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Roelof Botha

24 statements across 15 episodes · 8 bullish · 3 bearish · 13 people on the record · first statement Jun 1, 2015 by Jason Calacanis · said 155 times in 46 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

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

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (76), Kevin Hartz (13), David Cahn (10), Keith Rabois (8), Jason Calacanis (7), Phil Libin (6), Jeff Wang (6), Pat Grady (4)

tap a year for its mentions
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0815201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0047.5815201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
2025 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2024 67 mentions in 12 episodes 6 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2022 15 mentions in 6 episodes 3 per episode
2021 9 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2020 32 mentions in 5 episodes 6 per episode
2019 3 mentions in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2016 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2015 6 mentions in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Roelof Botha, oldest first

Jun 1, 2015 positive
Opinion
Calacanis Chooses VC Partners Over Firms, Recommends Roelof Botha
“Listen, you know, I like partners, not firms, so I would step back, and I would, you know, do it that way, and then I would also look at who's good at media, right? So I would look at who has backed media companies, who wants to work with media companies, who …”
Jason Calacanis Jun 1, 2015 ▶ 20:06 Jason Calacanis: The World's Greatest Angel Investor
Jun 1, 2015
Disclosure
Calacanis was Thumbtack's second investor before bringing Sequoia to the deal
“I was the second investor in Thumbtack after Marco's parents, and then roll off, I brought him The A round, I brought him the B round, I brought him the C round, and Roloff eventually and Sequoia did the B round.”
Jason Calacanis Jun 1, 2015 ▶ 15:07 Jason Calacanis: The World's Greatest Angel Investor
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
Aug 10, 2020 positive
Opinion
Ittycheria: Roelof Botha listens instead of dominating board conversations
“I found in many other companies, the largest investor always feels like they have the bully pulpit. They talk the most and they dominate the board conversations. Roloff was very different. He spoke very little. He listened very hard. And when he spoke, he had …”
Dev Ittycheria Aug 10, 2020 ▶ 28:35 20VC: MongoDB CEO, Dev Ittycheria on Why Sometimes You Have To Be Inefficient To Be Effective, The 2 Different Types of Decisions and How Great Leaders Respond To Each & Why Value To Overhead Ratio Is The Metric To Use When Selecting Investors
Aug 31, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Hartz: Eventbrite took Sequoia's Series A despite the lowest valuation
“In the case of Eventbrite, our Series A was actually the lowest price term sheet, but having that trust and knowing his brainpower and prowess in building companies, it became a very easy choice for us”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 32:45 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*
Oct 26, 2020
Insight
Botha: Board Members Should Act as Shock Absorbers, Not Amplifiers
“Board members are also meant to be shock absorbers, not amplifiers. So when the team is in the doldrums and a little bit depressed, or they've missed the product deadline, or they've had a setback, be there to rally them. And when things are going well, challe…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 26:28 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Roelof Botha Says 30% to 35% of His Sequoia Investments Lose Money
“Because even at Sequoia, 30, 35% of the investments that I've led for us have ended up losing us money.”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 19:44 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020
Insight
Botha: A 'Failure of Imagination' on Missed Deals Haunts VCs Most
“The thing I find most often, by the way, Harry, is failure of imagination on my part that has been the biggest source of my failures. And it's less the investments I led that didn't work out, but the ones that I said no to that did. Those are the ones that wil…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 21:37 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020 positive
Insight
Botha Treats References Saying Founders 'Shake Things Up' as Positive Signals
“I mean, things around integrity are the things that are bright lines, obviously, but around people that want to shake things up, I love those kind of references. I treat those as a positive data point, not a negative data point.”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 14:45 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020
Disclosure
Mike Moritz Recruited Botha to Sequoia Despite Lacking a CS Degree
“Meg Whitman gave me an offer to remain a CFO of the company, and Mike Moritz gave me a call and asked whether I'd interviewed Sequoia, which is kind of strange because they were looking for a computer science major who'd done product management at an enterpris…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 3:46 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020
Insight
Botha: Startups Face Only One to Three Truly Critical Decisions Yearly
“There are many decisions every day that a company gets to make that are somewhat tactical in nature, and often they're reversible decisions, so they don't matter as much in the sense that it's better to try something, and if it doesn't work a couple weeks late…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 29:51 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Pioneered the VC Scout Program Over a Decade Ago
