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Sequoia Capital

also referred to as: sequoia · sequoia partners

includes Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Sequoia Capital China, Sequoia Scout Program, Sequoia Heritage, The Sequoia Capital Fund, Sequoia China

392 statements across 171 episodes · 163 bullish · 65 bearish · 119 people on the record · first statement Jun 1, 2015 by Jason Calacanis · said 1,751 times in 427 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (934), Jason Lemkin (50), Pat Grady (34), Jeff Wang (30), David Cahn (29), Rory O'Driscoll (22), Chandra Narayanan (15), Luciana Lixandru (14)

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2025 264 mentions in 60 episodes 4 per episode
2024 410 mentions in 52 episodes 8 per episode
2023 108 mentions in 35 episodes 3 per episode
2022 185 mentions in 58 episodes 3 per episode
2021 137 mentions in 36 episodes 4 per episode
2020 136 mentions in 31 episodes 4 per episode
2019 106 mentions in 25 episodes 4 per episode
2018 64 mentions in 26 episodes 2 per episode
2017 90 mentions in 34 episodes 3 per episode
2016 28 mentions in 18 episodes 2 per episode
2015 13 mentions in 7 episodes 2 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Sequoia Capital, oldest first

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
Sep 6, 2015 negative
Assertion Contradicted
Soltero: Sequoia wrongly called Hyperic a product in search of a market
“Maybe that comment from Sequoia had really left a mark, this idea that, that they thought that Hyperic was a product in search for a market, which of course hundreds of millions of dollars of years later, or hundreds of millions of dollars later, I'm happy to …”
Javier Soltero Sep 6, 2015 ▶ 15:17 FF 012: Acquired by Microsoft for $200m with Javier Soltero @ Microsoft
Sep 30, 2015 negative
Disclosure
Tutorspree failed after a Google algorithm change destroyed its SEO
“We raised money from Sequoia, among others, and built the business for, I think, two and a half years. Until we ran smack into a, an algorithm change at Google and we were reliant on search engine optimization, and it sort of killed our vision of what the busi…”
Aaron Harris Sep 30, 2015 ▶ 4:22 20 VC 076: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Aaron Harris, Partner @ YC
Feb 10, 2016 bullish
Prediction Held up
Consensus VC decisions will decline as conviction investing and LP directs grow
“We're going to see three pretty basic models emerge for how decisions are made, all the way up from LPs down, down to small seed funds. And the three buckets are going to be consensus-based decision-making, and that's every fund that, you know, has pretty much…”
Dustin Dolginow Feb 10, 2016 ▶ 17:46 20VC: The First Online Venture Fund Built On AngelList with Dustin Dolginow @ Maiden Lane
Feb 10, 2016 neutral
Prediction Held up
Top VC firms will be forced to adapt to new funding models
“Sequoia, Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, they're not going away anytime soon. This isn't like, we're out to beat them and kill them. Not in the same way Airbnb is not going to delete hotels overnight. It's going to change how hotels work. I think that's a bett…”
Dustin Dolginow Feb 10, 2016 ▶ 18:55 20VC: The First Online Venture Fund Built On AngelList with Dustin Dolginow @ Maiden Lane
Jul 6, 2016 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kim predicts only 1-2 of Cendana's 18 funds will reach Sequoia status
“I would say that to be realistic, maybe one or two out of You know, the 18 plus funds that we work with may ultimately emerge in that category”
Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 15:44 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital
Jul 6, 2016 negative
Insight
Kim: Top VCs maximize ownership and squeeze LPs out of Series A
“If there is, at the earliest stages, a company that is High quality with high quality investors coming in. LPs are probably the last in line in terms of getting access to that. So imagine a seed funded company by one of our fund managers, a high quality firm l…”
Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 11:59 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital
Jul 20, 2016 positive
Opinion
Small VC funds succeed by avoiding direct competition with Tier-1 firms
“The nice thing I like about some of these small funds is that they don't compete in their sector, in their geography, in their states. They don't compete with Sequoia and Excel, benchmark, and increase. So they are dominant. They will never lose to them becaus…”
Alex Bangash Jul 20, 2016 ▶ 20:37 20VC: Why The Whole Industry Is Backward Looking, The Best Funds Are Entrepreneur Led and Venture Is All About Access with Alex Bangash, Founder @ Trusted Insight
Jul 22, 2016 positive
Insight
Helgason: Premier VCs like Sequoia endure extended underperformance without fundraising issues
“A firm like Sequoia, they will, you know, they have to do pretty badly for pretty long before they have a problem raising a new fund, for instance. So, so they're just, I think they're just less worried about the individual deal.”
David Helgason Jul 22, 2016 ▶ 18:08 20VC: Unity 3D's David Helgason on Building a $bn Business, Getting Funded By Sequoia and Powering The Pokemon Revolution
Oct 21, 2016 bullish
Assertion Supported
Union Square Ventures has one of the best performance track records
“Their funds are a little smaller than some of the other bigger firms like Sequoia, but they have one of the best performance track records of any VC.”
Nav Athwal Oct 21, 2016 ▶ 26:10 20VC: Why Adaptability Is Key To Fundraising, Why Supply Is Always The First Priority In Marketplaces & Why Sometimes You Have To Hire Fast & Fire Fast with Nav Athwal, Founder & CEO @ RealtyShares
Nov 28, 2016 positive
Assertion Partly supported
O'Driscoll: Kleiner and Sequoia paid nearly $100M post-money for pre-revenue Google
“The single most successful venture investment in the last probably 20 years was done in 1999, and it was done at an absurd valuation. That's Google. Kleiner and Sequoia paid almost a hundred posts for a pre-revenue company There was doing a search engine in 19…”
Rory O'Driscoll Nov 28, 2016 ▶ 8:35 20VC: Why Market Is More Important Than Team, The 4 Key Roles of A Board Member & Why Founders Get Market Sizing So Wrong with Rory O'Driscoll, Founding Partner @ Scale Venture Partners
Dec 14, 2016 bullish
Opinion
Sequoia's early investment in Unity was the best AR/VR play
“On the flip side, the funny thing about AR, VR is probably the most valuable thing to invest in as Sequoia already did, which was Unity.”
Garry Tan Dec 14, 2016 ▶ 10:28 20VC: Garry Tan on The Biggest Takeaways From Advising 700 Companies @ Y Combinator & Why Now Is The Golden Age For The Early Stage?
Dec 16, 2016 bullish
Disclosure
Qualtrics rejected Series A term sheets $100M-$150M higher in valuation
“We never optimized funding for economics. We had term sheets at a hundred and a hundred and fifty million dollars more than what we went with.”
Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 14:39 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel
Dec 19, 2016 positive
Opinion
Lynn: Optimal venture capital fund size is $300M to $400M
“No, I think it's a 300 to four hundred million dollar fund, and the reason is, A, you know, when I look at the people I really respect and admire, the Sequoias and the Benchmarks, I mean, that's what they've proven out, and I've added emergence to that mix in …”
Rebecca Lynn Dec 19, 2016 ▶ 27:08 20VC: Learnings From Mary Meeker & Larry Summers, Missing Out On Uber & The Changing World of VC with Canvas Partner, Rebecca Lynn
Dec 21, 2016 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Top-tier Series A firms like Sequoia and Benchmark won't change models
“I think if you are a traditional series A and beyond VC, you're probably going to do okay if you're really value-add to the Sequoias and the benchmarks of the world. I don't really see them changing their model much at all, because it works really well.”
Parker Thompson Dec 21, 2016 ▶ 23:21 20VC: AngelList's Parker Thompson on How He Evaluates Startup Founders & Why The Move To Series A Is Harder Than Ever?
Mar 13, 2017
Insight
Grady: Private equity financial modeling skills can hinder venture capitalists
“In a funny way, the skills that I learned there hurt me here, which might sound counterintuitive. But the skills that I learned there were things like building financial models, and being able to build a financial model is a very good way to break down a busin…”
Pat Grady Mar 13, 2017 ▶ 3:38 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
Mar 13, 2017
Assertion Supported
Grady: Sequoia has 20 partners in India and 40 in China
“We have about 20 investment partners in India spread across three offices. We have about 40 investment partners in China spread across three offices.”
Pat Grady Mar 13, 2017 ▶ 10:55 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
Mar 15, 2017
Insight
Public company quarterly reporting forces executives into short-term tactical thinking
“You had to deliver every quarter, and then you had to report to the street your performance every quarter, and that was at a ninety-day clip, so while you try to focus on being quite strategic in how you build your business plan and your operating model and wh…”
Carl Eschenbach Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 10:58 20VC: Sequoia Partner, Carl Eschenbach on Building and Scaling High Performace Teams and The Common Mistakes In Scaling A Go-To-Market Strategy
Mar 15, 2017
Insight
Venture capitalists must lead founders through influence, not direct authority
“In a leadership role in a large company, you can describe what the North Star is. You can put an execution plan in place, and you can go violently execute against that plan, which ultimately defines whether you're successful or not, and then you can hold peopl…”
Carl Eschenbach Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 11:53 20VC: Sequoia Partner, Carl Eschenbach on Building and Scaling High Performace Teams and The Common Mistakes In Scaling A Go-To-Market Strategy
Mar 15, 2017 neutral
Assertion Supported
VMware grew from 200 to 20,000 employees during Eschenbach's tenure
“As for Carl, prior to Sequoia, Carl was president and CEO at VMware, where he grew the team from 200 to 20,000 people.”
Harry Stebbings Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 0:32 20VC: Sequoia Partner, Carl Eschenbach on Building and Scaling High Performace Teams and The Common Mistakes In Scaling A Go-To-Market Strategy
Mar 20, 2017 negative
Insight
Lemkin: Pitching founders outside the SaaStr community was a waste of time
“What I quickly learned is meeting with founders that weren't Part of the Sastra community, even back in a few years ago, was a complete waste of my time. I was completely undifferentiated as an investor. They didn't know who I was. Why not just go to Sequoia o…”
Jason Lemkin Mar 20, 2017 ▶ 3:56 20VC: SaaStr's Jason Lemkin on The 3 Things You Want From Your LPs, Why Most VCs Do Not Add Value & Why The Best VCs Know How To Package Startups For The Next Round
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
May 3, 2017 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Fifth Wall will not compete with Benchmark, Sequoia, or Lightspeed
“And we're not going to compete, obviously, with Benchmark and Sequoia and Lightspeed.”
Brendan Wallace May 3, 2017 ▶ 16:12 20VC: How LPs Can Add Strategic Value To Portfolio Companies & Why Real Estate Is On Every Whiteboard In Silicon Valley with Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder @ Fifth Wall
Jun 30, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Clutter raises $64 million Series C led by Atomico
“In the last fortnight, they raised a whopping sixty-four million Series C, led by Atomico, with participation from Sequoia, Google Ventures, or GV, and the fantastic Brendan Wallace at Fifth Wall.”
Harry Stebbings Jun 30, 2017 ▶ 0:10 20VC: Why You Do Not Want Diversity Of Thought, Why You Have To Build A Sports Team and Not A Family & Why Extreme Cultures Are Easier For People To Understand with Ari Mir, Founder @ Clutter
Aug 14, 2017
Assertion Supported
Calacanis Invested in Uber as a Sequoia Scout
“Jason's also previously been a scout for Sequoia Capital, where he made the original Uber investment.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 14, 2017 ▶ 0:39 20VC: Jason Calacanis on The 4 Questions Investors Must Ask Founders, Whether YC Have Scaled Their Process Successfully & Why Early Founder Liquidity Is Good Not Bad
Aug 25, 2017 negative
Opinion
Abrams: Top VC brand signaling matters much less than people pretend
“The idea that, that being a Sequoia company is going to be this huge advantage in terms of the branding, there's a lot of great investors these days that have great reputations, so chances are, if you have a bunch of Competitors. They probably have great names…”
Jonathan Abrams Aug 25, 2017 ▶ 18:23 20VC: Nuzzel's Jonathan Abrams on Why The Top VCs Do Not Have A PlayBook For Startup Success, Why Most Boards Are Not Successful & Why He Is Bored Of Hearing "I Fell Into VC"
Sep 25, 2017 neutral
Assertion Contradicted
Only Peter Fenton and Jim Goetz achieved multi-billion consumer and enterprise wins
“That's a funny statement, because I think in the modern era, if you go back, call it the last 10 or 15 years of venture capitalists, there are only two that I can think of who have had multi-billion dollar consumer outcomes and multi-billion dollar enterprise …”
Eric Vishria Sep 25, 2017 ▶ 15:06 20VC: Benchmark's Eric Vishria on Why Career VCs Have Advantages Most Under Appreciate, Why We Are In An Infrastructure Renaissance & What Makes The Best VC Partnership
Sep 29, 2017 bullish
Opinion
Roger Dickey compares LPing in Sequoia or Andreessen to a mutual fund
“Like if you can LP with Sequoia Greylock, Kleiner, Andreessen, you're probably going to get your money back. You know, that's almost like a mutual fund.”
Roger Dickey Sep 29, 2017 ▶ 19:19 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
Nov 6, 2017 positive
Disclosure
Oren Zeev reveals he is Houzz's second-largest shareholder
“I happen to be the main early backer. I, even to this day, I'm the biggest shareholder other than Sequoia, who I brought to the table nine months after invested. So I'm the second, second larger investor to this day after they've raised, you know, after six hu…”
Oren Zeev Nov 6, 2017 ▶ 25:19 20VC: Oren Zeev on Why Diversification Does Not Work, Thesis Based Investing Is Sceptical & Partners Mostly Stay Together For LPs
Dec 11, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Polychain grew AUM from $4M to over $200M within two years
“Having founded the firm less than two years ago with Four million under management in their initial fund. Polychain now has over two hundred million under management, with backing from the likes of Sequoia, Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and USV, just to …”
Harry Stebbings Dec 11, 2017 ▶ 0:28 20VC: Inside The World's Leading Crypto Fund, The Future Exit Environment for Crypto Assets & The Beauty Of Benevolent Dictatorship with Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder @ Polychain Capital
Apr 20, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Thumbtack raised Series B from Sequoia six weeks after business model pivot
“February and March were the first months that this new model was rolled out nationwide. And we raised our beef from Sequoia six weeks later because they saw the potential in what we had done.”
Marco Zappacosta Apr 20, 2018 ▶ 13:29 20VC: Thumbtack's Marco Zappacosta on The 3 Core Elements To All Board Meetings, Raising $250m from Sequoia and Why You Have To Win Supply Side Acquisition First For Marketplace Success
Apr 23, 2018 neutral
Assertion Contradicted
Sequoia Capital Invests More Money Outside California Than Inside
“Today, Sequoia, and many of the other venture firms, they invest more money outside of California than inside of it”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 10:13 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Apr 23, 2018 neutral
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Capital Stopped Accepting Public Funds To Avoid FOIA Disclosures
“Sequoia at the time made the decision to no longer accept public funds. And because of this disclosure, they wanted to protect the stealthiness of their businesses.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 5:33 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
May 21, 2018
Insight
Seed angels must be contrarians to compete with mega-funds like Sequoia
“So you have to be increasingly a contrarian in order to try and be successful in a world where Sequoia and others are going to be aggressive.”
Dan Scheinman May 21, 2018 ▶ 9:12 20VC: Why The Days of Spray and Pray at Seed Are Over, How To Compete In A World of Sequoia Seed Funds & Why Price Doesn't Matter with Dan Scheinman, Angel Investor @ Zoom & Arista Networks
Jul 9, 2018 negative
Disclosure
Flint: Sequoia pressured Trulia to make deep cost cuts in 2008
“You know, we're under a lot of pressure at the time to, from Sequoia, to cut deep, deep, deep to get profitable.”
