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Doug Leone

40 statements across 14 episodes · 12 bullish · 8 bearish · 11 people on the record · first statement Mar 4, 2019 by Jeff Richards · said 333 times in 82 episodes since 2016 · across every show →

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

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (210), David Vélez (21), Pat Grady (15), David Schneider (10), Roger Ehrenberg (9), Jeff Wang (8), Shaun Maguire (6), Neeraj Agrawal (6)

tap a year for its mentions
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0132520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0041382520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 25 mentions in 5 episodes 5 per episode
2025 28 mentions in 13 episodes 2 per episode
2024 142 mentions in 25 episodes 6 per episode
2023 59 mentions in 8 episodes 7 per episode
2022 33 mentions in 18 episodes 2 per episode
2021 22 mentions in 5 episodes 4 per episode
2020 4 mentions in 1 episode
2019 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2018 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2017 5 mentions in 1 episode
2016 6 mentions in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Doug Leone, oldest first

Mar 4, 2019 positive
Insight
Top VCs like Bill Gurley take more risk later in their careers
“Experienced venture capitalists and some of the most well-known venture capitalists, Bill Gurley, Doug Leone, Jim Getz, the further along they've got in their career, the more risk they take.”
Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 30:02 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Aug 7, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia partners recorded 20 Loom videos to win Loom's Series B
“He sent an email that had 20 Sequoia partners and team members, including Rulof, Doug Leone, Michael Morwitz, who all recorded a Loom talking about why they were so excited to join Loom on our journey.”
Joe Thomas Aug 7, 2020 ▶ 31:48 20VC: Loom Founder Joe Thomas on Whether To Take Multi-Stage Money at Seed, How Early Stage Founders Should Select Their VC, How Sequoia Won The Loom Deal & The 3 Rules To Operate Remote Teams Successfully
Mar 26, 2021
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Capital spent two years evaluating Brazil before deciding against a fund
“After two years before Sequoia, where we all kind of came to a set conclusion that we didn't want to really start a business in Brazil, which meant I was, Doug wanted me to go back to California and helping them think, invest globally”
David Vélez Mar 26, 2021 ▶ 5:03 20VC: Nubank CEO David Velez on Scaling Nubank to a $25BN Company, Why What Makes a Great Founder Does Not Make a Great CEO & The Responsibility Framework and How Leaders Can Use It To Drive Efficiency
Sep 14, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Doug Leone supported Sequoia's Airbnb investment despite never staying in one
“Now I've never stayed on Airbnb, but I supported the investment, but people of your generation, the Gen Z generation, you know, they go Airbnb first.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 38:39 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Strict organizational control is a management trait, not leadership
“But I knew that those traits were not conducive To being a leader. Those are great traits for being a manager.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 9:26 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Candidates describing their siblings reveal the opposite of their own traits
“In a law of diversity, two siblings are less likely to be alike than two strangers. And so how they describe their sibling is usually the opposite on how they describe themselves.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 5:56 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Don Valentine Hired Doug Leone for Customer-In Business Perspective
“And I think what Don noticed that he had someone who was a missile, back then I'd say an unguided type of missile, but someone who had the courage to The humor, and from his point of view, who looked at business from the customer in, not from the technology ou…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 4:49 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Seed investing is simply backing smart people in interesting areas
“What is seed investing is a smart person in a generally interesting area. That's it. There's no need to overthink it because they're going to zig and zag in ways that you can't predict.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 26:41 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Disclosure
Leone: Sequoia offboards non-performers with forward vesting and severance
“And if you don't perform at Sequoia, we will give you some time. We will figure out a way to help you. But at the end, the very first person that knows they're not performing is the individual himself or herself. And then when we part ways with people, it's us…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 11:56 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Leone: Sequoia US calls associates 'partners' and avoids junior titles
“We don't use the word junior. We even call, in the U.S., associates. We even call them partners.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 14:55 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Insight
Doug Leone: Financial valuation models aren't worth their paper beyond two years
“Get away from all the models. The models aren't worth their paper. They're written in past a year or two, and yes, you may want to have a model just to do some thought checking, a thought experiment, but the only question that to me matters is, what can this c…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 37:39 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 neutral
Insight
