YouSaid · the spoken record

Tony James

lines on the record: 105
first: 2026-05-05
most recent: 2026-05-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And we grew DLJ from essentially nothing to the fifth largest securities firm. We grew it at over 15% for 25 consecutive years. That's kind of one of your tech companies. And I love that. And every few years, the business changed, and my opportunity set changed radically. The big turning point, I would say, was 1980 when KKR did an LBO for Hudie Industries, the first big public company that was taken private. And I said, wow, you can buy these huge companies with almost all debt. And it struck me that DLJ at the time was competing with dozens of other firms that had more of everything than we did.”
2026-05-05 · a16z Podcast · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, with Tony James · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the good part of getting in on the ground floor is if it starts to work, you get pulled up with the growth of the organization and you get responsibilities earlier than you deserve them. And that kind of feeds on itself. You're learning, accelerates, everything accelerates, your confidence accelerates maybe to an excess. But it feels really good. And your expectations are low. So when you start winning business, it's always a positive price. If you lose, well, that's par for the course. So you got a very positive feedback loop. We ran DLJ ultimately was renowned for its culture. People just loved working there. And that created a really nice environment. And you spent so much of your career or your life in your office. That was fantastic.”
2026-05-05 · a16z Podcast · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, with Tony James · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if I'd known what I was doing, I probably wouldn't have joined DLJ. It was nothing, honestly. It was a sub-major firm or a sub-submajor firm, as they used to say in those days. So there were at least 100 firms bigger than it was. We had investment banking team of five. We hadn't done a financing or a merger in two years, so we hadn't done any business in two years. Oh, wow.”
2026-05-05 · a16z Podcast · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, with Tony James · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Running an investment organization like Lastone, I think you almost have to be a really good investor. If you're going to catch the signals early, they're never obvious. By the time they're obvious, it's priced in.”
2026-05-05 · a16z Podcast · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, with Tony James · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you think about the development of a successful company, there's kind of an S-curve. It starts off small and entrepreneurial. Then there's this kind of escalation where you create a lot of value and a lot of size”
2026-05-05 · a16z Podcast · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, with Tony James · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source