Pete Flint Jul 9, 2018 ▶ 8:44 20VC: Lessons From 2x $Bn Exits in Trulia and lastminute.com, 3 Leading Indicators That Suggest Potential Marketplace Success & Why We Are Going To See A Fundamental Change To The World of VC with Pete Flint, Managing Partner @ NFX
Jul 17, 2018 positive
Opinion
Elad Gil: SoftBank Has Had the Greatest Impact of All VC Mega Funds
“I think that the sort of mega fund that's mattered the most in terms of impact is probably SoftBank, Simply because at a hundred billion dollars, SoftBank is the equivalent of a hundred general catalysts or 12 Sequoia funds. So just the sheer scale of capital …”
Elad Gil Jul 17, 2018 ▶ 26:02 20VC: Elad Gil's High Growth Handbook on The Commonalities of The Truly Great CEOs, How To Hire The Very Best Execs, Why Cash is A Defensible Moat Today & The Pros and Cons of M&A and IPOs
Dec 10, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Maven Clinic raised $27M Series B led by Sequoia and Oak
“Similarly, this fall, one of our companies, Maven Clinic, was raising a Series B and made an intro to Jess Lee at Sequoia, which resulted in a twenty-seven million dollar Series B that was led by both Sequoia and Oak.”
Anu Duggal Dec 10, 2018 ▶ 16:13 20VC: Top 3 Considerations When Evaluating Consumer Businesses Today | 700 Meetings, 70 LPs, 2 Years, What It Takes To Raise a First Time Fund| The Power of The Female Network In Action Today with Anu Duggal, Founding Partner @ Female Founders Fund
Jan 18, 2019 negative
Insight
Wand: Startup boards overweight top VCs' opinions based on brand, not merit
“Usually, if there is a partner from a top fund, there is a tendency to give overweight to his idea and decision point, where it's not substantiated by the merit of his idea, but just rather from the fact that he came from Sequoia, he came from Benchmark, he ca…”
Assaf Wand Jan 18, 2019 ▶ 11:21 20VC: Why Every Company Looks One Round Earlier Than It Should Be, Why Investors Don't Understand Term Sheet Psyche & How The Brand Behind The Investor Can Overweight The Attention Their Opinion Is Given with Assaf Wand, Founder & CEO @ Hippo
May 24, 2019 positive
Disclosure
Collin Reference-Checked Sequoia's Brian Schreier With 90% of His Portfolio CEOs
“When I chose Brian, Brian is actually one of the only investors during our series B that I didn't know much before. And so I hadn't built a relationship with him. And so I knew it was very important to understand if we would work well together. So I think I to…”
Mathilde Collin May 24, 2019 ▶ 25:54 20VC: Front's Mathilde Collin on Why Discipline Is More Important Than Vision, The Right Way To Approach Investor Updates and Director Reports & How To Effectively Structure 1-1s
Jul 1, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia is the Ford Foundation's largest institutional investment relationship
“We are the longest standing and largest relationship for the Ford Foundation in terms of where their money comes from with the returns that we generate for them.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 17:19 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 negative
Opinion
Venture signaling risk is an overblown founder concern, says Pat Grady
“Signaling risk is this funny thing because most founders are worried about it, but we have never actually seen a situation in which it hurt. The context in which most people worry about it is they say, well, if I receive this round from Sequoia, but then for w…”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 8:19 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Roelof Botha recommended Pat Grady get a voice coach early at Sequoia
“When I was about a year and a half into my time at Sequoia, my partner Ruloff took me aside and with the best possible intentions in mind, recommended that I get a voice coach.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 5:13 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 negative
Disclosure
Sequoia historically made the mistake of being too greedy on ownership
“I think one of the mistakes we made historically was to be a little bit too greedy, quite frankly, on ownership.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 9:10 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Sequoia spent over two years courting Zoom founder Eric Yuan
“We spent more than two years getting to know Eric Yuan at Zoom before we finally had a chance to get into business with him.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 25:15 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia investment decisions always end with full partner consensus
“And so at Sequoia, rarely do investment decisions begin with consensus. It's usually a couple of People who see something special, but they always end with consensus because by the time we invest, we want it to be a team Sequoia investment, not an individual's…”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 20:05 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 positive
Disclosure
Sequoia replaced individual partner names with 'Team Sequoia' in its CRM
“In one fell swoop, we actually changed all of the names in the database from individuals to the singular name Team Sequoia, and the point is that every prospect we're talking with, every company with whom we're in business today, they don't belong to an indivi…”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 14:04 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia would operate unaffected if any individual partner left, says Grady
“Any one of us could disappear tomorrow and Sequoia would go right on and be fine.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 13:12 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019
Insight
Ego and economic demands tear apart most VC partnerships, says Pat Grady
“The natural way of things for venture capital firms is for one or two people to have a couple of nice investments and that makes them relatively more attractive to the next set of founders, and those benefits start to compound into the point where they allow t…”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 12:31 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Qualtrics was Sequoia's most expensive software deal at the time
“That was a scary investment for us because at the time it was the most expensive price we had ever paid for a software company.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 23:50 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 bullish
Disclosure
Three-quarters of Sequoia's 2018-2019 investments were Seed or Series A
“Three quarters of the investments that we've made in the last 12 months were seeds or series A's”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 7:25 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Okta had just $3M ARR when Sequoia invested in its Series C
“So when we did invest in Okta, it was the series C and Ben Horowitz and Anil Bushri were already on the board. So we were a little bit late to the party, but even at the series C, they had three million of ARR versus consensus for this year says 500 plus.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 22:33 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Insight
Founder risk is the only unacceptable risk in venture capital
“And so anyway, I think almost every risk is an acceptable risk. Founder risk is not.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 24:14 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Jul 1, 2019 neutral
Opinion
Sequoia failed on any successful company where it lacks equity
“You can basically just go through the list of companies that have been successful in the last five or 10 years. And if you don't see Sequoia as a major shareholder, it means that we screwed up.”
Pat Grady Jul 1, 2019 ▶ 31:17 20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
Aug 26, 2019
Disclosure
Vernal: Startups dismissed on first meeting never became major misses
“I have yet to meet a company once, think it wasn't interesting, and then have it actually be very interesting.”
Mike Vernal Aug 26, 2019 ▶ 9:29 20VC: Sequoia's Mike Vernal on His Biggest Lessons From 8 Years of Hyper-Growth at Facebook, Why The Strength of Data Moats Is Over-Rated Today and The Challenge of "Overthinking Investments" In Venture
Aug 26, 2019 positive
Disclosure
Vernal: Sequoia aims for rigorous analysis over gut instinct
“We do not want to be an instinctual or gut driven firm. I think we try to be very rigorous and rational about our investment decisions”
Mike Vernal Aug 26, 2019 ▶ 10:24 20VC: Sequoia's Mike Vernal on His Biggest Lessons From 8 Years of Hyper-Growth at Facebook, Why The Strength of Data Moats Is Over-Rated Today and The Challenge of "Overthinking Investments" In Venture
Sep 16, 2019 negative
Opinion
Shah: Sequoia or Lightspeed seed funding does not guarantee follow-on rounds
“It sort of like a false narrative that like, if you take a seed from a Sequoia or you take a seed from a Lightspeed, they're just going to continue to do your next rounds.”
Semil Shah Sep 16, 2019 ▶ 15:17 20VC: Haystack's Semil Shah on Whether Founders Are Bypassing Seed Funds in Favour Of Less Dilutive Multi-Stage Funds, How Fund Strategy Changes With Fund Scaling & Why The Hardest Challenge is Price Discipline
Oct 18, 2019 neutral
Assertion Supported
Bahat: Very few multi-stage VCs historically produce top seed-stage winners
“We did an analysis looking at the top company performers. And what you see is that since the era that seed funds have existed and who funded them at the seed. And what you see is that some of them were funded by seed funds, first round true others funded some …”
Roy Bahat Oct 18, 2019 ▶ 18:52 20VC Exclusive: Roy Bahat on Bloomberg Beta's New Fund, The Truth About Valuation That Very Few VCs Will Tell You & Why Founders of Venture Backed Startups Make The Best Angels
Oct 18, 2019 positive
Insight
Roy Bahat: Sequoia's culture defaults to expecting greatness
“I just go back to what I said about Sequoia generally, which is the habit of defaulting to expecting greatness is such a strong cultural pull.”
Roy Bahat Oct 18, 2019 ▶ 28:42 20VC Exclusive: Roy Bahat on Bloomberg Beta's New Fund, The Truth About Valuation That Very Few VCs Will Tell You & Why Founders of Venture Backed Startups Make The Best Angels
Dec 6, 2019 positive
Disclosure
Schalit: Sequoia's Jim Goetz convinced Dashlane to raise equity over debt
“You know, we had just raised a thirty million round of debt with no plan on taking equity, and in the meeting, Jim made me see the opportunity I was potentially missing by not considering an investment from Sequoia, and he convinced me in that meeting to rethi…”
Emmanuel Schalit Dec 6, 2019 ▶ 32:30 20VC: Why Raising A Mega-Round Makes Your Life Harder Not Easier, Why Your Board Is Not Your Boss and Lessons on Successful Board Management & The Biggest Breakpoints in Company Scaling with Emmanuel Schalit, Founder & CEO @ Dashlane
Dec 9, 2019 negative
Opinion
Vrionis: Sequoia's global, multi-stage success is an anomaly others cannot replicate
“Look, I think Sequoia is an anomaly. Operating a VC firm the way they have on a global basis, it's unbelievable. I think a lot of firms are trying to emulate that, and I'm not so sure others can pull it off.”
John Vrionis Dec 9, 2019 ▶ 18:35 20VC: Unusual Ventures' John Vrionis on Why We Need To Raise The Bar In Venture, Why Taking Multi-Stage Money At Seed Is Not In The Best Interest of Founders & Why To Be The Best, You Have To Specialise To Be The Best
Dec 20, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
UiPath has raised over $977M in venture funding
“To date, UiPath has raised over nine hundred and seventy seven million dollars in funding from some of the very best in the world, including Sequoia, Excel, Meritech, IVP, Capital G, Kleiner, CoTo, and more.”
Harry Stebbings Dec 20, 2019 ▶ 0:38 20VC: Inside UiPath, The World's Fastest Growing Startup, How The Best Leaders Approach Decision-Making & WhY Vulnerability Is Central To SuccessFul Leadership Today with Brandon Deer, VP of Operations & Strategy @ UiPath
Jan 17, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia, a16z, and Founders Fund enforce strict partner investment discipline
“You look at the likes of Andreessen Horowitz or Sequoia, our founder's fund, for example. They're pretty disciplined in terms of the absolute number of investments they make per person.”
Sumit Gajri Jan 17, 2020 ▶ 47:54 20VC: Portfolio Construction, Optimising SPVs, Opportunity Investing "Between Rounds", Being Distribution-Centric Over Product-Centric and Capital Concentration Within Funds With Sumeet Gajri, Chief Strategy Officer @ Carta
Mar 9, 2020
Assertion Supported
Matt Mochary's coaching client list includes partners at Benchmark, Sequoia, and Kleiner
“On the VC side, Matt has worked with the likes of Peter Fenton at Benchmark, Several Sequoia partners, Hemond at GC, and Mamoon at Kleiner, to name a few. As for founders, Matt's worked with the founders of Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Flexport, and many mor…”
Harry Stebbings Mar 9, 2020 ▶ 0:24 20VC: Matt Mochary, Coach To Silicon Valley's Leading VCs & Founders on How To Deal with Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt, How To Manage Fear and Anger & Why Board Seats Are The Death of Investors
Apr 24, 2020 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Vohra: Five YC Batch Companies Adopted Superhuman's Command K Pattern
“In just the Y Combinator batch, I saw five different companies that had incorporated this into their product, and we have companies like Linear that have just recently raised from Sequoia that have done the same.”
Rahul Vohra Apr 24, 2020 ▶ 26:15 20VC: Superhuman's Rahul Vohra on How 1-1 Customer Onboarding Can Scale Efficiently to $100M ARR, Why Gamification Does Not Work But Game Design Does & What Game Design Means For The Next Generation Of Product Managers
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 17, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Summit Peak tracks follow-on investments from top VC brands like Benchmark
“Look, I would be bullshitting you to say that it's not important to us. Those brand names do matter, whether that's Benchmark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital. They are great funds, and they're great investors at various stages, and you want to se…”
Apurva Mehta Aug 17, 2020 ▶ 29:27 20VC: Why Entrepreneurs Care Less About Firm Brand at Seed, How LPs Should Think About GP Commit & How The World of LPs and Fundraising Will Change Post COVID with Apurva Mehta, Managing Partner @ Summit Peak Investments
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*
Sep 14, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Gupta: A Sequoia partner shared their 360 feedback with the entire partnership
“At Sequoia, one of our partners late last year shared their three 60 feedback with all of us at a partner meeting and then asked, can you help me get better on these?”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 25:22 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Sep 14, 2020
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Gupta: Sequoia allows founders to choose which partner joins their board
“When entrepreneurs ask somebody at Sequoia, hey, if I work with Sequoia, who will my board member be? And the answer is always the same, which is whoever you want. You get to choose.”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 16:41 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Sep 14, 2020
Insight
Gupta: Sequoia evaluates founders on trajectory (slope) rather than baseline (intercept)
“I think that when we talk about the people we like to invest in at Sequoia, we talk about investing in slope rather than intercept.”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 29:03 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Sep 14, 2020
Assertion Contradicted
Gupta: Sequoia Capital requires unanimous partner approval for all investments
“This is reinforced by things like unanimous decision-making, which means we all need to be bought in when we decide to partner with a company.”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 16:34 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Sep 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Contradicted
Gupta: Sequoia backed Stripe founders before they wrote any code
“At the time, Patrick and John at Stripe, when all they had was an idea and not a single line of code, because they were remarkable and they were daring.”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 15:32 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Sep 14, 2020
Assertion Supported
Gupta: Sequoia made a Series A investment in two 19-year-old founders
“And so with Samir and Runik, who are very young, I mean, I think we made our series A investment when they were both 19 years old.”
Ravi Gupta Sep 14, 2020 ▶ 29:49 20VC: Sequoia's Ravi Gupta on His Lessons From The Hyper-Growth of Instacart, The Key Question To Ask When Building or Evaluating Teams & The Importance of Investing In and Detecting Slopes Rather Than Intercepts
Oct 26, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Led Unity's Series A and Persuaded Them to Adopt Freemium
“One of the first decisions was to go change the business model of the company because the company had bootstrapped until that we were the Series A investor in the company in They never had outside capital, they didn't have a board, and so they always charged f…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 30:30 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
Disclosure
Sequoia Deliberately Selects Non-Profits and Endowments as Its LPs
“And we apply it at Sequoia too, because we pick our LPs as being non-profits, endowments, and foundations, and it gives real meaning to our work to know that the profits we help generate go to these great causes that help with medical research, education, pove…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 34:17 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 negative
Opinion
Botha: Investors Taking Public Credit for Startup Success Is Misplaced
“I find it misplaced when investors crow about the success of a company as though they were the ones who were in the trenches every day. I think investors can have a big influence sometimes for the better in the outcome of a company. But there's a reason we hav…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 36:25 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia Trains New Partners by Having Them Shadow Senior Board Members
“A lot of what we do at Sequoia when you join is you get to shadow and several different partners on some of their boards, which gives you exposure to their unique styles, but also gives exposure to a variety of industries.”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 29:09 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
Sequoia Recruits Team Members to Inherit the Partnership, Not Serve Seniors
“And then similarly today, when I recruit team members to join us, they're not coming to work for me. They're coming to work with me, and they have an opportunity in turn to inherit the partnership, and we all have this accountability to leave the partnership i…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 18:37 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Don Valentine Named Sequoia After the Longest-Lived Tree to Build an Institution
“Don didn't. And it was a very deliberate decision. And it was no accident that he chose the name Sequoia. And for those listeners that aren't familiar with the tree, the Sequoia tree is native to California, and it's the longest lived tree, maybe in the world,…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 17:42 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
Sequoia Compressed Deal Decision Time by Over a Week in 2020
“And over the last 12 months, We've compressed our average time by more than a week from initial meeting to final investment decision, and I think it's partly a reaction to the environment where investments are happening very quickly, and people need to respond…”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 11:43 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 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 positive
Disclosure
Mike Vernal Brought Facebook's 'Check-Ins' Practice to Sequoia Capital
“Our get-togethers as an investor team, we start off with something called check-ins, which is something that Mike Vernal brought to us. It was something that the team had done at Facebook”
Roelof Botha Oct 26, 2020 ▶ 32:24 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 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
Oct 29, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Sequoia issued Unity a Series A term sheet in eight days
“They made us a very strong offer very quickly, like eight days to get a term sheet, and it was basically the best term sheet we had.”