“And so more than a decade ago, we came up with this idea of scouts as a way of getting raw startups to Connected with contemporary founders who could help them get off the ground in a way that no venture capitalist could.”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 23:39 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 26, 2020 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Botha Warns Shallow Venture Diligence Will Inevitably Produce Startup Casualties
“We've seen a couple of instances where references are shallow or diligence is shallow, and so I do think there will inevitably be some casualties along the way.”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 15:45 20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
Oct 29, 2020
Assertion Partly supported
Unity raised a $5M Series A from Sequoia with 30 employees
“When we were 30 people, I moved to San Francisco and raised money from Sequoia Capital. First round, actually, five million dollars with Rola Fulta joining the board.”
David Helgason Oct 29, 2020 ▶ 9:25 20VC: Unity Founder David Helgason on The Hypergrowth Early Days of Unity, Why Running A Company Is Like A Liberal Art, The Secret To A Successful CEO Transition and What Makes Roelof Botha Such A Special Board Member
Feb 7, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Frankel passed on Remitly after Sequoia's Roelof Botha raised diligence concerns
“Beam at Mobile, Matt Oppenheim comes to mind. I loved what he was doing, and then I got into diligence, and I spoke to Rulof Buerta, who was in Zoom, and he helped talk me out of it, just talking about how difficult, you know, foreign kind of compensation was,…”
David Frankel Feb 7, 2022 ▶ 22:56 20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How To Manage Investor Psychology, Self-Doubt and Insecurity & The Secret to Truly Successful Venture Partnerships with David Frankel, Co-Founder @ Founder Collective
Jan 12, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Roelof Botha: Deciding which first meetings to take is VC's hardest part
“Roloff mentioned this to me. I remember talking to him a year after he joined Sequoia. It was probably like 2004 and we had coffee and I said, what's the hardest part of the job? And he said, deciding which first meetings to take.”
Keith Rabois Jan 12, 2024 ▶ 1:13:07 Keith Rabois on Rejoining Khosla Ventures | E1102 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 12, 2024 positive
Insight
Rabois: Board members should probe founders with questions, not prescribe answers
“As a board member, one of the best ways is to ask things in terms of questions, not in terms of answers. So you probe by questions, because then you're never leading. You may be leading a little bit, but you're never prescribing, and it's a very big difference…”
Keith Rabois Jan 12, 2024 ▶ 57:13 Keith Rabois on Rejoining Khosla Ventures | E1102 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 3, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rabois: Khosla and Botha warned me 11 direct reports was excessive
“I used to get yelled at. I went pretty flat at square when I was running hot at like 11 and like Vinod and Roloff gave me feedback that that was too much.”
Keith Rabois May 3, 2024 ▶ 41:15 Keith Rabois & Eric Glyman: The Tools, Tips, Secrets and Process That Drive Efficiency | E1148 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 8, 2024
Insight
Hulme: Great board members act as shock absorbers for founders
“Great board members are like shock absorbers. They kind of reduce the highs and they will cushion the blows and let founders know the negatives aren't as bad.”
Tom Hulme May 8, 2024 ▶ 30:19 Tom Hulme: Lessons from a 24x Angel Track Record, 275x on Robinhood & Making Billions on Uber |E1150 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 22, 2024
Insight
Hartz: VCs should offer calm support in crises, tough love during success
“Tough love is needed when it's doing extraordinarily well. Like, when things are going terribly wrong, And there are the, you know, butterflies, and stomach, you know, is, like, seized up, and teammates are quitting, and somebody's hacked the site, or whatever…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 57:08 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 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 9, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wang: Roelof Botha memorizes every Sequoia employee's newborn child's name
“And then at events like our holiday party where he makes a speech every year, he makes it a point to remember every single person within all of Sequoia who had a baby that year and the name of their child. He memorizes it, no cards.”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 1:05:46 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 16, 2026 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Rajaram: PayPal raised prices five times in three years early on
“And he told us that PayPal back in the day, raised prices five times. In three years, because there's such stickiness. They knew their customers really couldn't do anything.”
Gokul Rajaram Mar 16, 2026 ▶ 40:34 Gokul Rajaram: How to Analyse for Durability and Defensibility in a World of AI · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 9, 2026 negative
Opinion
O'Driscoll: Sequoia's initial leadership transition to Botha was unsuccessful
“The transition, having made one transition to Roloff and having had to make another transition abruptly means the first transition wasn't that successful.”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 41:13 OpenAI Buys TBPN & Their Management Team Reboot | Mercor Hack & Why Now is the Time for Cyber · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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