Alan Patricof

Every venture capitalist says at some point, 'I wish I could run this company myself' - to be the entrepreneur instead of the investor.

In times of huge fiscal deficits, no new revenues can be ignored, and renouncing any becomes well nigh politically impossible.

Our national debt poses a threat to all Americans and is particularly troublesome both for well-established businesses and for those seeking to enter into the marketplace.

Cloud computing eliminates capital expenditure, so you can go global very quickly - you don't have to have extensive servers in every country.

I didn't understand the culture and what Starbucks was really about. It wasn't a coffee shop. It was really a way of life... we suffer from thinking that since we have it in New York, or it won't work in New York, that it won't work some other place. That's a discipline we keep trying to improve.

We've done education nonprofit through our history, and maybe the profit motive will be helpful.

Your initial instincts about investments and people are usually correct. We do a lot of due diligence in this business and most of the time it comes out where we started.

It's tough, no matter how good your technology is, to police every single comment coming up.

As someone who understands what's needed for entrepreneurs and start-up companies to succeed, I can tell you there is nothing more integral to their success than operating in a stable financial system.

In my 40-plus years as a venture capitalist, I have come to appreciate the certainty a healthy economy provides for businesses both large and small.

I think CSR, corporate social responsibility, is something that is becoming front and center.

It's actually a pretty basic concept: when businesses feel secure and confident, they are more likely to grow, hire, and invest. Conversely, when the economy is unstable, businesses often become much more risk averse, and in many cases, they're forced to make undesirable cuts that affect their bottom line.