.

“The way we operate our business is to never underestimate anyone.”

This promise to never underestimate anyone is based on personal experience: Calacanis himself feels he was underestimated, which gave him the fire to prove everyone wrong.

Having first made his name as a journalist, Calacanis sold his business Weblogs Inc to AOL in 2005 for US$25 million before venture capital firm Sequoia Capital brought him on as an ‘entrepreneur in action’, or scout of sorts, to identify viable opportunities. Read more

Gina Baldassare - Brisbane Times - 25 June 2018