I've been part of founding three companies that have gone public. It doesn't seem like a big number, but it's actually a lot.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There was a time when I was wondering about this business of going public, so I visited about a half-dozen companies in the Boston area, all of them formed by MIT faculty and all had gone public.
This is a bit like big-game hunting. You look for companies of a certain size that deserve to be public.
When I started in the business in 1999 and 2000, we had companies that were going public in two, three or four years.
Personally, I have invested in around ten U.S. companies and will continue to do so. That doesn't give me a strong experience in the American market. But I have an understanding of the public.
I have never run a public company. I spent my entire life working for a private company.
I always wanted to start a public company and make a lot of money.
There's not a whole lot of advantage for a company to be public.
It's a special thing to be a public company.
I'm invested in about 13 private companies. I've advised probably another 50 private companies.
I've actually taken companies public, I've actually busted companies, I've actually gone broke.