Leone: Design compensation assuming everyone's salary is posted publicly
“Assume that everybody's comp is posted someplace in the office, and everybody has to feel good about it.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 15:56 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Insight
Doug Leone: US venture partners will fail trying to invest in China directly
“In other words, we were absolutely sure that he and I would get it wrong. We didn't know we were going to recruit Neil Shen. We didn't know we were going to find someone who would get it. Absolutely. Absolutely right. But we like the chances of an unknown pers…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 32:38 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Leone: Broad late-stage venture investing will cause severe investor losses
“As you move down the funnel, venture, growth, pre-IPO, the checks get larger. The valuations get a lot higher. And the further down you come, the better you have to get up picking them. And if you go broad there, you're going to get stung.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 26:54 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: High-performing organizations must operate as teams, not families
“In order to perform, we can't be a family. We all have family members we're stuck with. I know your family. I'm willing to bet you can point to a family members that is going to be a family member forever and is not a performer. I know we have a few in our fam…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 11:10 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Refuses 30-minute interviews because candidates need 30 minutes to relax
“It takes about 30 minutes with someone to relax, which is why I refuse to interview someone for 30 minutes.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 6:34 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Leone: Sequoia partners wanted to fire him after 24 months
“I will tell you there were people who wanted me out at Sequoia Capital after 24 months, and it was only through the good graces and good judgment I now say from Don Valentine that I'm still here.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 13:18 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Recovering from multiple bad investments is harder than a first failure
“I don't think the first bad investments is as dangerous and as fruitful a lesson as waking up one day, and you're on six boards, and you've got four bad investments, because that takes a whole bunch of time. I think the first bad investments, it's a lot easier…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 25:08 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Doug Leone cites high-school-rooted insecurity as his biggest character weakness
“My weakness, I am not proud to say is insecurity, wanting to look smarter or better than I am. It goes back to the abuse I received. In my high school days, I still want to show those son of a guns what I've become, and so on.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 41:28 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone: Sequoia partners frequently ask to reduce their own compensation
“I've been in more meetings in my 30 years at Sequoia in people asking for less compensation rather than more, so we can spread it around to other people.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 18:08 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Insight
Leone: Inflated VC valuations distort essential feedback loops for founders
“What founders need is a true feedback type of system. If you build a great product, customers will buy it, valuation will increase, people are going to be interested. But what do you do with founders that build a crappy product, nobody's buying it, and somebod…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 45:14 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Insight
Leone: Missing Early Founder Relationships Turns VCs Into Price Takers
“Well, I'd say when you lose the early stage of building a relationship with the founder, You become private equity. So what I mean by that is they already have their boards, they already have relationship, and you become a price taker.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 28:10 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 positive
Insight
Doug Leone: Partnering with global market winners requires focusing on large economies
“Because if you want to be a partner to the most valuable companies in the world, which is our mission, it could only happen in large economies. It's not going to happen in Thailand, a small economy.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 31:00 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Leone: All 12 optical networking companies on his 2000 board failed
“And one day I woke up in 2000, I was on 12 boards, and there wasn't a winner there.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 22:25 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Sep 14, 2021
Disclosure
Leone: Read 20 leadership books after taking over Sequoia from Moritz
“As soon as Mike Moritz has stepped down, I went to the bookstore. I might've bought 20 books on leadership, and I might even have read another 20.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 9:35 20VC: Sequoia's Doug Leone on What Has Been Instrumental To Scaling Sequoia Over Generations, How Sequoia Think About International Expansion and What They Learned From China and India & Why When You Lose Pre-Seed You Become Private Equity
Feb 23, 2022 negative
Opinion
Doug Leone: High-velocity VCs cannot provide genuine company-building support
“You cannot do what we do if you're investing in five deals a week. There's no way to do that.”
Doug Leone Feb 23, 2022 ▶ 4:36 The Tiger Global Memo: From Sequoia Capital to Benchmark and Thrive: The World's Best on the Rise of Tiger Global
Feb 23, 2022
