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Alfred Lin

10 statements across 8 episodes · 2 bullish · 0 bearish · 8 people on the record · first statement Mar 31, 2017 by Harry Stebbings · said 116 times in 39 episodes since 2017 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Alfred Lin's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (71), Tarek Mansour (15), Alex Bouaziz (10), Sujay Jaswa (6), Emil Michael (3), Tom Hulme (1), Shaun Maguire (1), Sebastian Siemiatkowski (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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08152017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0047.58152017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 16 mentions in 7 episodes 2 per episode
2025 27 mentions in 4 episodes 7 per episode
2024 5 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
2023 7 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2022 44 mentions in 11 episodes 4 per episode
2021 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2019 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2018 6 mentions in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Alfred Lin, oldest first

Mar 31, 2017
Assertion Supported
StyleSeat Raised Over $40 Million From Sequoia, Sacca, and Other VCs
“They've raised over forty million in challenging funding conditions from some of the true greats of the business, Including Alfred Lynn at Sequoia, Chris Sacker, Jeff Clavier, Eileen Lee, Lightspeed, the list goes on.”
Harry Stebbings Mar 31, 2017 ▶ 0:20 20VC: Why Every Founder Should Bootstrap Their Startup, How To Solve Information Asymmetry Between Founders and VCs & Living In A Cupboard For Two Years To Fund StyleSeat with Melody McCloskey, Founder & CEO @ StyleSeat
Jan 27, 2021
Insight
Market Expansion Must Come From Customer Pull, Not Empire Building
“If you're being pulled by the customer or pulled by the market, that is a great sign. If you're pushing because you have aspirations of building an empire, that is less good of a sign.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 11:53 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jan 27, 2021
Insight
Operators Must Focus on Controllable Input Metrics Rather Than GMV
“GMV is an output metric. As an operator, you want to focus on the input metrics, things that you can control.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 23:03 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jan 27, 2021
Insight
Eagerness to Expand Often Signals Founders Dislike Their Core Business
“The sort of desire to expand into other categories is sometimes a sign that you don't love your core business. I mean, if you think about great companies, they've scaled with their core business for a long, long period of time. And it's always much better that…”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 11:16 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jan 21, 2022
Insight
Partovi: Raw talent and potential matter more than resume experience
“Talent is more important than experience. I mean, they're both important, but if you have to choose, I would always rather bet on a brilliant, hardworking young person and their potential to Then somebody who has the resume and the experience, but may not have…”
Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 5:03 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo
Oct 1, 2022 positive
Opinion
Mansour: Alfred Lin pushes founder reasoning even on correct decisions
“Alfred is an outlier, like he's just really good at pushing my thinking And I got to learn that over time. And I cannot really like that now, but like, no matter what I go to Alfred with, even if it's the right decision, oftentimes it is the right decision. Al…”
Tarek Mansour Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 41:56 Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour: How to Build Moats Against Incumbents; How to Hire Engineers | 20VC #931 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 26, 2022
Disclosure
Jaswa: Sequoia partners staged an intervention to force a Dropbox executive firing
“The first person I ever fired, I won't, obviously won't say who they are, but it was a person in a leadership role at Dropbox and was clearly not delivering results. And Sequoia basically staged intervention with me. So Brian Schreier, who was on our board was…”
Sujay Jaswa Nov 26, 2022 ▶ 32:36 Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa: Takeaways from Dreamworks; What happened with Quibi? | 20VC #952 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 12, 2024 positive
Opinion
Maguire names Sequoia's top deal pickers by sector
“Like if it's a SAS company, Pat Grady, if it's, you have to read someone, you only get like 10 minutes to read the person, then it's Doug Leone. If it's a, like a biotech company, it's definitely Ruloff. If it's an operationally heavy company, it's Alfred. If …”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 1:05:01 Shaun Maguire: Why Iran is the World's Greatest Evil & Trump is the Only Hope for Peace | E1189 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 20, 2025
Disclosure
Bouaziz: Sequoia's Alfred Lin passed on Deel's seed round
“He passed on my seed round when I had no idea what I was doing.”
Alex Bouaziz Oct 20, 2025 ▶ 1:11:16 Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz on Raising $300M+ at a $17BN Valuation · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 24, 2026
Insight
Alfred Lin: Never mistake an outlier operator for an outlier founder
“Do not mistake an outlier operator for an outlier founder.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 51:35 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
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