What Some Of The Biggest Names In Silicon Valley Wish They Had Known At Age 20

Members of Facebook's News Feed team
Members of Facebook's News Feed team Owen Thomas, Business Insider

"What do you know now that you wish you had known at age 20?"

Advertisement

That's the question Benjamin Ling (who you should definitely follow on Twitter), a partner at venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, posed to to his Twitter followers two weeks ago. 

Thanks to the reputation he garnered from his senior roles at Google, YouTube, and Facebook, Ling was able to get answers from a range of big names in Silicon Valley, from the CEO of Reddit to one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.

Many of the responses focus on the importance of building relationships, the importance of perseverance, and advice for those looking to start their own companies.

Advertisement

Ben turned to Twitter to ask what people wish they had known at age 20. After getting over 200 responses, he rounded up the top 20.

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Hunter Walk, Director of Product Management at YouTube

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Michael Yang, Head of Biz Dev at Pinterest

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Jason Goldberg, CEO of Fab

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Logan Green, CEO of Lyft

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Brian Caldwell, Partnerships for Evernote

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Walter Kortschak, Senior Advisor at Summit Partners

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Om Malik, Founder of GigaOM

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Ben Smith, Founder of MerchantCircle

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Chris Sacca, Founder of Lowercase Capital

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Eric Rosser Eldon, Co-editor at TechCrunch

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Mitch Colleran, Partnerships at Eventbrite

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Ben Ling, Partner at Khosla Ventures

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Keith Rabois, Partner at Khosla Ventures

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Yishan Wong, CEO of Reddit

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Tom Katis, Founder and CEO of Voxer

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Sam Altman, Partner at Y Combinator

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Matt Douglass, Co-founder of Practice Fusion

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling

Aaron Levie, Founder and CEO at Box

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Advertisement

Vinod Khosla, Founder of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures

ben ling slideshare
Ben Ling
Startups Tech
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.