David Helgason Oct 29, 2020 ▶ 16:59 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
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
Levine: Sequoia's seed deals in Airbnb and Dropbox are history's best
“Two of the best deals of all time were seeds by Sequoia. I think an initial almost 600,000 dollar investment in Airbnb and a million dollar investment in Dropbox to get very large ownership positions.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 29:27 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Dec 17, 2020
Disclosure
Sequoia acquired a 15% to 17% stake in Retool's Series A
“In our case, I think Sequoia probably owns, I think it's either 15 or 17%, something like that, or in the Series A, at least, they own something like that.”
David Hsu Dec 17, 2020 ▶ 13:34 20VC: Retool Founder, David Hsu on Why YC Is Helpful Pre Product-Market Fit but Not Post and Why VCs Are Not Helpful Pre-Product Market-Fit but are Post, Why it is Difficult to Become Unprofitable if You Set Yourself Up For Profitability Early & Why VC Th
Dec 17, 2020
Disclosure
Retool raised a split Series A between Sequoia and five angels
“We had a slightly strange structure for the Series A, we raised a split round, it was split between five angel investors, as well as Sequoia”
David Hsu Dec 17, 2020 ▶ 11:12 20VC: Retool Founder, David Hsu on Why YC Is Helpful Pre Product-Market Fit but Not Post and Why VCs Are Not Helpful Pre-Product Market-Fit but are Post, Why it is Difficult to Become Unprofitable if You Set Yourself Up For Profitability Early & Why VC Th
Jan 27, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Sequoia Passed on DoorDash Seed Before Leading Series A
“We missed the seed, but we made it up by leading the Series A, and we invested in every single round after that.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 6:46 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 negative
Disclosure
Sequoia Passed on Grubhub, Caviar, Postmates, and TaskRabbit
“And actually, between 20 11 and 20 13, we evaluated opportunities to invest in Grubhub, in Caviar, in Postmates, in TaskRabbit, because I was fascinated with this space. We passed on each of those opportunities, not partly because we're somewhat concerned abou…”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 4:42 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 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DoorDash Showed Exceptionally Sticky User Retention at Series A
“We broke it down into from GMV to retention, to the cohorts, and the cohorts were just really sticky, even at the early days. We don't see that very often. I've seen that in very few companies where that's the case.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 24:13 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DoorDash Received Five Term Sheets During Its Series A Raise
“He had a fairly easy series A raise in my opinion, because he had five term sheets and we were competing with five term sheets and I had a jump on the competition, but it happened fairly quickly.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 34:13 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 neutral
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Led DoorDash's Series C as a Flat or Down Round
“The Series C that Sequoia decided to lead was quite hard. I think the company had thought that because it had doubled or tripled GMV, and the unit economics was getting better, that the valuation from the B to the C would be double or triple, and in fact, it e…”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 34:53 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 29, 2021 positive
Insight
Palan: Sharing bad news filters out mercenary employees lacking mission conviction
“I still like to err on the side of, let's just tell people that things are not going great, and hope that we can fix it. And the people that are gonna leave are likely the people who don't believe in the mission of the company, and who are there maybe because,…”
Hubert Palan Jan 29, 2021 ▶ 30:57 20VC: Why "Founder Insight" is Overrated, Why Big and Bold Product Visions Can Be Dangerous & Why Getting To Product Market Fit by Accident Can Lead to Danger with Hubert Palan, Founder & CEO @ ProductBoard
Mar 4, 2021
Assertion Supported
Robinhood raised $5.6 billion total, including a $2.4 billion emergency round
“To date, Vlad has raised over 5.6 billion dollars with Robin Hood, including a 2.4 billion dollar raise just this month, and some of their investors include the likes of Ribbit, Sequoia, Green Oaks, Index, IVP, Thrive, GV, and more incredible names.”
Harry Stebbings Mar 4, 2021 ▶ 0:27 20VC: Robinhood Founder Vlad Tenev on His Biggest Lessons Managing Through A Crisis, The Events of The Congressional Committee, Raising $2.4Bn Fast and Why It Was Necessary & Why It Is Ludicrous To Suggest Robinhood Put The Business Ahead of it's Customer
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
Mar 26, 2021
Insight
Velez: Sequoia's flat partnership structure cannot scale to 3,000 employees
“Some of the things that Sequoia had are non-scalable. You can do that when you have 30 people, you cannot do it when you have 3000”
David Vélez Mar 26, 2021 ▶ 8:48 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
Apr 15, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Zapier reached $140M ARR and $5B valuation on $1.4M primary funding
“Post-YC in 2012, Wade raised 1.4 million dollars for the company from Bessemer and Threshold, but since that round, he's scaled the company to a hundred and forty million in ARR and a five billion dollar valuation without any traditional style venture rounds h…”
Harry Stebbings Apr 15, 2021 ▶ 0:30 20VC: Scaling Zapier To $140M ARR and a $5Bn Valuation on $1.4M of Funding, What Founders Misunderstand About Fundraising & How Founders Should Think About Secondaries Today with Wade Foster, Founder & CEO @ Zapier
Jun 24, 2021
Assertion Contradicted
Mullen: Sequoia Capital Reports 50% to 60% of Investments Go to Zero
“Even the greatest investors, I think Sequoia says, 50 to 60% of their investments go to zero.”
Mark Mullen Jun 24, 2021 ▶ 34:58 20VC: Optimising Investment Decision-Making in Compressed Fundraising Timelines & A Deep Dive on Portfolio Construction, Price Sensitivity and The Importance of Ownership with Mark Mullen, Co-Founder @ Bonfire Ventures
Jun 24, 2021 negative
Opinion
Mullen: Multi-Stage Venture Firms Cannot Scale Hands-On Seed Portfolio Support
“How does a company like Sequoia invest a six hundred million dollar seed fund? How do they write a two million dollar check, let's say in a seed round, and then actually give you the full Sequoia team behind? Maybe they do that. I'm not saying they don't. I'm …”
Mark Mullen Jun 24, 2021 ▶ 18:25 20VC: Optimising Investment Decision-Making in Compressed Fundraising Timelines & A Deep Dive on Portfolio Construction, Price Sensitivity and The Importance of Ownership with Mark Mullen, Co-Founder @ Bonfire Ventures
Aug 16, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Kaszek Backed Nubank's Seed Round When It Was Just a Deck
“In Nubank, we invested in the seed investment together with Sequoia, so it was a PowerPoint really early on, David Velez by himself, and that's when we joined, and then we participated out of the fund one in several rounds in the series A and the B and the C a…”
Nicolas Szekasy Aug 16, 2021 ▶ 13:15 20VC LATAM: LATAM's Largest Fund, Kaszek Ventures on Scaling from $100M to $1BN, Why Capital is not a Source of Moat & Why LATAM is More Than Copycat Companies with Nicolas Szekasy, Co-Founder @ Kaszek Ventures
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 negative
Opinion
Leone: Fast-paced funds doing five deals a week cannot build companies
“Product market fit is yours. We do everything else. You cannot do what we do if you're investing in five deals a week. There's no way to do that.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 21:25 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 positive
Assertion Supported
Leone: Sequoia portfolio companies have created $6.5 trillion in market value
“We have been responsible somewhere around six and a half trillion of partnering opportunity, meaning the companies with which we partner have generated six and a half trillion of market cap. About a quarter of the NASDAQ, God knows how much of the NYSE in Hong…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 36:19 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 neutral
Disclosure
Sequoia stress-tests portfolio funds against a hypothetical 30% market crash
“One of the exercises I've asked, we run more than once at Sequoia. Let's take a fund two cycles ago where the companies are just coming up. How would we feel about those investments? If the market just crashed by 30%, let's figure out how many of those were mo…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 44:11 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 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 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone: Most Sequoia investors grew up in modest means
“Most of the investors at Sequoia grew up in very modest means.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 17:45 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 positive
Disclosure
Leone: Zoom took Sequoia's investment specifically to get partner Carl Eschenbach
“So why were we invested in Zoom? I can tell you that Eric Wan didn't need money, but he needed a Carl Leschenbach.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 29:02 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: 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 Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 21:03 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 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone: Sequoia had to aggressively intervene in every entity at least once
“In every line of business, whether it's China, India, Southeast Asia, our hedge fund, a multi-family office called Heritage, we've had to go in and effect change as Once. So it wasn't that we got it so perfect from the beginning. So we had to go in aggressivel…”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 33:31 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone: Sequoia once stripped portfolio company posters to force humility
“We have gone as far as taking all the posters from our companies away from conference room once upon a time and say, let's act like we've done nothing.”
Doug Leone Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 35:09 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
Sep 16, 2021
Assertion Supported
Salur: Mike Moritz personally invested in Getir before Sequoia Capital did
“He was the first to put, and he invested his own money. Sequoia came later”
Nazim Salur Sep 16, 2021 ▶ 38:33 20VC: Getir Founder, Nazim Salur on The Future of Last Mile Convenience, Who Will Win? Lessons on Driver Acquisition and Efficiency, Zone Maturity and Time To Profitability and Scaling to 300 Cities in the US in 2022
Oct 20, 2021 neutral
Opinion
Mega VCs Should Back Operator Funds as LPs Instead of Acquiring Them
“I don't think it would be prudent of them to acquire these operator funds. They may choose to anyways, but it won't be prudent because I think what makes these funds special is the fact that they're independent, and that independence is what allows them to be …”
Ankur Nagpal Oct 20, 2021 ▶ 26:18 20VC: Breaking News: Ankur Nagpal Raises $70M for Vibe Capital, What The Next Decade For Venture Will Look Like, Do VCs Actually Add Any Value & Pre-Emptive Rounds, When To Take Them and When To Reject Them
Dec 6, 2021 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gurley: Claims of Disrupting Traditional Venture Capital Have Been Proven False
“I think this whole notion that you're going to disrupt and fundamentally take over the business has just been proven false over and over again. AngelList is awesome, but it's not 20% of the industry, you know. Andreessen said, we're going to completely, you kn…”
Bill Gurley Dec 6, 2021 ▶ 43:52 20VC: Bill Gurley and Michael Eisenberg on The First Signs of an Impending Bust, What Happens with a Market Crash, How Do Public Markets Impact Private Valuations & The Biggest Lessons from 20 Years Investing in Venture
Jan 21, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia's Mike Moritz joined LinkExchange candidate interviews multiple times a week
“And our lead investor was Sequoia and Mike Moritz was on our board and would come multiple times a week to our office and join us in these interviews.”
Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 10:56 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
Feb 2, 2022 positive
Insight
Herzberg: Trust hiring intuition over isolated negative reference checks
“Your intuition matters. References are critical, but they aren't everything. And if your intuition is saying, I had a good connection with this person, I've heard plenty of good things around them, and sure, they may have frustrated one person or been a really…”
Dannie Herzberg Feb 2, 2022 ▶ 27:45 20 Sales: How To Build Sales Teams with a Product-Led-Growth GTM, What is a Sales Hiring Scorecard and How To Construct Yours & How To Structure the Onboarding Process for all New Sales Hires with Dannie Herzberg, Partner @ Sequoia Capital
Feb 2, 2022 positive
Insight
Herzberg: Reference checks are the single most important step in hiring
“The most important thing is digging into references, and I'm saying this because I was on a reference call recently for someone who was getting hired into an executive role at a publicly traded company, and the reference was conducted by the search firm, and I…”
Dannie Herzberg Feb 2, 2022 ▶ 24:39 20 Sales: How To Build Sales Teams with a Product-Led-Growth GTM, What is a Sales Hiring Scorecard and How To Construct Yours & How To Structure the Onboarding Process for all New Sales Hires with Dannie Herzberg, Partner @ Sequoia Capital
Feb 7, 2022 negative
Insight
Frankel: Check size relative to VC fund size reveals true priority
“Look at the check relative to the fund size will tell you pretty much everything you need to know. Are you going to be, if it's Sequoia investing less than today, a 50 or a hundred million or twenty million at early stage, it's probably not going to take you t…”
David Frankel Feb 7, 2022 ▶ 17:29 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
Feb 7, 2022 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Frankel: Sequoia omits brand on scout program to eliminate signaling risk
“By the way, to Sequoia's credit, they've never used the Sequoia brand on their scout platform, and I think that that actually is A fantastically respectful thing to do to founders, because it eliminates the signaling risk of why didn't Sequoia follow on, and t…”
David Frankel Feb 7, 2022 ▶ 17:45 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
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
Mar 14, 2022 positive
Opinion
Friedberg: Top VC firms like Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz are post-economic
“This bifurcation in the market that's underway, which is the folks that have made it, they've gotten to the top of Mount Everest. At this point, I would argue those funds are post-economic, and now they can operate more rationally over the long run, like Found…”
David Friedberg Mar 14, 2022 ▶ 28:44 20VC: David Friedberg on The Framework for Business Value Creation, The Bifurcation in Venture Today That No One Talks About, The Impact of Interest Rate Hikes on Venture and Step by Step; How TPB Incubates, Funds and Exits The Next Generation of Companie
Mar 21, 2022 bullish
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Sequoia-backed companies account for over 20% of NASDAQ value
“Sequoia-backed companies, accounting for more than 20% of NASDAQ's total value.”
Harry Stebbings Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 0:28 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022
Disclosure
Sequoia launches Arc, an eight-week seed catalyst program for US and Europe
“So arc is an eight week seed catalyst program for us founders and European founders. It's going to be two separate cohorts and we actually launch in Europe first.”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 33:38 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022 positive
Insight
Lixandru: Selecting the right early-stage founders matters more than valuation dynamics
“When we have discussions on early stage opportunities, so seed and series A, we leave price dynamics aside. We focus on the company, we focus on the founder, and we really think that at this stage, selecting the right opportunity and selecting the right Compan…”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 18:31 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022
Assertion Supported
Lixandru: Sequoia operates US and Europe as one unified capital pool
“We changed our name, actually. It's USC, so US Europe, as one team, one pool of capital”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 27:15 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022 positive
Assertion Supported
Lixandru: Video editor Veed was completely bootstrapped prior to Sequoia's investment
“They didn't raise for a long time. They were bootstrapped until we invested, and they got to quite a meaningful scale without fundraising.”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 40:56 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022 bullish
Disclosure
Sequoia led two consecutive funding rounds in Pennylane within nine months
“I mean, a good example is recently we led two rounds in a French company called Penny Lane. We just announced a growth round that we had led the previous round nine months before.”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 20:47 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Mar 21, 2022
Insight
Lixandru: Ignore a startup's thousand potential flaws to focus on key questions
“If you look at any company, there are a thousand questions you can ask that might have a negative answer, and there are a thousand different ways for any company to not be successful, but there are only a few questions that really matter, so I would say focus …”
Luciana Lixandru Mar 21, 2022 ▶ 17:51 20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia
Apr 11, 2022 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Garg: Andreessen and Sequoia Will Likely Successfully Transition to Web3
“Now, some absolutely can, and I think some will. Like, I think Andreessen and Sequoia will likely make that transition, but it's going to be extremely challenging.”
