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Venture signaling risk is an overblown founder concern, says Pat Grady

Pat Grady · 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 · at 8:19

Pat Grady is a partner at Sequoia Capital. He addresses common founder anxiety regarding potential negative signaling if Sequoia does not lead follow-on funding rounds.

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“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 whatever reason, Sequoia doesn't lead the next round, won't that hurt me? And that's a totally rational concern, but the truth of the matter is we've never actually seen that hurt a company. And so I think signaling risk is a little bit of an overblown topic.”

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