Jim McKelvey Quotes

#1. We tend to believe that things are impossible that are very possible.

Jim McKelvey

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

Jim McKelvey

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

Jim McKelvey

#4. 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

#5. People who solve problems are happier.

Jim McKelvey

#6. 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

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

Jim McKelvey

#8. 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

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. 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

#13. 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

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

Jim McKelvey

#15. 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

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

Jim McKelvey

#17. 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

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

Jim McKelvey