Avichal Garg Apr 11, 2022 ▶ 16:39 20VC: Why Crypto is Software Eating Money, Why Crypto Firms Will Outcompete Traditional Venture Firms, How To Price Tokens and When To Have Them, DAOs: How Are They Structured and What Makes One Successful with Avichal Garg, Co-Founder @ Electric Capital
May 6, 2022 negative
Opinion
Lemkin: Multi-stage seed funds create negative signaling if they skip Series A
“Of course, if Sequoia or Excel or Andreessen or Lightspeed has two years of data and they don't preempt the A, of course it's a problem. Of course it's a bad signal. So that was a problem, and that exists today.”
Jason Lemkin May 6, 2022 ▶ 30:45 20VC: Why the Traditional Seed Fund Model No Longer Works, Why Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed Bring Signaling Risk but also Less Pressure, The One Criteria All Potential Sales Hires Need to Have and The Clear Signs of 10x Sales Hires with Jason Lemki
May 30, 2022 neutral
Assertion Supported
Rabois: Sequoia Capital is opening a New York office
“No, Sequoia now is opening a New York office.”
Keith Rabois May 30, 2022 ▶ 29:20 Keith Rabois: The End of Woke Capitalism; Time Allocation Tips; Silicon Valley vs Miami | 20VC #891 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 29, 2022
Disclosure
Doug Leone: Sequoia stress-tests portfolios against hypothetical 30% market crashes
“One of the exercises I've asked, we run more than once at Sequoia. Let's take a fund two cycles ago where the companies are just coming up. How would we feel about those investments if the market just crashed by 30%? Let's figure out how many of those were mom…”
Doug Leone Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 5:03 20VC: The Memo: Bill Gurley, Doug Leone, Keith Rabois; Investing Lessons from Prior Busts, How Their Investor Psychology Changed, What Can Be Applied To Today's Market
Jul 27, 2022
Insight
Herzberg: Closing initial deals builds sales empathy and informs product
“And after selling the first 10, 20 customers. The founder will, number one, have a really good sense of empathy for the first official salespeople that he or she brings on, and number two, will learn that selling is one of the most important input mechanisms f…”
Dannie Herzberg Jul 27, 2022 ▶ 11:30 20VC: The Memo: What is a Sales Playbook? Does the Founder Need to Create It? Should the First Sales Hire Be a Leader or a Rep?
Jul 27, 2022
Insight
Herzberg: First sales hire should be a player-coach, not executive VP
“The next one could be a Player coach who can roll up his or her sleeves, do the selling while simultaneously taking the lead on hiring the next four account executives. And often we see that we look for someone who has led a team before. So they are thinking c…”
Dannie Herzberg Jul 27, 2022 ▶ 11:57 20VC: The Memo: What is a Sales Playbook? Does the Founder Need to Create It? Should the First Sales Hire Be a Leader or a Rep?
Aug 12, 2022
Insight
Lixandru: Growth investors have less pricing flexibility than early-stage VCs
“With growth, I really think you need to stay sober. By definition, given the upside in venture versus growth, I think you have less room to play with pricing on the growth side.”
Luciana Lixandru Aug 12, 2022 ▶ 19:42 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
Aug 15, 2022 negative
What-if
Stebbings Missed $25M in Liquidity by Following Sequoia's Advice to Hold Winners
“My biggest regret and my biggest lesson is that I didn't, because I believed in Sequoia's, hold on to your winners, never sell your winners, and I didn't, and I probably could have taken off about twenty five million dollars for an eight million dollar fund.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 15, 2022 ▶ 11:11 Sheel Mohnot: Lessons from Investing in Flexport and Missing on Robinhood | 20VC #917 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 30, 2022 positive
Opinion
Sequoia and Founders Fund excel at building deep ownership in winners
“I think Sequoia has always done a good job of this. I think Founders Fund has done a good job of this.”
Logan Bartlett Aug 30, 2022 ▶ 14:11 Logan Bartlett: WTF is Happening at Growth Stage Investing? | 20VC #920 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 12, 2022 positive
Opinion
Stebbings: Sequoia is the only major multi-stage VC honoring portfolio conflicts
“I think the only big multistage fund that does care and honor it really well is Sequoia.”
Harry Stebbings Sep 12, 2022 ▶ 14:39 Will Quist: Why 95% of Venture Capital is Not Really “Venture Capital” | 20VC #924 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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
Oct 10, 2022
Assertion Partly supported
Gerstner: Sequoia's early Figma investment yielded 100x while late-stage yielded 2x
“If you look at the difference between the Sequoia round in Figma or the durable round in Figma, right? It's the difference between, you know, having a hundred plus X outcome and a two X outcome.”
Brad Gerstner Oct 10, 2022 ▶ 16:36 Brad Gerstner: How I Pick Companies; Lessons from Warren Buffet; Chamath vs Gurley | E935 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 18, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
Drew Houston: Sequoia invested $1.2M in Dropbox at $3.8M pre-money valuation
“Yeah, it was a 1.2 million on 3.8 pre, so five posts.”
Drew Houston Oct 18, 2022 ▶ 46:06 Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: How to Pick a Co-Founder; Steve Jobs' Attempt to Buy Dropbox | 20VC #938 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 18, 2022
Insight
Drew Houston: Founders should use VC portfolio introductions to calibrate executive hiring
“Second, you lean on your investors. And if you have a great venture investors, we had Sequoia capital who had a great experience with they, part of their job is to have a network and Rolodex of great execs. And so asking your investor, putting your investors t…”
Drew Houston Oct 18, 2022 ▶ 38:43 Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: How to Pick a Co-Founder; Steve Jobs' Attempt to Buy Dropbox | 20VC #938 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 18, 2022
Assertion Supported
Drew Houston: Sequoia's Mike Moritz closed Dropbox investment in one business day
“We met on a Friday. Pejman actually came with us to our pitch, which was apparently, which I learned later is extremely unorthodox. And then Mike Moritz, kind of the godfather of Sequoia came to our apartment on Saturday morning. We had a handshake deal on Mon…”
Drew Houston Oct 18, 2022 ▶ 44:06 Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: How to Pick a Co-Founder; Steve Jobs' Attempt to Buy Dropbox | 20VC #938 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 21, 2022 neutral
Insight
Stebbings: Raising a $2B fund is easier than raising $200M
“It gets to a stage with also fund sizes, Kyle, where it's almost easier to raise two billion than it is two hundred million, and the reason I say that is because there is a pool of LPs, as you know, the pension funds of the world, Who need to move a hundred mi…”
Harry Stebbings Oct 21, 2022 ▶ 40:25 Kyle Harrison: Why 75% of Active Investors Will Disappear in the Next Few Years | 20VC #940 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 25, 2022 bullish
Insight
Emil Michael: VC funds must go multi-stage to survive fewer mid-tier exits
“And to win big, you've got to try to invest across multiple stages. And that's what Sequoia can do. That's what age can do. That's what rivet can do. That's what DST can do. And I think if you can't, You're just going to get, have to get lucky because there's …”
Emil Michael Oct 25, 2022 ▶ 1:00:46 Emil Michael: How I Negotiated the $4B Uber-China Deal, Why DoorDash Caught Up to Uber | 20VC #941 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 21, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Stebbings: Hot seed rounds raised by executive founders consistently underperformed
“I looked at the seeds, and I looked at those that haven't really worked, and all of those that haven't really worked have often been head of product at Twitter, head of product at Twitch, head of product at amazing company, the hottest of hot seed rounds with …”
Harry Stebbings Nov 21, 2022 ▶ 7:07 Semil Shah: Lessons Learned Scaling from a $1M to a $50M Fund | 20VC #951 · 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
Nov 28, 2022 positive
Insight
Sequoia research shows startup momentum is statistically difficult to lose once achieved
“Out of looking at 400 entrepreneurs, if you have achieved momentum, that momentum is statistically so incredibly difficult to lose.”
Miki Kuusi Nov 28, 2022 ▶ 58:28 Miki Kuusi: How I Scaled Wolt to $8B; Why I Sold to DoorDash | 20VC #953 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 26, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Batchu: Lead VCs share pre-diligenced deal flow with operators, not rival funds
“So I get deal flow from other investors all the time, especially ones that are like, you know, if Sequoia or craft or whoever are like, you know, we're leading this round. We're really excited about it. Do you want to be a part of it? That's great. Like a lot …”
Sri Batchu Jul 26, 2023 ▶ 45:52 Sri Batchu: Biggest Growth Lesson from Instacart & Opendoor; 70% of Experiments Should Fail | E1040 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 6, 2023 positive
Opinion
Basu Trivedi: USV belongs in the VC pantheon alongside Sequoia and Benchmark
“I think USV doesn't get the credit that it deserves. I think it should be in that pantheon of greatness that sort of Sequoia and Benchmark are typically put in.”
Nikhil Basu Trivedi Sep 6, 2023 ▶ 1:03:14 Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Why 99% of AI Investments Will Go Bust | E1057 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 11, 2023 neutral
Disclosure
Velez: Nubank's first São Paulo office cost $500 monthly for 20 people
“We started the business in a very small house in Sao Paulo. We paid, I remember the partner of Sequoia, Michael Abramson was there. His mind was blown when I told him we paid 500 dollars per month in rent, and we had 20 people working out of the house.”
David Vélez Sep 11, 2023 ▶ 25:20 David Velez: How AI Changes The Future of Finance | E1059 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 11, 2023 negative
Opinion
Velez: 2012 Latin American startups were unambitious Silicon Valley clones
“Why would Sequoia, who had access to best entrepreneurs in the world in Silicon Valley, spend time just going and investing in some of these businesses that in a way were just wanted to be clones of Silicon Valley businesses. They were not really shooting that…”
David Vélez Sep 11, 2023 ▶ 10:52 David Velez: How AI Changes The Future of Finance | E1059 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 11, 2023 positive
Assertion Contradicted
Velez: Sequoia interviews job candidates top-down, starting with firm leadership
“The first thing that came to mind was the first interview was with the head of the firm, not with the youngest analyst. In most firms, you start from the bottom, and then you go up, and Sequoia is the opposite. You go from the top, and then you go down, and yo…”
David Vélez Sep 11, 2023 ▶ 0:57 David Velez: How AI Changes The Future of Finance | E1059 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 11, 2023
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Velez: Sequoia signed three term sheets on a single Brazil trip
“I just, I remember specifically one trip where we signed three term sheets.”
David Vélez Sep 11, 2023 ▶ 5:16 David Velez: How AI Changes The Future of Finance | E1059 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 18, 2023 neutral
Assertion Supported
Figma was at $4M ARR when Sequoia invested at $400M valuation
“I remember when they, it's public, but they were at four million in ARR when Andrew did them at 400.”
Harry Stebbings Sep 18, 2023 ▶ 50:52 Miles Grimshaw: The 5 Pillars of Venture Capital & Why Co-Pilot is an Incumbent Strategy | E1061 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 18, 2023 positive
Opinion
Stebbings: Top VCs prioritize upside maximization over downside risk
“When I think about Brian Singerman and Pat Grady, They're not worried at all about it going to zero, but they are very worried about upside maximization, and I think you get that uncapped upside lack of fear of downside through immense success.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 18, 2023 ▶ 28:58 Beezer Clarkson: Are LPs Open for Business & Why Do LP Incentive Mechanisms Need to Change? | E1073 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 18, 2023 negative
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Sequoia's scout program missed Series A and B rounds
“Actually there was a big problem, which is like their data monitoring wasn't what it could have been. And so they missed a lot of A's and B's and then did the C's of companies that they did scout deals in. And so ultimately, yes, they got great returns on the …”
Harry Stebbings Oct 18, 2023 ▶ 23:36 Beezer Clarkson: Are LPs Open for Business & Why Do LP Incentive Mechanisms Need to Change? | E1073 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 30, 2023 negative
Opinion
Tomaino: Silicon Valley is driven by soulless greed, citing Sequoia Capital
“My sentiment in a lot of Silicon Valley is that it's very, there, there's a lot of soulless greed, and just this desire to create these kind of you know, massive funds create massive attention, and I think, again, Sequoia is the best example of this, and 1789,…”
Nick Tomaino Oct 30, 2023 ▶ 1:07:55 Nick Tomaino: The Future of NFTs, What Will Happen with FTX & Who Should be Held to Account | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 3, 2023 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins historically demanded 20% valuation discounts
“When I started in the old, old days, there were only two brands in venture. I knew of there was Sequoia and Kleiner, right? And you had to take a discount for both of them, right? You'd go out and you'd get your term sheet from somebody else, and then Kleiner …”
Jason Lemkin Nov 3, 2023 ▶ 3:59 Roundtable #5 with Jack Altman, Auren Hoffman, Jason Lemkin, Harry Stebbings | E1077 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 20, 2023 positive
Assertion Supported
Franceschetti: The 'pre-parade' quarterly goal-setting framework comes from Sequoia
“Yeah, it comes from Sequoia, the pre-parade, So, substantially, you celebrate the quarter. This quarter will be successful. This next quarter will be successful if. And you write it down. And then at the, when the quarter ends, you see the pre-parade, and you …”
Matteo Franceschetti Nov 20, 2023 ▶ 1:14:30 Matteo Franceschetti: The Ultimate Hiring Playbook: Five Questions to Ask Every New Hire | E1084 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 11, 2023 positive
Assertion Supported
Corcos: Sequoia's Vernal and Andreessen's Jordan Read Every Pre-Meeting Document
“The people who were most engaged was Mike Vernal at Sequoia and Jeff Jordan and Andreessen. They read every document. Jeff actually even fixed some typos like deep in like a 50 page document.”
Sam Corcos Dec 11, 2023 ▶ 42:45 Sam Corcos: Why Founders Should Take as Many VC Meetings as Possible | E1093 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 18, 2023 bullish
Disclosure
Lacaillade: SCS Financial Is an Investor in Sequoia Capital Heritage Fund
“So we're kind of in Sequoia, but like, and I'm very, I mean, Kevin Kelly is like my, I love Sequoia heritage.”
Peter Lacaillade Dec 18, 2023 ▶ 1:18:42 Peter Lacaillade: Why Now is the Best Time to Invest in Emerging Managers | E1096 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 4, 2024
Assertion Open
Sequoia still uses the lobby-waiting strategy to win competitive deals
“The classic Sequoia playbook, which literally happened to one of my portfolio companies a couple months ago, where they sit in the lobby and just wait, you know, with the term sheet. Sequoia still does it.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 4, 2024 ▶ 1:17:01 Jason Lemkin: Predictions for 2024 - What Does a Trump Administration do for Startups? | E1099 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 12, 2024 positive
Opinion
Rabois: Khosla, Founders Fund, and Sequoia historically led VC price discipline
“KB and Founders Fund may be the two most disciplined. I think Sequoia has also historically been very price disciplined to their credit. They've also relaxed that a bit but they're, I think, very top down and consciously, but I think historically, those three …”
Keith Rabois Jan 12, 2024 ▶ 15:14 Keith Rabois on Rejoining Khosla Ventures | E1102 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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 15, 2024 negative
Opinion
Building a $25B company isn't enough to compete with Sequoia
“Like if I were to go in and try to compete with Andreessen and Sequoia with all those folks, I don't even, that's not, I don't think that's a good enough angle.”
Brian Halligan Jan 15, 2024 ▶ 1:15:28 Brian Halligan: Leadership Lessons Scaling Hubspot to $28BN | E1103 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 15, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Sequoia's Pat Grady caught errors in HubSpot's unit economics during due diligence
“By the way, during the time he dug through all that, he figured out we were calculating unit economics wrong, and he got our head straight, our pricing model. He fixed a bunch of stuff during that.”
