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 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 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
Grady: Missing a wildly successful startup is usually Sequoia's mistake
“When a company is a wild success and you don't see us in the cap table, Chances are at some point we screwed it up.”
Grady: HubSpot had a mediocre product in a crappy market in 2011
“If you look at HubSpot, mediocre product in a crappy market. Not today. Not today. Not today. Circa of 2011.”
Venture signaling risk is an overblown founder concern, says Pat Grady
“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 w…”
Sequoia failed on any successful company where it lacks equity
“You can basically just go through the list of companies that have been successful in the last five or 10 years. And if you don't see Sequoia as a major shareholder, it means that we screwed up.”
Grady: Doug Leone was the best VC ever at winning deals
“The thing that made him so effective 10 or 15 years ago was he was the tip of the spear. He wasn't the guy who got parachuted in later to play the role of senior big dog, right? And impress upon the founders how important they are because, hey, the big dog is …”
Grady: Tech ecosystems are becoming geographically isolated rather than globalized
“I think what we're seeing is technology ecosystems that are more geographically isolated than we might've expected. And there's a lot of interconnectivity, but it's not just a single global technology market.”
Grady: Rejects Elon Musk's existential fears about artificial intelligence
“My Personal view is it's one of these things that the more we know, the more we realize we don't know, and that there is some magic in being human that we will never be able to replicate. And so, I personally do not have the Elon Musk fears of artificial intel…”
Grady: Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid is an exceptional deal picker
“Somebody who I really admire is Mamoon at Kleiner. I think Mamoon has an exceptional track record of investing in companies that are not at all obvious at the time. And I think about the series B in Figma, which is a round that we looked at and passed on. I th…”