Sarah Guo
22 statements across 5 episodes · 5 bullish · 6 bearish · 3 people on the record · first statement Jan 25, 2017 by Sarah Guo · said 25 times in 17 episodes since 2017 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Sarah Guo's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Harry Stebbings (17), Pat Grady (2), Max Altman (2), Victor Lazarte (1), Mark Goldberg (1), Henrique Dubugras (1), David George (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2026 4 mentions in 1 episode
2025 6 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster
- a16z's David George on the Most Controversial Bet at a16z & Do Margins and Revenue Matter in AI? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Why Apple Needs a Management Overhaul & Why Google is Catching Up with Hyperscalers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Benchmark GP, Victor Lazarte: The 3 Traits All the Best Founders Have · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2025, scene by scene →
2024 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Mark Goldberg: Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | E1219 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Arthur Mensch: Open vs Closed - Who Wins and Mistral's Position | E1146 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2021 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
- 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
- 20VC: How To Deliver Feedback with Compassion and Clarity, WTF Are Values Really and How To Instill Them & Raising $50M+ From Index and Greylock but Remaining in Stealth for 12 Months with Linda Lian, Co-Founder & CEO @ CommonRoom
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2019 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Lime CEO Brad Bao on How Lime Assess The Micro-Mobility Landscape and Competition Today, What It Takes To Launch and Win A New City & Why Lime Have Spent $0 on Marketing To Date
- 20VC: Brex Founder Henrique Dubugras on Why Being Mission Driven Is Not The Only Way To Build A Massive Business, Why You Should Not Associate Fundraising with The Cash Needs of Your Business & Why You Don't Have To Follow Startup Theory When It Comes To
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Elad Gil on Becoming One of Silicon Valleys Top Angels, Why Most People Get Market Sizing Wrong & Should VC Services Always Be Bundled Together?
- 20VC: Sequoia Partner, Pat Grady on Why Data Is The New Oil, Why We Will See The Return of The Apprenticeship Model in VC & The Defining Characteristics of The Next Generation of Great Software
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
Everything said about Sarah Guo, oldest first
Jan 25, 2017
Jan 25, 2017
Guo: A founder's storytelling ability correlates directly with company success
“And so I am always surprised by how correlated the ability to describe why a company is important and good and winning is to sort of your ability to actually go be those things. Because if you tell the story right, you can get the highest quality people on you…”
Apr 28, 2023 negative
Apr 28, 2023 bullish
Guo: Conviction will not reserve capital for follow-on investments
“Like we are going to invest in the early rounds of a company and we're going to leave money on the table in the later rounds. And it's an explicit decision, but what it means, it's like very focusing, right? Like we make the bets we make with them. We're align…”
Apr 28, 2023 neutral
Apr 28, 2023
Apr 28, 2023 neutral
Guo: Most companies will apply existing AI models rather than train custom ones
“The vast majority of companies are going to figure out actually how to apply these models that other people have built that are offered by APIs or in the open source or fine tune them or like build some other part of the stack.”
Apr 28, 2023
Guo: Don't dismiss founders operating in tough markets
“My view is you don't just turn away from all problems because, like, the space has traditionally been hard, but it should, like, it should educate you as to, like, does the founder recognize that, and can they navigate out? Are they doing something to uniquely…”
Apr 28, 2023 positive
Apr 28, 2023 bullish
Sarah Guo: Conviction targets best-in-class venture multiples over absolute dollar returns
“For me, like I define it on a multiple basis, not an absolute dollar basis. Otherwise like I should have raised a larger fund. And like, you know, let's put best in class venture multiples on the board, right?”
Apr 28, 2023
Guo: Looking for defensibility at the seed stage is a mistake
“Yeah, it doesn't exist, right? Like quite literally you're starting with nothing. And so I think that it is a like I think investors are wrong to look for it. What you are investing in is trajectory, right? And the ability for founders to navigate a market and…”
Apr 28, 2023 negative
Guo: $100M-$200M rounds at $1B valuations will not move the needle for a $100M fund
“I think it is unlikely that if somebody wants to raise a hundred or two hundred million dollars at a billion dollars out of the gate, like, that is hard for us to, it's hard for me to imagine that making an impact on the fund.”
Apr 28, 2023 neutral
Apr 28, 2023 bearish
Apr 28, 2023 bullish
Apr 28, 2023 neutral
Guo: Early-stage startup outcomes and market trajectories are inherently unknowable
“I am increasingly convinced that, like, it's not knowable what the outcomes are from, for companies, like, at the very beginning, and specifically, like, how markets play out is unknowable, because, like, there are actors with agency determining how the market…”
Apr 28, 2023 negative
Apr 28, 2023 bearish
Sep 15, 2023 negative
Sep 15, 2023
Apr 14, 2025 bullish