Brian Halligan Jan 15, 2024 ▶ 1:00:31 Brian Halligan: Leadership Lessons Scaling Hubspot to $28BN | E1103 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 15, 2024 positive
Insight
Brian Halligan says Elon Musk's primary operational focus is aligning employee vectors
“He talked about how organizations have all their people that are different vectors. And in most organizations, you have some strong vectors, really strong employees, and some less strong employees. And in most organizations, your vectors are pointed all over t…”
Brian Halligan Jan 15, 2024 ▶ 31:43 Brian Halligan: Leadership Lessons Scaling Hubspot to $28BN | E1103 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 15, 2024 bullish
Opinion
Brian Halligan claims Sequoia partners work harder than any other venture capitalists
“They work much harder than any other VCs have come across, and they're absolutely paranoid that they're going to lose it.”
Brian Halligan Jan 15, 2024 ▶ 1:03:47 Brian Halligan: Leadership Lessons Scaling Hubspot to $28BN | E1103 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 29, 2024 positive
Disclosure
MITIMCo backs Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Green Oaks, Y Combinator, and Initialized Capital
“So we're lucky to be in a lot of the big names you would expect, you know, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen, et cetera. And then, you know, there's some newer things as well that we've done in the past 10 or 15 years, like say, Green Oaks or Y Combinator i…”
Ryan Akkina Jan 29, 2024 ▶ 8:19 Ryan Akkina: How MIT Builds Their Venture Fund Portfolio & How MIT Approach Direct Investing | E1109 · 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 19, 2024 positive
Opinion
Ehrenberg: Sequoia's evergreen structure makes complete sense for established venture firms
“Now, Sequoia made the franchise four years ago. So for them to set up this evergreen structure, absolutely. Makes all the sense in the world.”
Roger Ehrenberg Feb 19, 2024 ▶ 52:17 Roger Ehrenberg: Why VC Returns Will Get Worse & Why LP Incentive Structures are so Broken | E1117 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 19, 2024 bullish
Prediction Held up
Ehrenberg: Top VC Firms Will Maintain Premium Fees Due to Outperformance
“It's going to be just like hedge funds. You know, look at Sequoia. The best firms charge premium fees and will be able to get it because on an after fee basis, they still outperform.”
Roger Ehrenberg Feb 19, 2024 ▶ 0:23 Roger Ehrenberg: Why VC Returns Will Get Worse & Why LP Incentive Structures are so Broken | E1117 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 26, 2024 positive
Opinion
Ishbia: Doug Leone is among the top handful of investors ever
“And by the way, I know Doug really well, and Doug is, Not the best investor I've ever met, one in the top handful, for sure.”
Justin Ishbia Feb 26, 2024 ▶ 1:03:04 Justin Ishbia: The Three Traits Required to Succeed in Private Equity | E1119 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 13, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia Circulates Investment Memos Friday for Monday Partner Meetings
“If you have a Monday morning meeting, they circulate the entire memo on a Friday. And when people go into that room and make a collective decision, They go with a prepared mind, which basically means you better have read your memo. You come in knowing everythi…”
Chandra Narayanan Mar 13, 2024 ▶ 17:04 Chandra Narayanan: Top 5 Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook | E1126 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 13, 2024
Disclosure
Sequoia Classified All Portfolio Companies Into Eight Distinct Formulas
“What all the companies at Sequoia, for example, we can classify for the types of companies phase Sequoia had was eight different types of companies, e-commerce, two sided marketplaces you know, consumer subscription, consumer ads, and SaaS obviously, and so on…”
Chandra Narayanan Mar 13, 2024 ▶ 1:06:09 Chandra Narayanan: Top 5 Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook | E1126 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 13, 2024
Disclosure
Sequoia's Data Team Stopped the Firm From Making Bad Investments
“Many of this, by the way, that, that we stopped Sequoia from investing where I think they would have otherwise invested. It was so close to investment.”
Chandra Narayanan Mar 13, 2024 ▶ 14:30 Chandra Narayanan: Top 5 Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook | E1126 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 18, 2024
Insight
Raanan: Investors are only as good as their next investment
“One thing I learned at Sequoia is that we are always as good as our next investment.”
Gili Raanan Mar 18, 2024 ▶ 0:00 Gili Raanan: One of the Best Seed Investor of All Time: 1 Decacon, 7 Unicorns, 4 Acquisitions| E1128 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 18, 2024
Insight
Gili Raanan: Strong Venture Brands Create Virtuous Investment Cycles
“The venture business is, is, is, is a service business. You provide services and once you, I mean, it's very hard to tell, you know, if that, Service provider, if service provider A is significantly better than service provider B, because, you know, what you s…”
Gili Raanan Mar 18, 2024 ▶ 11:37 Gili Raanan: One of the Best Seed Investor of All Time: 1 Decacon, 7 Unicorns, 4 Acquisitions| E1128 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 25, 2024 positive
Opinion
Clark: The Sequoia Fund structure was right despite bad market timing
“And I think it's interesting that the criticism that Sakaya had for the Sakaya Fund It's absolutely the right idea. It just happened that they implemented it at a time in the market where you saw a significant correction once it was put in place.”
David Clark Mar 25, 2024 ▶ 43:32 David Clark: Lessons from 32 Years of Fund Investing - Why Exits Will Be Larger | E1131 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 10, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Ryan: Top Multi-Stage VCs Rarely Compete in AlleyCorp's Seed Deals
“No, we don't see in the last, you know, 20 seed deals they're not in there very often.”
Kevin Ryan Apr 10, 2024 ▶ 51:21 Kevin Ryan: Are the Best CEOs the Best Fundraisers & Why Ownership Should Not Be a Focus in VC|E1138 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Sequoia's Arc program teaches founders to operationally fake unbuilt features
“We actually do have this PMF this kind of scoping MVP framework that we teach during ARC that I teach during product week. And it talks about, there's three columns, of course, there's three pillars that we break it into. And the first is what does the product…”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 11:20 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Sequoia's product team wrote a four-page manifesto to keep using Linear
“We adopted linear here at Sequoia with my team. And we actually had another issue tracking tool that we also, you know, had licenses for. Some teams use this, some teams use that, but EPD solely use linear. And we were being, there was a threat of us consolida…”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 51:25 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024 positive
Insight
Vickie Peng: What drove Sequoia's first 50 years won't sustain its next 50
“Sequoia is 50, 50 plus year old firm. But what got us through the first 50 years isn't going to get us through the next 50. And there's gotta be something that provides the team, you know, the leverage and the amplification for what we need to do, which is fin…”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 15:38 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024
Insight
Peng: Founders underestimate the power of storytelling compared to product building
“And people over, maybe not overestimate the building of the product, but they underestimate the power of the story and the building of that story.”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 5:45 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024
Insight
Vickie Peng: Great product missions must be customer-centric and decade-focused
“Ok, so there's two core things I think that make a great product mission. One is that it's customer centric. So it should describe what it changes for the customer and their world, how it changes the customer's world. Two is that it is a thing that you can ima…”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 17:53 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2024
Disclosure
Peng: Sequoia portfolio is evenly split across customer mindset archetypes
“When we actually look through our portfolio, I would say it was actually pretty representative across the different paths, surprisingly enough, hard fact is really comes through a lot, I would say actually, surprisingly so.”
Vickie Peng Apr 17, 2024 ▶ 39:55 Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Daniel Dines Rejected Sequoia Capital's Investment Offer for UiPath's Series B
“So I said basically no to Sequoia to our Series B, and we, Series B was led by Excel US, and Capital G, Kleiner Perkins, and some other people participated in, but I said no to Sequoia.”
Daniel Dines Apr 22, 2024 ▶ 1:19:22 Daniel Dines: From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man| Happiness, Wealth, Risk and more | E1143 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2024 negative
Opinion
Dines: Sequoia Capital Can Damage Startups by Backing Their Competitors
“And Sequoia can make, can damage a company investing in competitors helping them.”
Daniel Dines Apr 22, 2024 ▶ 1:20:22 Daniel Dines: From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man| Happiness, Wealth, Risk and more | E1143 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carl Eschenbach Promised Sequoia Would Only Invest in UiPath Within RPA
“Carl decided that if Sequoia is gonna invest in RPA, he's gonna invest only in UiPath. Even before signing with him, he told me up front, very extreme candor.”
Daniel Dines Apr 22, 2024 ▶ 1:20:57 Daniel Dines: From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man| Happiness, Wealth, Risk and more | E1143 · 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
Jun 17, 2024 neutral
Opinion
Sequoia and Accel are Index's primary consumer Series A competitors
“Clearly, clearly the folks at Sequoia are a big fierce competitor, and the folks at Acceler are fierce and, you know, I would say there are a number of different players, but those come to mind for consumer stuff. Certainly Sequoia comes to mind a lot. Benchma…”
Danny Rimer Jun 17, 2024 ▶ 1:18:48 Danny Rimer: The Biggest Lessons from Missing Snap, Airbnb, Spotify and Facebook | E1166 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 28, 2024
Assertion Contradicted
Vise Was Sequoia's Last Investment Before the COVID-19 Shutdown
“We were the last investment at Sequoia before everything shut down for the pandemic, like day before the global shutdown.”
Samir Vasavada Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 10:29 Samir Vasavada: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires | E1171 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 28, 2024
Assertion Partly supported
Vise Raised Seed Extension, Series A, and Series B in Seven Months
“The seed extension was done in October of 2019. Our A was done in March, and our B was done in May.”
Samir Vasavada Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 10:15 Samir Vasavada: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires | E1171 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 28, 2024 negative
Insight
Vasavada: Concentrating Board Ownership in One VC Suppresses Healthy Debate
“You want multiple voices in the boardroom, and I think the challenge is when you have One investor that owns 30% of the company and, you know, has piled in, you know, close to fifty million bucks, then you're going to have that investor's perspective as, you k…”
Samir Vasavada Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 11:26 Samir Vasavada: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires | E1171 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 28, 2024 negative
Insight
Vasavada: Top VC Backing Can Attract Employees Seeking Quick Exits
“So it's a double-edged sword. And the reason why it's a double-edged sword is because on one hand, you've got all this great credibility by association. You have all of this social capital and that social capital allows you to hire people. It allows you to get…”
Samir Vasavada Jun 28, 2024 ▶ 39:23 Samir Vasavada: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires | E1171 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 3, 2024 negative
Opinion
Eyal: Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia have become BlackRocks for startups
“And that's part of the challenge with what's happened today within the, what I call the institutionalization of VC, where Andreessen and Sequoia have become such big funds, the investment managers you know, the multiple targets are different. The RR targets ha…”
Avi Eyal Jul 3, 2024 ▶ 14:14 Avi Eyal: Making $2.3BN on Monday, Stripe & PillPack from Entrée Capital MP | E1173 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 bullish
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Grady: Startups see 4x higher valuations in rounds immediately following Sequoia
“But if you look at the, if you look at the data, it's actually not signaling risk, it's signaling advantage. And it's signaling advantage in the sense that the average valuation for the round that you raise after your Sequoia round. So if you raise a seed from…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 56:12 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 neutral
Insight
Grady: Sequoia's main threat is arrogance and complacency, not market shifts
“And so the premortem for Sequoia has nothing to do with the financial markets or technology platform shifts or competitive dynamics out in the market. And it has everything to do with staying hungry, staying humble and pretending like To use the Amazon termino…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 1:01:48 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
What-if
Grady: My venture success came from Sequoia's platform and 2007 timing
“Let's say you'd picked any random person off the street in March of. And plop them down into Sequoia where they have one, the greatest business card you could possibly hope for to the beginning of the cloud mobile transition. And three, you're about to head in…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 4:46 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Partly supported
Grady: Sequoia invested $52M for 20% of ServiceNow at $260M valuation
“We invested fifty two million for 20%. And for anybody keeping track, that is two 60 post on twenty five million of ARR generating twenty million of cash.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 33:17 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Supported
Grady: Sequoia grew its investment team from 14 to 27 over 17 years
“When I joined 17 years ago, we had 14 investors, today we have 27, and so that's less than a two x over, you know, 17 years.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 36:33 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grady: Sequoia's internal data platform predicts which founders to meet
“We do want it to get to the point where it can tell us whether or not we should meet a company. And it got to that point a year or two ago.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 38:55 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Supported
Grady: Sequoia expanded platform operators from 2 to nearly 60
“When I joined, we had two people that I would call kind of front office operators. So not compliance, finance, all that good stuff, but Two people, one in marketing and one in talent who were there to amplify the efforts of investors and serve the portfolio. T…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 36:48 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 negative
What-if
Grady: Sequoia should have split from India and China branches earlier
“In 2005, when we got into India and China, we did so with the thesis that the world is getting smaller. When we parted ways in 20, 23, it was because that thesis in some ways had been invalidated. And so I think maybe we could have done that a few years sooner…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 42:39 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Grady: Passing on Segment and Revolut Series A rounds were terrible mistakes
“I met both of them at the Series A, and both of them told me the entire story in like five or 10 minutes. And it was super clear. And at the end of the five or 10 minutes, I couldn't think of any questions to ask because they had already answered any question …”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 21:49 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Insight
Grady: Prestigious firms attract status-seekers rather than true builders
“When you work at a name brand place like a Viking or like a Sequoia, You're attracting people who want to be part of something great, not people who want to build something great.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 5:54 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Grady: Figma had $4.6M ARR at Sequoia's Series C
“So the series C and Figma, when Figma had, I think, 4.6 million of ARR, that was not at all obvious, but Andrew had spent three years Studying the design market and had a real point of view.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 27:58 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia issued the only term sheet for HubSpot's 2011 Series D
“So for example, HubSpot back in the day, we led the series D in 2011. We would later find out that we were the only term sheet. Nobody else wanted to invest.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 11:59 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Opinion
Grady: Sarah Guo is the external VC I respect most
“Sarah Gua. It's an easy one.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 1:05:27 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grady: Sequoia screened 9,000 candidates to hire Andrew Reed and Matt Huang
“Andrew Reed, Matt Huang both started on our team in February of 2014. And so the process that led to them was conducted over the back half of 2013. And it was about the most rigorous hiring process we've ever had. Like top of funnel was 9000 and what came out …”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 44:25 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Insight
Grady: Corporate experiments should default to termination unless wildly successful
“I also think it's really important that the default for any given experiment is that it gets killed. The burden of proof is on the experiment, right? Unless it is a wild success, shut it down. Most companies say, well, unless it's an abject failure, we'll just…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 41:59 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia keeps senior partners actively investing rather than managing
“One of the things that we try to do that we try to distinguish ourselves on is to not have the more experienced people check out and get into administrative management roles.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 54:35 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia rejected a $5B buyout for a now-struggling portfolio company
“There's one in our portfolio now that I'm not going to name, but we had an offer from somebody to buy the company for almost five billion dollars. We own just north of 20%. That would have been a huge home run. Now the company looks like it is, ah, kind of not…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 48:59 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Supported
Grady: 10 years of Sequoia data shows consensus doesn't drive startup outcomes
“So we have actual data on this going back to 20 14 where we started recording the votes numerically on every single investment. So we have about 10 years worth, which believe it or not is not conclusive because there are so few outliers that have emerged even …”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 1:04:04 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Insight
Grady: Sequoia's 50-year relevance stems from an underdog desperation
“One of the things that has allowed us to remain relevant for 50 plus years now is this sort of underdog mentality and the sense of desperation and the sense that tomorrow is not our birthright.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 6:14 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Assertion Supported
Grady: Sequoia made $1B+ more on Palo Alto Networks by holding longer
“Or Palo Alto Networks, where we went into that IPO with the exact same ownership position as one of our co-investors. We ended up generating More than a billion dollars more than them because we were more patient, and so sometimes it really pays off.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 51:49 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia does not require a clear path to a $10B+ outcome
“We don't necessarily have to see, we don't have to see a clear line of sight to ten billion or a hundred billion or some grandiose figure. We do need to see a clear line of sight to good returns with an exceptional founder who could maybe find some upside from…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 58:47 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 bullish
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia still holds positions in Snowflake, Amplitude, and Datadog
“We still own a bunch of Snowflake. We own a bunch of Amplitude. We actually own a bunch of Datadog.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 33:37 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
Insight
Grady: Companies get better returns improving core products than expanding
“Most of the time when a company that we're involved with wants to go do a bunch of new things, it seems to me that the better use of resources is to make the thing you already do better. The thing that you already do Unless it is absolutely heads and shoulders…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 1:03:24 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grady: Sequoia won nearly 100% of targeted deals over the last year
“We do track this. I think it's a hundred percent in the last 12 months. Actually, I take it back. There's one situation where an existing portfolio company was raising a Series B and they chose somebody else, and To be fair, we didn't make an offer, but had we…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 28:40 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia looked at and passed on Figma's Series B
“And I think about the series B in Figma, which is a round that we looked at and passed on.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 25:07 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024
What-if
Grady: Sequoia missed a $30B gain by distributing ServiceNow stock early
“If we'd held ServiceNow through to today, it'd be a, I don't know, a thirty billion dollar gain, right? But we didn't. We distributed it a year or so after the IPO because it was the first billion dollar gain over time, not all at once, but it was within the f…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 49:25 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Grady: Sequoia holds pricing power at Seed and Series A stages
“And so most founders at the very early stages are willing to, you know, if you think of us as a premium product, you pay something different for a premium product than you pay for a normal product, and they pay for our premium product in the form of their equi…”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 57:27 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 8, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grady: Sequoia never fires or promotes investors over a single deal
“You will never see anybody at Sequoia reprimanded, fired, chastised for a failed investment. You will never see that. Similarly, you will never see anybody at Sequoia Promoted, lauded, praised for a single great investment.”
