The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 392 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 9 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Maples: VarageSale failed despite aggressive follow-on funding from Sequoia
“Verage sale. Sequoia aggressively followed and it didn't do well.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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”
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 …”
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…”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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 …”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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…”
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: 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…”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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: 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…”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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…”
Rabois: Sequoia Capital is opening a New York office
“No, Sequoia now is opening a New York office.”
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.”
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.”
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 …”