Cahn: Venture capital firms cannot 'king-make' startups with capital alone
David Cahn · Sequoia Partner, David Cahn on Who Wins in AI, Defence & The New $0–$100M Playbook · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Oct 27, 2025 · at 34:56
David Cahn, Partner at Sequoia Capital, responds to host Harry Stebbings' suggestion that elite venture firms can selectively create market winners like legal AI platform Harvey through capital injection.
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“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, it'd be really economically valuable for our LPs if that was true. And I don't think that we think that's the case. And I think if anything, some of the hardest learned lessons in this business are like, you think that your capital is going to change the business. It's not fundamentally the founder has to be amazing. The idea has to be amazing. Product market fit has been, To be amazing. Maybe we can help them navigate a few difficult decisions along the way. And we like to think of ourselves as company builders, but I think the lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make a company succeed. The company has to already be successful.”
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