The Exchanges

Q So, so, so it's about 60 seconds per one. So the first one is your favorite book, and why?

A Well, it's actually, uh, pretty relevant. One of my favorite books of all time is a book called Half Time. It's written by Bob Buford, and it's been around for a long, long time, and it's this book that talks about, as a middle-aged male, at some point you get to the half Backway point in your life, and you should stop and reflect to think about what happened in the first half of your life and the impact you've had on the world, and then stop at halftime and say, okay, great. I'm going into the second half of my life. What do I want to be remembered as? How do I want to impact the world? How do I want to influence people in my family? And really stop and just pause to think about that. And having just turned 50 yesterday, um, it was just an impactful book I read many, many years ago. To help me set on the course and direction on how I want to live my life in the second half of, uh, my time here on earth, and how I want to impact people around me, and the people I touch, or influence, both directly and indirectly.

AI assessment note: “One of my favorite books of all time is a book called Half Time.”

Q And you've said before that your most interesting role ever was a sales engineer at NET. Why was that?

A Yeah, um, because it was a, it was an exciting transition for me, being an engineer, but knowing I wanted to get into sales, it afforded me the opportunity to maintain my engineering background, but also get into sales, and it basically became a, a one-man band job, where I was the engineer and a sales researcher. Simultaneously supporting customers and selling solutions and products and goods to the customers, but not having an engineer do it for me. And it just showed me the importance to maintain your technology background and knowledge, because if you just were to go into a customer and only try to sell something and not be able to bet back it up with a business acronym and technical acumen at the same time, they would look at you as just a sales Salesperson or a sales leader or a sales executive, so I was very lucky to have the opportunity to do that role, and again, it just taught me to make sure you always maintain your technical expertise while picking up a lot more business acumen along the way.

AI assessment note: “because it was a, it was an exciting transition for me, being an engineer”

Q Now, this sounds very naive and probably amateur, but we're talking about kind of VC differentiation there and the competitive landscape. One would automatically assume with Sequoia's incredible brand and platform that Winning deals is not a problem. What's the approach to that in terms of the competitive environment? You know, because Sequoia is Sequoia, is, is kind of deal competition still a problem?

A Yeah, as I said, Harry, it is a very competitive business that we're in, right? Because everyone, you know, has access to capital these days. But for Sequoia, we do focus on our past success. We have an amazing brand. We have tremendous experience. Experience inside the building, uh, that we can bring our companies, whether it's in an operating role, uh, whether it's in engineering, whether it's in sales, whether it's in marketing, we have a tremendous amount of experience coming from the financial world and, uh, and, you know, people coming out of, uh, different type of financial services companies, whether it be Goldman Sachs or any of the others. So I just think our experience, our understanding of pattern recognition is, And the fact that we have helped so many great companies, some of the greatest technology companies in the world, have successful outcomes, whether it be through an acquisition or taking a company public and having a 10 X increase in their market capitalization. I think the brand, the experience and the resources that we can bring a young company is unlike anything else in the venture community.

AI assessment note: “it is a very competitive business that we're in, right?”

Q I'm intrigued. Is VC everything you expected it to be? Now, having seen the internals, and with the kind of, obviously, I'm sure, kind of, perceptions that you had pre-joining Sequoia, is it everything you thought? Have there been any big surprises?

A I don't know. I came in with my eyes pretty wide open. I, I knew I'd have to be patient. I know, I knew it would be an adjustment for me, Harry, and being now here at Sequoia at eight months, probably the, Biggest surprise is just how powerful a partnership Sequoia is, and the fact that we have global presence around the world between here, India, and China, that whole kind of notion of the world is flat. We took that to heart years and years ago, and just watching how powerful Sequoia has become on a global basis has been quite surprising to me. And the other thing is, I just think it's a, it's a partnership here, Sequoia, that is one that is very much has a team atmosphere. So while as a venture capitalist, you do work a lot on your own, there is nobody as Sequoia who I have found where I can't go and ask for help or ask questions who isn't willing to step up and help you be successful as an individual and support the firm, as well as support our partners, our LPs in the companies we're working with day in and day out. So I'm probably just, my biggest surprise is just how powerful of a partnership Sequoia is. And how much they have to offer our portfolio companies. It is very, very impressive. And then the only other thing I'd say, I knew that the venture capitalist community is quite competitive. There's a lot of capital that's been brought into the market over the last deca…