Pat Grady Jul 8, 2024 ▶ 9:00 Pat Grady: Sequoia Partner on Investing Lessons from Doug Leone, Roelof Botha and Alfred Lin | E1174 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Top VC brands give startups extra runway to achieve product-market fit
“Because Sequoia and Greylock have such great brands, they will generally, 90% of the time, always get more money, and because they get more money, they have more time to get product market fit.”
Harry Stebbings Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 34:20 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 22, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Sequoia outbid Hartz on Airbnb's seed round, but founders included him anyway
“I was angel investing with Keith Rubois and Javid Karim, and Javid is the co-founder of YouTube. And, you know, we just fell in love with those guys and made them an offer. And Sequoia out, out did us and got the lead, but they cut us in nicely because, you kn…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 18:39 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 22, 2024 positive
Opinion
Hartz favors Sequoia's hands-on VC model over Founders Fund's hands-off approach
“Given those two extremes, I actually lean more towards, ah, the role of Sequoia's side, because I've just seen that kind of help and oversight and having that kind of star chamber of great talent cut so many corners of mistakes that would be made.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 12:40 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 22, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pierre Lamond made Kevin Hartz force-rank direct reports and fire the lowest
“In the very first meeting, I'll always remember, he said, Kevin, I want you to go up to the whiteboard, and I want you to write your direct reports down, but I want you to force rank them, you know, one to seven, or how many it was, and so I go and I write the…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 6:11 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 29, 2024 neutral
Opinion
Asparouhov: Sequoia and a16z are evolving into BlackRock-like mega-managers
“You are starting to see, obviously, people shift in fundamentally different directions, like Sequoia and C and Z becoming RIAs, maybe points towards a world where they're going to be scaling headcount, asset classes, et cetera, to the point where they start to…”
Delian Asparouhov Jul 29, 2024 ▶ 1:01:42 Delian Asparouhov: Inside the Walls of Founders Fund: What the World Does Not See | E1183 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 29, 2024 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Asparouhov: Founders Fund outperformed Sequoia, a16z, and Benchmark with fewer debacles
“If I were to look over the past sort of five years, I think generally the Founders Fund decision making has led to Generally superior returns and also less gaffes in various ways, whether it's the, you know, sort of FTX type, you know, sort of fraud debacles, …”
Delian Asparouhov Jul 29, 2024 ▶ 32:46 Delian Asparouhov: Inside the Walls of Founders Fund: What the World Does Not See | E1183 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 29, 2024 negative
Assertion Supported
Asparouhov: Tier-one VC firms Benchmark, a16z, and Sequoia ousted founders recently
“There are firms, tier ones that I mentioned, Benchmark, A-sixteen Z, Sequoia, et cetera, all have examples of sort of founder oustings in the past sort of decade.”
Delian Asparouhov Jul 29, 2024 ▶ 43:27 Delian Asparouhov: Inside the Walls of Founders Fund: What the World Does Not See | E1183 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 neutral
Insight
Cahn: AI's true bottlenecks are servers, steel, and power
“And so I'll propose my own three things that I think are the three things that matter. And I would summarize it as servers, steel, and power.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 29:59 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 positive
Insight
Cahn: Replicating 80% of 10 peers' distinct superpowers drives investor success
“I'm probably not gonna be as hundred percent as good as you if this is your superpower, but I'd like to be 80% as good at you at your superpower, and if I can be 80% as good as 10 people on each of their 10 superpowers, then I'll probably be pretty, pretty goo…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 50:50 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024
Insight
Cahn: Focus on Software Customer Behavior Over Stated Churn Intentions
“So I think the lesson is you have to listen to what customers do. They continue to pay for the, especially expensive products. If people are paying for expensive products and telling you they're going to churn, you probably shouldn't listen to that. They're pa…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 48:55 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 neutral
Insight
Cahn: No Major AI Model Company Holds a Data or Compute Advantage
“I think it's really hard to argue today that any of the big model companies has a data advantage. Compute, it's just a commodity that you pay for. So it's hard to argue that any of them has a compute advantage.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 29:40 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia hires investors, breaks them down, and rebuilds them
“There's this great line that people at Sequoia say, which is Sequoia hires investors, breaks them down, and then rebuilds them in the Sequoia mold.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 55:08 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cahn: Sequoia Defines Success as Backing a Top 50 Global Company
“The bar for success is so, so, so high. Unless this company is one of the 50 most important companies in the world. You haven't done your job well.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 55:28 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Cahn: Joining Sequoia Did Not Increase Personal Deal Flow
“I think my deal flow basically didn't change at all.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 1:04:01 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 bearish
Opinion
Cahn: Current AI Products Are Not Yet Showing Strong Value Creation
“The burden to deliver value is very, very high in business. And we're not seeing that so strongly in AI yet.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 20:17 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024
Insight
Cahn: Competing in Frontier AI Requires a Massive Non-AI Cash Machine
“I think the evidence of the last couple of years is in order to play in the big model game, you need a cash machine and that cash machine cannot be the AI business, right?”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 24:06 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024
Insight
Cahn: Deal selection is more critical than winning or sourcing in VC
“Selection is the most important and I think, and then I think winning comes behind that and sourcing probably is actually, maybe it's tied, but I think it's probably third.”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 1:02:48 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2034
Cahn: ChatGPT Is Now a $3.4 Billion Revenue Business
“Definitely OpenAI. I mean, OpenAI has a brand, it has consumer distribution, it has product market fit with ChatGBT, which is a 3.4 billion dollar revenue business now. I think ChatGBT will definitely be around. Yeah, I think a bunch of the others will too for…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 1:11:13 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 positive
Insight
Cahn: Founders Should Offer Up to 5% Equity for Transformational Hires
“I tell founders all the time, if you find someone who's going to transform your business, give them five percent of the company. Now I say that it's an extreme statement. Maybe it's four percent, maybe it's three percent. But I think we get very married to lik…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 1:09:58 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2024 negative
Insight
Cahn: Injecting AI for Marketing Adds Costs Without Pricing Power
“If you are simply injecting AI so that you can tell investors that you have AI and so that you can, you know, talk on your marketing page about how you have AI, then you're just injecting a new cost item with actually no benefit to the consumer. And if there's…”
David Cahn Aug 5, 2024 ▶ 19:43 David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 12, 2024 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Shaun Maguire: A non-Sequoia VC firm mandated backing female founders yearly
“There is a venture fund that I know very well. It is not Sequoia that, For a period of time had a policy that every investor was to boast to back at least one female founder per year.”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 47:37 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
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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Maguire: Multiple people tried to get me fired from Sequoia Capital
“Many, many different people tried to get me fired in many different ways.”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 43:13 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 positive
Opinion
Maguire names Sequoia's best deal sourcers
“Daphne Jean and Josephine Chen. And Constantine.”
Shaun Maguire Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 1:05:39 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
Aug 26, 2024 negative
Opinion
Khan: Public Investors Manage Short-Term Stock Risk Better Than VCs
“So I think Sequoia is right that they have that information and they, if they want to take a 10 years view, I think that's totally fine. But in a one to two years basis, they probably, as you, you're right, they're probably not going to be better than a public…”
Imran Khan Aug 26, 2024 ▶ 38:31 Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 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
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wang: Sequoia considered shutting down its global equities fund in 2016
“And so there's this crucible moment in 2016 where Sequoia decided to part ways with the original PM and actually consider shutting down the business entirely.”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 12:23 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2024
Disclosure
Wang: Sequoia missed Shopify in private markets and first invested post-IPO
“Shopify was not a Sequoia portfolio company. It's a company that we admired in the private markets, but we did not invest in the private markets. And our first chance to invest is when they go public, right?”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 15:22 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 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
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
Oct 9, 2024
Disclosure
Wang: Only one-third of SCGE's portfolio consists of Sequoia venture companies
“So there is a portion of our business that, our portfolio that is Prior or existing Sequoia portfolio companies, right? That's maybe about a third of the portfolio”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 15:09 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2024
Disclosure
Wang: SCGE manages $9B across two-thirds public and one-third private investments
“We had fifty million of internal capital. We now manage about nine billion of mostly external LP capital, but that internal capital amount is also now about a billion. The portfolio is about two thirds public and then one third private. And that one third priv…”
Jeff Wang Oct 9, 2024 ▶ 2:00 Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 14, 2024 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: Founders will always prioritize brand-name VC firms like Sequoia
“I think some founders still see, you know, a name in lights, and they go, I want that name beyond anything. I, if it's Sequoia, A-sixting Z, Accel, you name it, I want that name, and I think there will always be a steady supply of founders who think that way.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 5:51 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 14, 2024 negative
Opinion
Frankel: Multi-stage VC firms have no incentive to matchmake for startups
“Sequoia will, it doesn't matter, by the way, I don't want to single out Sequoia here, but it doesn't matter if you take your check from Andreessen, Sequoia, Axel, you name them, right? They will never, they have no incentive to matchmake. They have no incentiv…”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 1:17:17 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 14, 2024
Assertion Partly supported
Frankel: Coupang raised from BlackRock at a $4B valuation
“So I remember, I think of Coupang, and, you know, Coupang came, went to Sequoia and said, look, it's a four billion pre BlackRock will put in a billion, right?”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 19:25 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 14, 2024 positive
Opinion
Frankel: Sequoia's evergreen fund strategy was sound despite poor timing
“Well, I think the timing was problematic, right? Clearly. But I think the theory that they had, I'm impressed with them that they thought about that, and they executed on it. I think the timing was unfortunate.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 39:59 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 25, 2024 positive
Opinion
Goldberg: Legacy VC brands drive follow-on funding, not customer growth
“I don't think it helps with customers. I think it helps with funding. You know, when Sequoia does a deal, there's going to be money that follows it. And that's great. That's a feature of, The brand equity they've built over a long period of time.”
Mark Goldberg Oct 25, 2024 ▶ 23:33 Mark Goldberg: Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | E1219 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 30, 2024
Disclosure
Linear Chose Sequoia for Series A to Minimize Founder Equity Dilution
“One of the reasons we did the series A with them is that we could push the dilution lower because they already have ownership.”
Karri Saarinen Oct 30, 2024 ▶ 23:04 Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 13, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Villig: Sequoia committed to Bolt's funding round within 48 hours
“From the moment I had the call with them to them getting back to me was 48 hours where we're joining the round.”
Markus Villig Nov 13, 2024 ▶ 57:11 Markus Villig, Founder @Bolt: The Most Insane Story in Startups & The Future of Self-Driving| E1225 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 13, 2024
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Villig: Bolt remains Sequoia Capital's largest check in Europe
“Still to this day, Bolt is the largest ticket Sequoia has ever done into Europe.”
Markus Villig Nov 13, 2024 ▶ 57:00 Markus Villig, Founder @Bolt: The Most Insane Story in Startups & The Future of Self-Driving| E1225 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 13, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Markus Villig: Sequoia Capital declined to meet with Bolt during early fundraising
“At Sequoia we actually didn't get the meeting. That was the sad part. So we tried to approach them many times. And then back then I think we weren't an interesting enough company.”
Markus Villig Nov 13, 2024 ▶ 42:19 Markus Villig, Founder @Bolt: The Most Insane Story in Startups & The Future of Self-Driving| E1225 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 20, 2024 negative
What-if
Sertoglu: Earlybird should have participated in Sequoia's $3B UiPath round
“In hindsight, we should have participated in that three billion dollar round by Sequoia.”
Cem Sertoglu Nov 20, 2024 ▶ 52:12 Cem Sertoglu: Lessons from the Greatest Venture Investment in European History | E1228 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 6, 2024 positive
Insight
Bookman: Top VC brands create recruitment and sales flywheels for startups
“I don't think it's irrational. The brand, it's one of the, I, look, are the Sequoia guys, like, Amazing investors. They probably are, but it's probably also an incredible flywheel or network effect where if they invest in your company, it simply helps you recr…”
Zachary Bookman Dec 6, 2024 ▶ 14:41 Zachary Bookman: Why Valuations and Fundraising are BS | E1235 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 6, 2025 negative
Assertion Supported
Maples: VarageSale failed despite aggressive follow-on funding from Sequoia
“Verage sale. Sequoia aggressively followed and it didn't do well.”
Mike Maples Jan 6, 2025 ▶ 10:37 Mike Maples: Three Frameworks to Evaluate Startups and Founders | E1242 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 20, 2025 negative
Insight
Kanji: VC Employees Optimize for Fast Markups Over Real Returns
“If you're the general employee, you optimize for getting to the next career ladder, and how do you show that you can get to the next career ladder? You do a deal, and then General Catalyst, or Index, or Kleiner, or Sequoia, or Andreessen, I mean, there are so …”
Hussein Kanji Jan 20, 2025 ▶ 2:31 Hussein Kanji, Founder @Hoxton Ventures: Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US | E1248 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 12, 2025 neutral
Assertion Supported
Odoo completed a €500M secondary deal at a €5B valuation
“So it was five hundred millions of euros at a five billion valuation. It was Summit Partners, one of our earlier investors who sold to Sequoia Capital, BlackRock, Mubadala, and Capital G.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 51:05 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 10, 2025
Disclosure
Jake Saper lost the Ironclad deal to Jess Lee at Sequoia
“The first deal I lost, I think I've lost two or three deals in my career so far. The first deal I lost was Ironclad. And I lost it to Jess Lee at Sequoia.”
Jake Saper Mar 10, 2025 ▶ 1:22:48 Jake Saper, GP @ Emergence Capital: "We Sold Salesforce Early and Lost Out on Billions" · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 10, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Hulme: Sequoia Capital Names Its Meeting Rooms After Its LP Institutions
“One of the things I admire about Sequoia is that their meeting rooms, I think, are named after their LPs.”
