Jim McKelvey Quotes

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Jim McKelvey

Profession : Businessman

Birth : October 19, 1965

In December 1989, my mother died very suddenly, and that sparked a re-evaluation of what I was doing, and I realized I was mediocre at everything. I was a mediocre IBM employee, I was a mediocre entrepreneur, I was a mediocre artist. I decided that, although my mom wouldn't be around to see it, I wanted to be great at something.

Jim McKelvey

I am absolutely confident that St. Louis can attract major players in technology and make the companies that are here blossom.

Jim McKelvey

When my son was born, I decided I wasn't really into working 12 hours a day. That slowed me down a little bit.

Jim McKelvey

I've been totally replaced by people who are superior. I was doing, like, 15 different things. It's very gratifying to watch your job done better.

Jim McKelvey

I don't run any of my companies. I always partner with somebody who wants to operate.

Jim McKelvey

Everyone needs someone to tell them not to wear so much Prada.

Jim McKelvey

Art is what can't be proven mathematically, right, it's where science ends. It's the part that makes you feel good, but you don't know why.

Jim McKelvey

It's hard to shape glass. It took me years of practice, and as a result, I've never gotten bored with it. It's difficult. Every time I come into the studio, I've got some sort of new challenge. And something that I would like to learn how to do better, and the material never disappoints me.

Jim McKelvey

Glass really rewards risk. A lot of times with glass, you're just waiting for the piece to cool down or for some temperature to adjust, and there's split seconds where you've got a fraction of a second where you get to make a move a particular way, and you don't get to repeat it if you do it wrong.

Jim McKelvey

When I was 19 years old, I wrote my first book. I took a computer science class, and the book was garbage. I thought I could write a better one, so I did.

Jim McKelvey

I'm not particularly good at running things when once they get to a certain level. Once it gets routine, get me out of the way.

Jim McKelvey

If you can't be persuasive to get people to believe your crazy idea, you can just go ahead and build it.

Jim McKelvey

This entrepreneurial energy that we have in the Midwest doesn't have to go out to the coasts to get fed and watered.

Jim McKelvey

St. Louis is a customer- and partner-rich environment for any financial tech startup.

Jim McKelvey

At Square, we got our tech up and running in three weeks, but it took us 18 months to get licenses, banking relationships and everything else we needed to be able to move money. We had to partner up with major companies to do it.

Jim McKelvey

Personally, I don't want to do a lot of angel deals in a year. I get approached a lot. I'm becoming less and less polite, which doesn't seem to be helping. A lot of the things I get pitched on are from people who just want to make money.

Jim McKelvey

It's obvious that St. Louis has certain advantages compared to other cities: namely, a concentration of financial services.

Jim McKelvey