AI assessment note: “Biggest surprise is just how powerful a partnership Sequoia is”

Q I'm intrigued. Is VC everything you expected it to be? Now, having seen the internals, and with the kind of, obviously, I'm sure, kind of, perceptions that you had pre-joining Sequoia, is it everything you thought? Have there been any big surprises?

A I don't know. I came in with my eyes pretty wide open. I, I knew I'd have to be patient. I know, I knew it would be an adjustment for me, Harry, and being now here at Sequoia at eight months, probably the, Biggest surprise is just how powerful a partnership Sequoia is, and the fact that we have global presence around the world between here, India, and China, that whole kind of notion of the world is flat. We took that to heart years and years ago, and just watching how powerful Sequoia has become on a global basis has been quite surprising to me. And the other thing is, I just think it's a, it's a partnership here, Sequoia, that is one that is very much has a team atmosphere. So while as a venture capitalist, you do work a lot on your own, there is nobody as Sequoia who I have found where I can't go and ask for help or ask questions who isn't willing to step up and help you be successful as an individual and support the firm, as well as support our partners, our LPs in the companies we're working with day in and day out. So I'm probably just, my biggest surprise is just how powerful of a partnership Sequoia is. And how much they have to offer our portfolio companies. It is very, very impressive. And then the only other thing I'd say, I knew that the venture capitalist community is quite competitive. There's a lot of capital that's been brought into the market over the last deca…

AI assessment note: “Biggest surprise is just how powerful a partnership Sequoia is”

Q we spoke about kind of when things potentially do go right and when they don't go right and the kind of, uh, cyclicality of success. In terms of failure, how do you approach failure in terms of, is it a, is it the badge of honor that often is portrayed in Silicon Valley? Is it the learning curve? What's the thesis around that when, when things don't go to plan?

A First of all, people's true character is defined during times of failure. And it's, you know, when things are not going right, you really find out a lot about people. And I think the most successful people recognize failure and accept failure as a way of life. Now, if you're failing every day, Harry, and you know, that's not a good thing. Uh, but if you have a track record of success and you find that failure only makes you stronger, then you can actually really make quantum leaps in how you're leading an organization and how you're actually performing. So I just believe that failure is a way of life, and if you're not failing at all, you're probably not pushing the envelope on you and your team enough, so I look at failure as a positive thing, as long as it's not something that becomes a normal mode of operating, but failure is not a bad thing. Failure is a way to push the envelope on you and your teams and stretch people's, you know, personal envelope, and if you do that, you actually ultimately make people stronger, bigger, and faster with failure.

AI assessment note: “I look at failure as a positive thing, as long as it's not”

Q we spoke about kind of when things potentially do go right and when they don't go right and the kind of, uh, cyclicality of success. In terms of failure, how do you approach failure in terms of, is it a, is it the badge of honor that often is portrayed in Silicon Valley? Is it the learning curve? What's the thesis around that when, when things don't go to plan?

A First of all, people's true character is defined during times of failure. And it's, you know, when things are not going right, you really find out a lot about people. And I think the most successful people recognize failure and accept failure as a way of life. Now, if you're failing every day, Harry, and you know, that's not a good thing. Uh, but if you have a track record of success and you find that failure only makes you stronger, then you can actually really make quantum leaps in how you're leading an organization and how you're actually performing. So I just believe that failure is a way of life, and if you're not failing at all, you're probably not pushing the envelope on you and your team enough, so I look at failure as a positive thing, as long as it's not something that becomes a normal mode of operating, but failure is not a bad thing. Failure is a way to push the envelope on you and your teams and stretch people's, you know, personal envelope, and if you do that, you actually ultimately make people stronger, bigger, and faster with failure.