Insight
Doug Leone: VCs cannot help founders achieve product-market fit
“If you can't get product market fit, I doubt Sequoia Capital or any one of us can help. That is the black magic. That is really the art. Once you get product market fit, we can help you with everything else.”
Doug Leone Feb 23, 2022 ▶ 4:13 The Tiger Global Memo: From Sequoia Capital to Benchmark and Thrive: The World's Best on the Rise of Tiger Global
Jul 17, 2023
Insight
Clark: Companies are performance-based teams, not families
“But we're not a family because we're all here to do a job and we have a set of roles and responsibilities and You know, you have to deliver on performance. You know, it is a team. I think that's a much better way of framing it than a family.”
Dave Clark Jul 17, 2023 ▶ 31:21 Dave Clark: Lessons from Leading 1M Employees w/ Jeff Bezos at Amazon to CEO of Flexport | E1036 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 11, 2023 positive
Opinion
Velez: Doug Leone's greatest superpower is his ability to read people
“The people rater that Doug has, he has an uncanny ability to read people. I think that's his single biggest superpower.”
David Vélez Sep 11, 2023 ▶ 5:59 David Velez: How AI Changes The Future of Finance | E1059 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 29, 2024 positive
Insight
Akkina: Sequoia's Dominance Came From Partners Appealing to Different Founder Profiles
“An interesting observation I heard about Sequoia once actually is that one of the things that made them so successful was there was this period where they had Mike Moritz and Jim Getz and Doug Leone all kind of in their prime all very impressive VCs in their o…”
Ryan Akkina Jan 29, 2024 ▶ 12:43 Ryan Akkina: How MIT Builds Their Venture Fund Portfolio & How MIT Approach Direct Investing | E1109 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 9, 2024
Insight
Leone: Price-insensitive VC strategies fail when bull markets end
“But if your attitude is invest, invest, invest, price don't matter, that is going to serve you well in a momentum driven economy, and may serve you well for one fund cycle, maybe two fund cycles, as long as the momentum increases. You've got a public market ad…”
Doug Leone Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 4:37 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
Feb 9, 2024
Insight
Leone: Seed investing is just backing smart people without overthinking
“At the end of the day, what is seed investing? Is a smart person in a generally interesting area. That's it. There's no need to overthink it, because they're gonna zig and zag in ways that you can't predict.”
Doug Leone Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 3:51 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
Feb 9, 2024
Insight
Leone: Broad index-style investing in late-stage growth leads to losses
“As you move down the funnel, Venture, growth, pre-IPO. The checks get larger. The valuations get a lot higher. And the further down you come, the better you have to get a picking them. And if you go broad there, you're gonna get stung.”
Doug Leone Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 4:02 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Opinion
Grady: Doug Leone was the best VC ever at winning deals
“The thing that made him so effective 10 or 15 years ago was he was the tip of the spear. He wasn't the guy who got parachuted in later to play the role of senior big dog, right? And impress upon the founders how important they are because, hey, the big dog is …”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 34:31 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024
Insight
Cahn: Generating $1B+ Gains Is the Only Definition of Success in VC
“There is a definition of success in this business. You're either a slugger or you are not. If you are generating billion dollar gains, you are a slugger. Doug Leone is a slugger. Pat Grady is a slugger. And Jurita is a slugger, right? So you either are sluggin…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 51:16 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 12, 2024
Assertion Supported
Maguire: Moritz and Leone had opposite political views but co-led Sequoia for 30 years
“Mike Moritz and Doug Leone could not have more opposite political perspectives or more opposite personalities. They worked together for almost 30 years”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 54:42 Shaun Maguire: Why Iran is the World's Greatest Evil & Trump is the Only Hope for Peace | E1189 · 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
Aug 12, 2024 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Maguire: Climate activists targeted Sequoia over Doug Leone's Trump support
“In my Sequoia inbox, the last 12 hours probably 20 Like climate people have emailed most Sequoia partners saying that like Doug Leone is problematic for supporting Trump and that Trump has anti-climate positions and they don't know how they can support, like h…”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 43:34 Shaun Maguire: Why Iran is the World's Greatest Evil & Trump is the Only Hope for Peace | E1189 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 16, 2024 positive
Opinion
Shah: Doug Leone is a great board member due to his intuition
“Doug Leone. Great board member in a very, very different way. ... Doug is incredibly intuitive. He can inspire confidence in, in a decision which is really, really different.”
Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 39:23 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2024 positive
Opinion
Wang: Doug Leone excels at enterprise talent while Moritz excels at consumer
“I think Doug probably has a better nose for enterprise talent and Michael for consumer talent.”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 1:02:46 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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