Volkswagen has invested over $300 million in us because they believe solid-state is the future of their entire vehicle lineup. When the world's largest automaker bets that hard on your technology, you're not a science project.
David Bonderman was the dealmaker. I was the builder. Every great firm needs both.
Beyoncé and I do not compete. We collaborate. Two empires under one roof is more powerful than two empires across the street.
Toyota invested $894 million because they understand manufacturing at scale. Building one aircraft is engineering. Building a thousand is manufacturing. That is where Toyota helps.
Uber putting Lime in their app was transformative. When someone opens Uber and sees a scooter option for a 1-mile trip, they take it.
Rich Kleiman is my business partner. He handles the deals I handle the vision. Together we built a real portfolio not a celebrity vanity project.
Maverick Carter and I have been partners since Akron. He handles the business. I bring the platform. Together we are dangerous.
Henry and I ran KKR together for 48 years. Family businesses work when egos don't get in the way.
Toyota invested $400 million because they believe our technology will power their vehicles.
Google uses machine learning to optimize our plasma. AI is accelerating fusion research.
GSK partnered with us for influenza and COVID vaccines. That's validation from Big Pharma.
Travis was the operator. I was the architect. You need both to build something that changes the world.
The best thing I did for Spotify was open doors that Daniel couldn't open alone. Sometimes the founder needs a co-pilot, not a co-CEO.
Bill and I built Microsoft together. Then things got complicated. But the code we wrote changed the world, and that matters more than any disagreement.
The promoter's job is to make the fighter look like the biggest star in the world. When you do that job well, everyone makes money. When you forget whose name is on the marquee, you lose the fighter.
The best partnerships are ones where you disagree often enough to avoid mistakes but agree enough to actually get things done.
Zhang Xin sees what a building can become. I figure out how to make the deal work. We have never confused our jobs.
The three aspects of building a private equity firm are knowing the entrepreneur, operating with the spirit of trust through partnership, and nurturing the dream.
Henry and George modeled how a really good partnership can work for 50 years.
A good partner prevents the other from making a bad investment.
At that time, we realized that we shared the same vision, and the deal was closed after 3 meetings, in under 28 hours.