AI assessment note: “I look at failure as a positive thing, as long as it's not”

Q Now, this sounds very naive and probably amateur, but we're talking about kind of VC differentiation there and the competitive landscape. One would automatically assume with Sequoia's incredible brand and platform that Winning deals is not a problem. What's the approach to that in terms of the competitive environment? You know, because Sequoia is Sequoia, is, is kind of deal competition still a problem?

A Yeah, as I said, Harry, it is a very competitive business that we're in, right? Because everyone, you know, has access to capital these days. But for Sequoia, we do focus on our past success. We have an amazing brand. We have tremendous experience. Experience inside the building, uh, that we can bring our companies, whether it's in an operating role, uh, whether it's in engineering, whether it's in sales, whether it's in marketing, we have a tremendous amount of experience coming from the financial world and, uh, and, you know, people coming out of, uh, different type of financial services companies, whether it be Goldman Sachs or any of the others. So I just think our experience, our understanding of pattern recognition is, And the fact that we have helped so many great companies, some of the greatest technology companies in the world, have successful outcomes, whether it be through an acquisition or taking a company public and having a 10 X increase in their market capitalization. I think the brand, the experience and the resources that we can bring a young company is unlike anything else in the venture community.

AI assessment note: “it is a very competitive business that we're in, right? Because everyone, you know, has access to capital”

Q And I do have to ask, you said there about your incredible time at VMware, where you, where you saw the growth from 200 to 20,000 or so. So I do have two questions from your partners, in fact. So the first one from Alfred Lin, who asks, how did you look to build a culture of performance at VMware like you did?

A Yeah, so that's a great question. So first and foremost, I fundamentally believe that it starts with the people, not the company. I believe great people build great companies. Great companies don't grow, build great people, so it's really important that you focus on your people first, and when you think about companies, a lot of people think about companies from the top of the pyramid down, meaning they really focus on what is this vision, strategy, and direction of the company, what do they want to do, then in the middle of the pyramid, they focus on how to execute against that strategy to be successful, but really at the bottom of that pyramid, and what keeps it all If you will, standing tall and strong is the people in the culture. So I flip it upside down and I prioritize in company building. I focus on the people and building a culture that can stand the test of time and build an enduring culture. So I've always believed if you have a culture and value system that is strong, they will be able to execute and then your vision can come true. So I don't, I kind of do a bottoms up approach and I always start with the people first, the culture. Culture and the value systems and everything from there follows.

AI assessment note: “I fundamentally believe that it starts with the people, not the company.”

Q And I do have to ask, you said there about your incredible time at VMware, where you, where you saw the growth from 200 to 20,000 or so. So I do have two questions from your partners, in fact. So the first one from Alfred Lin, who asks, how did you look to build a culture of performance at VMware like you did?

A Yeah, so that's a great question. So first and foremost, I fundamentally believe that it starts with the people, not the company. I believe great people build great companies. Great companies don't grow, build great people, so it's really important that you focus on your people first, and when you think about companies, a lot of people think about companies from the top of the pyramid down, meaning they really focus on what is this vision, strategy, and direction of the company, what do they want to do, then in the middle of the pyramid, they focus on how to execute against that strategy to be successful, but really at the bottom of that pyramid, and what keeps it all If you will, standing tall and strong is the people in the culture. So I flip it upside down and I prioritize in company building. I focus on the people and building a culture that can stand the test of time and build an enduring culture. So I've always believed if you have a culture and value system that is strong, they will be able to execute and then your vision can come true. So I don't, I kind of do a bottoms up approach and I always start with the people first, the culture. Culture and the value systems and everything from there follows.

AI assessment note: “I kind of do a bottoms up approach and I always start with the people”