Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia Capital and former CFO of PayPal, recalls PayPal closing its financing round right before the dot-com crash.
0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 10.0s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The company had raised a hundred million at 500 pre at the height of the bubble. We literally closed the financing right at the beginning of April, 2000, I think, 1516 days before the Nasdaq started to slide.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Roelof Botha
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 BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 14:4520VC: 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
AssertionNot 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 BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 19:4420VC: 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
AssertionSupported
PayPal Burned Over $10M Monthly With Seven Months Runway in 2000
“We raised this hundred million dollar round that I referenced in March, and then by June, we had seven months of runway left. We were burning over ten million a month, and Mike Maritz actually was the one who really rang the alarm bells for us and got us to fo…”
Roelof BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 7:3420VC: 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
Insight
Botha: A 'Failure of Imagination' on Missed Deals Haunts VCs Most
“The thing I find most often, by the way, Harry, is failure of imagination on my part that has been the biggest source of my failures. And it's less the investments I led that didn't work out, but the ones that I said no to that did. Those are the ones that wil…”
Roelof BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 21:3720VC: 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
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 BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 29:5120VC: 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
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 BothaOct 26, 2020▶ 36:2520VC: 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
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.