Tom Hulme Apr 10, 2025 ▶ 47:03 Tom Hulme & Stan Boland: Lessons from Jensen Huang & How to Fix the UK Tech Ecosystem · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 17, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lemkin: Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia see every single deal in venture
“So if you're Andreessen, a beauty to Andreessen at this point, certainly been true of Sequoia since we started is they see every deal. Andreessen sees every deal.”
Jason Lemkin Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 27:46 a16z's $20BN Fund & Founders Fund's $4.6BN & Why Josh Kushner Has Mastered the Game · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 24, 2025 negative
Opinion
O'Driscoll: Sequoia permanently cuts off LPs who stop re-upping
“And you know, because those guys do vindictive like no one else, that if you pull out, you're done forever.”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 24, 2025 ▶ 38:32 How LP Deployment to Venture Will Change in 2025 & Are Endowment Funds in Trouble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 1, 2025 negative
Assertion Supported
O'Driscoll: Sequoia abandoned billions in value exiting China
“We saw very intelligent investors, Sequoia, people like that get out of billions of dollars Of value because they just wouldn't want to be there.”
Rory O'Driscoll May 1, 2025 ▶ 1:08:15 What Does it Take to Be Good at Series A and B Today? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 12, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Akhund: Sequoia Performed the Most Diligence Out of 20+ Series C Pitchers
“I pitched more than 20 funds as part of the CBC. Sequoia did the most work. Right. So like they did the most diligence with customers. They did the most work in the data room.”
Immad Akhund May 12, 2025 ▶ 8:31 20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 12, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Akhund: Sequoia Partner Reached 95% Conviction on Mercury in First Meeting
“Sonia is, is our kind of partner at Sequoia, and she said, actually, like, You know, she had conviction in that first meeting. She said, 95% she was in after, like, that initial meeting”
Immad Akhund May 12, 2025 ▶ 9:08 20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 15, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Clay Completed $1.5B Employee Secondary Transaction Led by Sequoia
“Clay obviously did this kind of billion and a half dollar priced transaction. I think it was employees secondaries with Sequoia.”
Harry Stebbings May 15, 2025 ▶ 1:06:45 OpenAI, SBF & Perplexity: What VCs Know That You Don’t · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 26, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia refused to invest in Airwallex until Tencent committed
“The deal was stored and Sequoia was not willing to invest until Tencent kind of make a decision and are basically running out of money.”
Jack Zhang May 26, 2025 ▶ 44:46 Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 26, 2025
Assertion Supported
Tencent and Sequoia led Airwallex's $80M Series B at $400M pre-money valuation
“Tencent and Sequoia said, we want to lead another round. So they basically lead a 400 dollar at a four hundred million dollar pre they invest eighty million dollars, so a 404 hundred eighty million dollar post. So they basically, but at that time the business …”
Jack Zhang May 26, 2025 ▶ 54:29 Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 26, 2025
Assertion Supported
Tencent's investment in Airwallex brought in Sequoia and Mastercard
“So we got the investment the day after that. And then obviously you know, Sequoia and then Mastercard also came in with the, with Tencent.”
Jack Zhang May 26, 2025 ▶ 47:01 Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 26, 2025 positive
Opinion
Jack Zhang says only the top five VC firm brands matter
“Only the top five make the difference. So having Sequoia makes a big difference. Huge difference.”
Jack Zhang May 26, 2025 ▶ 1:29:37 Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 26, 2025
Assertion Supported
Stripe CFO Will Gaybrick initiated acquisition talks with Airwallex in 2018
“Will Gabrick, the CFO at the time I think now he's CPO, he reached out through Sequoia and he said, just want another, have a conversation to see what you guys are up to.”
Jack Zhang May 26, 2025 ▶ 56:09 Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 16, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
G Squared bought Bolt at $20 per share before Sequoia paid $260
“I think it was like, 20 bucks a share or something, and Sequoia did it at two 60.”
Larry Aschebrook Jun 16, 2025 ▶ 1:32:21 Larry Aschebrook, Founder & MP @GSquared: How We Lost Money on Uber and Made Millions on Lyft · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 19, 2025
Assertion Supported
O'Driscoll: Sequoia missed Facebook because Zuckerberg feared Mike Moritz replacing him
“Part of the reason that Sequoia aren't in Facebook is residual frustration with Mike Moritz for prior, you know, prior situations where they had in fact made a CEO change”
Rory O'Driscoll Jun 19, 2025 ▶ 29:51 Chime IPO: Are IPOs Hotter Than Ever? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 10, 2025 negative
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2025
Lemkin: Shaun Maguire will leave Sequoia Capital in 2025
“I'll take the bet that he leaves this year.”
Jason Lemkin Jul 10, 2025 ▶ 1:00:14 Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman: Acquired by Meta | Microsoft Layoff 9000 People | OpenAI's Bombshell · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Accel and Sequoia Hold Portfolio Books at 20% to 30% Discounts
“Usually the multi-stage firms think your perennial, like Excels, Or Sequoia. They're taking very aggressive discounts on, on basically all of their securities. Even if it's a great company that is maybe achieving even a higher price on the secondary market, th…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 18:10 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 7, 2025 negative
Assertion Supported
Jason Lemkin: Benchmark is no longer in top VC conversations on X
“If you look on social media, benchmark isn't listed the way Andreessen and Sequoia was like it was a generation ago. It's just not, does it matter? Harry, Harry's built a big brand. He's concerned. It matters. You could argue both sides, but when the industry …”
Jason Lemkin Aug 7, 2025 ▶ 1:23:44 Figma's 250% Pop - The Greatest IPO Mispricing Ever? Meta & Microsoft Blowout Quarters: Broken Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 7, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Brian Halligan: Sequoia's strategy of holding post-IPO stock will succeed long-term
“And I think Skoy is really smart. I suspect HubSpot was one of the reasons why they said, Let's hold these companies after they go public. It's back in some cases, but I think it's going to work over the long haul.”
Brian Halligan Aug 7, 2025 ▶ 46:43 Figma's 250% Pop - The Greatest IPO Mispricing Ever? Meta & Microsoft Blowout Quarters: Broken Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 7, 2025
Insight
Rory O'Driscoll: The best time to buy is when nobody else is buying
“The time to buy is when everyone else is not buying, especially when, let's put it out there, you're just little old scale, and you're not Sequoia who came in afterwards.”
Rory O'Driscoll Aug 7, 2025 ▶ 45:45 Figma's 250% Pop - The Greatest IPO Mispricing Ever? Meta & Microsoft Blowout Quarters: Broken Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 7, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Halligan regrets early HubSpot secondary stock sale to Sequoia Capital
“When we did our round, it was Sequoia. Sequoia came to us and said, we'd like to buy some of your shares in retrospect. It's a horrible financial decision for me, but it was good at the time. And I saw, I forgot a couple million dollars worth of HubSpot shares…”
Brian Halligan Aug 7, 2025 ▶ 33:22 Figma's 250% Pop - The Greatest IPO Mispricing Ever? Meta & Microsoft Blowout Quarters: Broken Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Deeter: Sequoia Capital Continues to Deliver Platinum-Level Investment Returns
“Quantitatively, I think that, you know, Sequoia continues to mint platinum records.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 1:18:18 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 28, 2025 negative
Opinion
O'Driscoll: Sequoia was right on Klarna at $6B; SoftBank wrong at $45B
“The guys who priced it at six billion were right. And the guys, which is Sequoia and the guys who priced it at forty five billion were wrong, which is SoftBank.”
Rory O'Driscoll Aug 28, 2025 ▶ 52:35 Anthropic's $10B Round, Klarna's IPO, Inside a16z's 72 Deal Seed Investment Machine ft. Marc Benioff · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 12, 2025 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Gong has surpassed $400M ARR and a $7B valuation
“The company has raised over six hundred million dollars from some of the best, including Sequoia, Thrive, Salesforce, and more, and Gong has surpassed Four hundred million in ARR, and serves thousands of customers, including multiple Fortune hundreds, and is v…”
Harry Stebbings Sep 12, 2025 ▶ 0:17 20VC: Why AI SDRs are BS and Do Not Work | How to Use AI in Your Sales Team and Process to Win Today | What Skills Do All New Reps Need to Have in an AI First World with Amit Bendov, CEO @ Gong
Sep 25, 2025 positive
Assertion Open
O'Driscoll: Sequoia achieved a 7x total return on Klarna
“Its peak was 45, Sequoia, which SoftBank did Sequoia brilliantly did the round at five or six, and obviously two or three X that, and I think overall seven X the overall investment.”
Rory O'Driscoll Sep 25, 2025 ▶ 1:13:22 The Impact of H1B Visas on Startups in the US & NVIDIA Invests $100BN Into OpenAI · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 17, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Warp raised over $70M from Sequoia, GV, and Marc Benioff
“They've raised over seventy million dollars from the likes of Sequoia, GV, Dylan Field, Elad Gill, and even the legend that is Mark Benioff.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 17, 2025 ▶ 0:34 20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why Gemini is Failing and GPT-5 Is Winning | Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | The Ugly Truth About AI Coding with Zach Lloyd, Warp
Oct 17, 2025
Disclosure
Lloyd: Sequoia led a $50M Series B in pre-revenue Warp
“That was a fifty million dollar round.”
Zach Lloyd Oct 17, 2025 ▶ 47:27 20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why Gemini is Failing and GPT-5 Is Winning | Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | The Ugly Truth About AI Coding with Zach Lloyd, Warp
Oct 17, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lloyd: Sequoia connected Warp to CrowdStrike's president within hours of an issue
“And so I reached out to Andrew. I was like, can you help me here? And then that day I was on the phone with the president of CrowdStrike.”
Zach Lloyd Oct 17, 2025 ▶ 51:48 20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why Gemini is Failing and GPT-5 Is Winning | Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | The Ugly Truth About AI Coding with Zach Lloyd, Warp
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
Oct 20, 2025 negative
Assertion Supported
Bouaziz claims Sequoia Capital invested in every competitor of Deel
“Sadly, they invested in every competitor you can think of.”
Alex Bouaziz Oct 20, 2025 ▶ 1:12:15 Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz on Raising $300M+ at a $17BN Valuation · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 bearish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cahn: AI infrastructure investment requires $840B in end-user revenue
“If you invest one hundred fifty billion in NVIDIA chips, that's about three hundred billion of data center investments. And to pay that back, the person using the compute needs to earn a 50% gross margin. So there's about six hundred billion of revenue that ne…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 3:20 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Cahn: Zoom was profitable and didn't want capital when Sequoia invested
“When Sequoia invested in Zoom, they didn't want to raise capital, right? They were profitable. They were doing really well.”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 20:24 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 neutral
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2026
Cahn: Sequoia Targets Only One or Two AI Investments Per Year
“I don't need to find 10 investment opportunities this year. I'd like to find one or two investment opportunities a year that I really love.”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 13:46 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Cahn: Sequoia has invested in defense startups Kela and Stark
“So the other two national champions that I've invested in, one is a company called Kella, which we think is going to be a national champion. It's based in Israel. The thesis is that Israel has the best people in the world for this, and they can help defend the…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 1:05:39 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Sequoia Capital invested in AI voice startup Sesame
“We just, I think today right before this podcast, we announced our investment in a company called Sesame, which is an AI voice company, an AI conversation company.”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 1:10:50 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 neutral
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2030
Cahn: Sequoia will only invest in defense startups every couple years
“I mean, my objective, I probably invested in a dozen AI companies in my career. I hope to invest in 20 more. My objective is not to invest in 20 more defense companies throughout my career. I think it's going to be a very small handful of companies. Maybe we'l…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 1:06:50 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 positive
Opinion
Cahn: Sequoia's primary value to portfolio startups is talent recruiting
“I think that's the number one way that companies do benefit from having Sequoia on the cap table, is that, is talent and recruiting, and we can talk more about that, and I'm fascinated by recruiting, and recruiting dynamics, so I do think Sequoia helps with th…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 36:40 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 bullish
Assertion Open · timeframe Oct 2027
Cahn: Harvey, Open Evidence, Clay, and Juicebox are reaching $100M ARR rapidly
“Companies that are on that trajectory or have crossed that trajectory are companies like Harvey and Open Evidence and I think, and Clay and Juicebox.”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 40:44 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025
Disclosure
David Cahn: Missing Datadog deal to Dragoneer was major financial loss
“One big financial miss is Datadog, and I worked on this before joining Sequoia, but I remember, you know, Datadog was this amazing company. The numbers were incredible. It was proper. Like, it was one of these businesses where you just, like, your mouth waters…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 1:09:35 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 negative
Insight
Cahn: Venture capital firms cannot 'king-make' startups with capital alone
“I don't believe in King making and that's maybe a controversial thing to say. I think one of the lessons, you know, you'd think like, oh, Sequoia should be able to King make companies and like, that's so great. And that would be, by the way, if that was true, …”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 34:56 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cahn: Few concentrated defense tech winners will emerge per country
“And I guess my framework, and this is the thesis that I've been investing behind now for the last couple of years is my framework is there are going to be fewer companies that succeed in defense for this reason. Defense is consolidated for good reason. There's…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 1:04:30 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Cahn: Led Sequoia's investment in Clay at $1B+ valuation after long pivot
“Sequoia invested at the Series A in, I think, 2019. The company spent three or four years in the wilderness really figuring it out. I look at Kareem, I think the man is, like, enlightened from this experience. Like, a super painful experience. Varun ended up j…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 43:51 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 27, 2025 positive
Insight
Cahn: Scaling $0 to $100M ARR signals true product-market fit in AI
“Everybody's on the internet and everybody wants to buy AI. So if you have something really good, it's going to get adopted really fast. And so I do think to the point of playing the game on the ground and adapting to what you see in the market, the biggest thi…”
David Cahn Oct 27, 2025 ▶ 41:14 Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 21, 2025 negative
Insight
A seed lead only taking pro rata in Series A signals failure
“I fully believe if they're like, hey, Sequoia led our seed, and I'm like, hey, are they doing your A, and they're like, Well, they're doing their pro rata. I'm like, this is not a good company. Like, objectively is not a good company.”
Max Altman Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 31:34 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
Nov 21, 2025 positive
Opinion
Founders should always accept an investment offer from Sequoia Capital
“I think it's really hard if you get Sequoia to offer you money and be on your cap table and have that amazing brand halo effect to not take it, and I think someone always should.”
Max Altman Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 49:08 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
Nov 21, 2025 negative
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Andreessen Horowitz led only two seed rounds for billion-dollar AI startups
“Of the first 40 of them, only one person had two lead checks, and that was Andreessen, and no one else had two, and if you look through the smattering, there are, you know, Green Oaks is in there, a lot of Gill's in there, but there's a lot of other random peo…”
Max Altman Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 29:12 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
Nov 21, 2025 negative
Insight
Altman: Mid-sized $700M VC funds face severe structural challenges
“I think it's really challenging to be like a seven hundred million dollar fund. Now I think you're either a really massive, powerful platform like an Andreessen or a GC Or you just have the legacy cachet, like a Sequoia or a Kleiner, or you have to be a boutiq…”
Max Altman Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 1:01:59 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
Dec 11, 2025 neutral
Assertion Open · timeframe Dec 2026
Stebbings: Multi-Billion Mega Seed Rounds Include Undisclosed Cheaper Tranches
“The one lesson that I've learned from a lot of these deals, whether it's Thinking Machines or this or some others, is that although it's 500 or five billion on the sticker price when it's announced, there's actually several rounds before that Sequoia and Andre…”
Harry Stebbings Dec 11, 2025 ▶ 37:48 SpaceX Valued at $800BN & Harvey Raises $160M at an $8BN Price & Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 19, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Weinberg: Most enterprise customers do not know Sequoia or Andreessen Horowitz
“The vast majority of our customers don't know who Sequoia, A-sixteen, Z, or any of those people even are, right?”
