I look for slope, not intercept. Where a company is today matters far less than how fast it's improving and whether that trajectory has a ceiling.
The best founders are slightly unreasonable. They believe things are possible that the consensus says aren't. That unreasonableness is a feature, not a bug.
Growing up in South Africa taught me that systems that look permanent can change very fast. That's made me more willing to bet on change and less willing to assume the status quo is durable.
Venture capital is not about being right most of the time. It's about making sure that when you're right, the outcome is large enough to matter enormously.
The companies that defined the internet looked toy-like or legally risky or too small when they started. YouTube looked like all three. That's why we invested.
My job as a board member is to ask the questions the founder doesn't want to hear, and then get out of the way. Most investors confuse activity with value.