Jeremy Lin compared signing a three-year, $36 million deal with the Brooklyn Nets to investing in a startup company.

Lin was raised in Palo Alto, which is located in the center of Silicon Valley.

"The way I was thinking of free agency was like when you invest in a startup company," said Lin. "You don't necessarily look at the product right then and there. That is a big part of it, you're kind of betting on the founder a lot of times. You're betting on what that person is capable of doing, because sometimes as you go through the process, the final product is going to change a lot. That's very common in startups and I feel like that's kind of how this is.

"I'm betting on certain people, I'm betting on Kenny (Atkinson), I'm betting on Sean (Marks), I'm betting on myself, I'm betting on Brook Lopez. I'm betting on the way I feel. If I didn't feel like this has a chance to go where I want to go, then I wouldn't have signed up for it. Yeah, right now and last season if you look at last season, we weren't where we wanted to be, but it's a process and it's a challenge. I believe in what we're capable of becoming. We're not there right now, but we all know that, but that's the thing."

Lin signed a two-year, $4.3 million deal with a player option last offseason with the Charlotte Hornets.