Winston Weinberg Jan 19, 2026 ▶ 15:37 Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg: How to Make Mega Deals | Lessons from Rabois, Halligan & Grady · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 24, 2026 positive
Insight
Stebbings: Uses "What Would Sequoia's Pat Grady Do?" as Decision Framework
“Think of someone who you deeply respect and admire and you want their life. For me, it's Pat Grady at Sequoia. Three reasons. Great father, great investor, Great husband. And whenever I'm faced with a tough decision, I ask, what would Pat do in this case? And …”
Harry Stebbings Jan 24, 2026 ▶ 25:46 20VC: Raising $400M for 20VC: Fundraising Lessons | Getting Marc Benioff Through 53 Cold Emails: How to Master Cold Outbound | 7 Lessons from 101 Decacorn Founders with Harry Stebbings (Simon Squibb Edition)
Jan 29, 2026 positive
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Open Evidence raised at $12B valuation led by Thrive and DST
“Open Evidence raises at twelve billion dollars, labbed by Thriving DST. It's a 12 x valuation step up to where they raised at a billion dollars from Sikora at the start of the year.”
Harry Stebbings Jan 29, 2026 ▶ 39:08 Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket |TikTok Deal Closes |The IPO Market:Wealthfront & EquipmentShare · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 29, 2026 bearish
Opinion
Lemkin: Absence of major VCs in TikTok deal signals hidden risks
“There's a reason they're not in that deal. It's free money. Otherwise, right. We're missing something.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 29, 2026 ▶ 17:56 Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket |TikTok Deal Closes |The IPO Market:Wealthfront & EquipmentShare · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 2, 2026 positive
Opinion
Zeev: Top VC Funds Like Sequoia Have Zero Incentive to Inflate Paper Marks
“If you're a fund that's, let's, let's say Sequoia, for example, they know that they can raise any time, right? So they have zero motivation to inflate numbers. They have all the motivation in the world to show things as conservatively as possible, right? Becau…”
Oren Zeev Feb 2, 2026 ▶ 37:28 Oren Zeev: Why AI Growth Expectations Are BS & Won't Last? Why GPs Shouldn't Tell LPs Their Strategy
Feb 2, 2026 bearish
Opinion
Oren Zeev: Traditional mid-sized VC partnerships are in deep trouble
“If you are traditional five, six person partnership without anything Very, very, very unique and special in the friendship that you bring to the table, then yes, I think you are in trouble because it's almost like, you know, worse off. On one hand, you're not …”
Oren Zeev Feb 2, 2026 ▶ 35:01 Oren Zeev: Why AI Growth Expectations Are BS & Won't Last? Why GPs Shouldn't Tell LPs Their Strategy
Feb 16, 2026
Assertion Supported
Sequoia took a 25% stake in Klarna at a $100M valuation
“They took a 25% stake at a hundred million dollar valuation, right? Yeah, at a hundred million dollar valuation.”
Sebastian Siemiatkowski Feb 16, 2026 ▶ 44:45 Klarna CEO: SaaS is Dead: Why Systems of Record Will Die in an Agentic World · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 23, 2026 positive
Opinion
Swisher: Pat Grady's ability to win Series B deals is unmatched
“And I think Pat Grady's ability to pick Series B's is like pretty unmatched. Pick and win Series Bs. He's very, very good, and I think Sequoia is very good at that.”
Lucas Swisher Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 53:25 Insights from Coatue's Growth Investor Lucas Swisher · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 7, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Green: Sequoia, Benchmark, and Index succeed because they excel at recruiting
“I truly think that's why Sequoia and Benchmark are great and Index are great because they help founders and entrepreneurs recruit amazing talent and people want to work for those funds portfolio companies.”
Mitchell Green Mar 7, 2026 ▶ 42:56 Mitchell Green: Why 50% of VCs Should Not Exist · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 16, 2026 positive
Opinion
Rajaram: Moritz's Instacart investment was the top VC bet ever
“I think the best venture capital, I, someone asked me what's the best venture capital bets. I talk about a paradoxical one. I think it's Mike Moritz betting on Instacart. Why? Because he lost three hundred and seventy million on web van less than a decade ago.…”
Gokul Rajaram Mar 16, 2026 ▶ 47:11 Gokul Rajaram: How to Analyse for Durability and Defensibility in a World of AI · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 2, 2026 negative
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Sequoia and top VCs announce misleading blended valuations
“The amount of Sequoia rounds where it's like, oh, you know, X raises money from square five billion. Trust me, Sequoia got in at one, but they just club it together and then announced the sum and then the latest valuation. And it's just very misleading.”
Harry Stebbings Apr 2, 2026 ▶ 35:57 OpenAI Kills Sora & Hits $100M ARR on Ads | Oura Going Public & Whoop Raises at $10BN · 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
Apr 23, 2026 neutral
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Accel and Sequoia raised $4B and $7B AI growth funds
“Excel adds four billion leaders fund to follow into hot AI growth rounds. Sequoia four days ago raises seven billion dollar growth round growth fund.”
Harry Stebbings Apr 23, 2026 ▶ 1:05:59 Cursor Acquired for $60BN | Anthropic Hits $1TRN in Secondary Markets & Figma, Adobe, Canva Dead? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 30, 2026 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
O'Driscoll: Sequoia evergreen thesis will prove right over 10-20 years
“Though I think over 10 and 20 years, their analysis will still be correct. If you build enduring companies, even in the public markets, the compounding will happen.”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 30, 2026 ▶ 1:11:58 Anthropic Raises $45B but Falls Short on Compute & Thoma Bravo Hand Back Medallia Keys to Creditors · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 18, 2026 bullish
Insight
Browder: Accept Sequoia or Founders Fund Over Double Valuation Term Sheets
“There's like the kingmaker firms that you should accept at any price. One example would be Founders Fund or Sequoia or people like that. And so if you get an offer from them at X and the offer from someone else is at two X, you should take their offer because …”
Josh Browder May 18, 2026 ▶ 49:42 Turning Peter Thiel's $100K into $10M Angel Portfolio & Why VCs Can Be Sharks | Josh Browder · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 13, 2026 positive
Opinion
Matan Grinberg: Founders should accept valuation discounts for Sequoia Capital
“So generally, yes. I mean, they're the best firm.”
Matan Grinberg Jun 13, 2026 ▶ 58:07 OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Open-Source | Token Maxing, AI Hangovers & The Coming ROI Reckoning · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 13, 2026
Disclosure
Matan Grinberg Dropped Out of PhD to Pitch Sequoia Partnership
“There was so much momentum, I'm, you know, I, he answered my email, we got along well, I met the co-founder the next day, and I was like, you know what, fuck it. Dropped out, sent him a screenshot, and he was like, alright, you have a meeting with the Sequoia …”
Matan Grinberg Jun 13, 2026 ▶ 55:31 OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Open-Source | Token Maxing, AI Hangovers & The Coming ROI Reckoning · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 20, 2026 positive
Insight
Stebbings: Top talent joins startups based heavily on VC brand signaling
“The amount of great operators who you're like, well, they wouldn't be, I'm so, I don't mean this rudely, dumb or naive enough to just join a company because of a VC. Do just join a company because of a VC. They'll go, oh, it's a Sequoia-backed company, oh, it'…”
Harry Stebbings Jun 20, 2026 ▶ 35:50 Flexport CEO: Two Questions Every Founder Needs to Ask · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 20, 2026 positive
Opinion
Stebbings: Richer VCs perform better by focusing purely on upside
“I think that richer investors make better investors, and you're like, Sequoia are focused on upside maximization. How big could this be? They are not fearful of LPs coming back for their next fund. They're not fearful of deployment speed compressing, so, you k…”
Harry Stebbings Jun 20, 2026 ▶ 6:29 Flexport CEO: Two Questions Every Founder Needs to Ask · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 16, 2026
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Chai Discovery raised $400M at $3.8B valuation
“Four hundred million at a 3.8 billion dollar valuation led by Index, Kleiner, Sequoia, Dimension.”
Harry Stebbings Jul 16, 2026 ▶ 1:07:24 Zuckerberg Back on X Challenging Codex & Claude Code | SK Hynix’s $26BN IPO · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2026 positive
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Sequoia leads funding for Valar Atomics at a $6 billion valuation
“Valar Atomics triples to six billion dollar prices Sequoia bets on nuclear for AI. It's a three-year-old small modular reactor company raised at two billion, now Sequoia leading around at six.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 5, 2026 ▶ 39:11 Leo Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Blows Up | Moonshot AI Raises $3.5B at $35B
Aug 20, 2026 bullish
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Etched Raised $700M at a $21B Valuation
“Speaking of high IP businesses, literally, like, three weeks ago, Etched raised at ten billion. Today, they've announced they've raised seven hundred million at twenty-one billion from Jane Street, Kleiner, Sequoia, Andreessen.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 20, 2026 ▶ 1:09:34 Stripe's $8B OpenRouter Bet | Anthropic's First Profit & The Math Behind Reaching $600B in Revenue?
Aug 24, 2026
Insight
Bek: Sequoia's Top Investments Always Stem From Peak Sponsor Conviction
“As we're always reminded, the best investments in all the funds are always the companies where the sponsor had the highest conviction. That's just the one thing that's been so that happened time and time again across funds.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 19:06 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Bek: VC funds will collaborate more on hardware and physical AI deals
“In, in hardware now, for instance, which is like the new thing, right, that's consensus physical AI the time to get validation is just a lot longer, and so you have to invest early, hoping that those companies can get through those phases of experimentation an…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 12:26 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Bek Partners With Two to Three Founders Annually, Targeting 20 Boards
“In your career, you can make 20 investments. Some people do more than that. That's just not my style. I partner with two, three founders a year, and so in my career, I can expect to do basically be on the board of 20 companies. I'm not going to short myself. I…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 13:49 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Bek: Sequoia underestimated Anthropic early due to linear thinking
“Yeah, we call that revisiting our priors. It's very important that you update your priors if the environment's changed, and I think it came from the realization that if AI is going to be so transformative, we are just on the foothill of this incredible exponen…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 8:45 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Opinion
Bek: Dean Meyer is Sequoia's top deal sourcer
“Time and time again, if I have to pick, I'll pick Dean Meyer, my partner who sits in Tel Aviv, but basically lives on plane. He's just a phenomenal human being. He was a professional football player for multiple years. He, so he has the competitive juices of m…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 15:40 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia Met With 17 Public Company CFOs to Help Startup Rillet
“If you look at Relit we met with 17 public company CFOs since the start of the year. Some of them have become customers.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 14:24 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bek: Sequoia has only executed tranche rounds a handful of times
“First, I've only seen that happen a handful of times, and I think that's probably giving us too much credit.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 22:37 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 neutral
Insight
Bek: Arrogance in founders can be acceptable if tied to a spike
“If you look at founders you like versus founders who make money as a two by two matrix your job is to figure out in which part of the quadrant we make money. And he used to tell that to many of our partners. And it's not because you don't like the founder that…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 40:01 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2031
Bek: Next trillion-dollar company will be software masquerading as services
“So the prediction was that the next trillion dollar company will be a software company that masquerades as a service business. It's very important the masquerading because they cannot be a service company.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:06:57 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Bek: Non-tech customers are Rillet's fastest-growing business segment
“It's funny you say that, because in the case of, really, we had the board meeting recently, and they have this thing they call Project Iowa, and it's basically appealing to companies outside of tech, And we, this is the fastest growing segment in the business,…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:03:47 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 neutral
Assertion Supported
Bek: Sequoia has roughly 12 early-stage and 12 growth partners
“It sounds crazy, but I told you we're now 12 people in the early team. About the same number in the growth team.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 29:11 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026
Insight
Shaun Maguire: Judgment outweighs IQ and political quotient outweighs EQ
“His argument is that judgment is actually more important than IQ, and PQ is more important than EQ.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 52:24 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Bek: Sequoia Backed UK AI Architecture Startup Ineffable in Large Seed
“Recently we backed a company called Ineffable here in the UK with a large seed round”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 11:41 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bek Claims He Has Never Lost a Deal While at Sequoia
“So I never lost a deal an investment in my time at Sequoia, but I've lost investments before.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:21:12 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Bek Underestimated Lovable Founder Anton Osika Due to Lacking a Meeting Plan
“I had lunch with Anton Ossica from Lovable before he founded the company, and I just didn't see it. And I'll tell you one thing that I learned from that is I didn't come to the meeting with a plan. I just had lunch with him, and it was three of us and him, and…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 41:20 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Sequoia Deal Sponsors Can Invest Despite Committee Voting Against Them
“After the discussion, everyone votes, and the sponsor is equipped to make the decision they want with that information. So you can still do it? You can still do it.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 30:43 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026
Insight
Bek: Reference checks only work when asking outlier performers to judge talent
“You want to ask exceptional people if someone is exceptional, not good enough people, and that's often the problem with references.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 48:08 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bek: Sequoia has no unified house view on AI
“Oh you know what, the funny thing is people love to say Sequoia believes X and Y, but we actually have very different opinions. There's no house view on AI.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:25:53 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026
Insight
Bek: Adjust Customer NPS Up for French and German Users, Down for Americans
“If they're French or German you add one or two points. If they're Americans, usually you want to retract Act one or two points on the other hand.”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 43:35 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Legal AI Is Overfunded but Harvey Is Positioned to Win
“Probably legal. I think there's, you know, there's just so many me too's in this category. Whereas I think that the winner is already in existence. I'm obviously biased, but I think Harvey is very well positioned because they have the widest distribution. And …”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:17:04 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026
Disclosure
Bek Uncovered a Fraudulent Founder for the First Time in 2026
“I remember this year is the first year I uncovered a fraudulent founder”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 37:24 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Maguire Pushed Sequoia's SpaceX Investment After Partner Voted '1' in IC
“Credits to Sean when he brought in the SpaceX investment, We vote on companies. I think someone voted a one. Yeah. I've seen fours, of course. I've seen threes. Never seen a two. I didn't even know we could do one. I didn't even know it was on the scale. But w…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 17:49 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Sequoia Won Citadel Securities Deal Through Partner's College Relationship
“Constantine Bueller my partner Helped us lead the investment in Citadel Securities, Ken Griffin's company. They had never taken outside capital. The reason we were able to invest is Constantine built a relationship with Ken since he was a student. He had been …”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 7:24 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
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
Aug 24, 2026 negative
Insight
Bek: Unanimously high IC ratings are dangerous because founders retrofit narratives
“First, if everyone's a seven or eight, Quite dangerous. Because look, founders know what we want to hear. The best founders are able to you know, retrofit the narrative that they think is going to land with investors, and that can be dangerous. So in, in those…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 33:35 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Cursor Is the Best AI Agent Startup Outside Sequoia's Portfolio
“It's probably cursor. One, they're in one of the most important markets. But second, where there was a lot of chatter around AI wrappers, they were the first company to really understand that you could post train models and actually be, go deeper into the stac…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:18:55 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 positive
Opinion
Bek: Luciana Lixandru is Sequoia's best company picker
“That one's easy. Luciana Alessandro my partner who actually Brought me into Sequoia. We worked together at Excel before, so I've worked with Luciana for most of my career now. She, you know, when I met her, she had just invested in Deliveroo then she did Frame…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 16:37 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
Aug 24, 2026 bearish
Disclosure
Bek: Sequoia will not back legacy services companies pivoting to AI
“I will not invest in one of those companies. For the following reason. I think you can make money in that business. The reality is I've only seen it in my career. The best companies are able to concentrate talent and you just not going to get frontier talent w…”
Julien Bek Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:14:38 Inside Sequoia's Investment Committee | How the SpaceX & Citadel Deals Went Down | Julien Bek
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