Insight
Leone: Parents must inject misery into kids' lives to preserve their hunger
“I think you have to inject some misery in your kids' lives so they have that hunger. It can be fake because they know it, but you can't give them everything because otherwise they won't be hungry.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grady and Lin asked Leone back 30 days after taking over Sequoia
“It turned out the rule of step down, Pat and Alfred took over. They weren't the kings I chose, and 30 days into it, they came to my house, and they said, would you like to come back?”
Insight
Leone: Boards must honor signed term sheets over higher late offers
“A term sheet is not worth the paper it's written on, but once you sign it, Both sides, I think you have to honor it. You know, many times we're out, we're, I'm on the board of a company, and we signed a term sheet with an investor, and then three days later, s…”
Opinion
Leone estimates that only 20% to 30% of VCs are competent
“Out of 10 venture folks, and I've said this, and I've taken Shifford, maybe 30% are incompetent. They don't know what they're doing. Another 40% I call them no ups, no damage, no anything. They nod, you know, they nod with a group and maybe 30% of fewer, maybe…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone saw a startup with no product try to raise at $10B
“I came back from vacation over the weekend. I saw a memo. I won't tell you the name of a startup company that wants to raise money without anything at ten billion pre.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia's investment in SpaceX has a shot at a $20B gain
“Yeah, it's SpaceX. Now, we haven't cashed out yet or whatever, but, you know, there's a shot of a twenty billion dollar gain or more, and so he ruined it for all of us.”
Insight
Leone: Every VC makes the mistake of selling winners too early
“Every venture investor has made the mistake of selling to early their winners, every single venture investors, because if you look at the great companies, they've compounded 20 years after the IPO.”
Insight
Leone: Companies must retain founders because losing them destroys company soul
“And what the trick is, is to retain that founder in a company forever if you can, and for as long as possible. Because once you lose that founder, you do lose the soul of the company.”
What-if
Leone: Meta might not exist today without its Instagram acquisition
“Think of what Meta would be Without Instagram. That company might be gone.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone hasn't lost a deal to a competitor in 30 years except on price
“You know, I really haven't lost an investment in 30 years in Silicon Valley. People have beaten me because of price, but I haven't lost otherwise.”
Disclosure
Leone will leave Sequoia if still feeling irrelevant one year after return
“I told one of my partners just an hour ago that if nine months from now, which is the one year since I return, I feel just as irrelevant. I'm going to take myself out.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Leone slept in his car for a week after making Sequoia partner
“I remember when I was made a partner at Sequoia, I was down to zero money. I actually, I have never said that to anybody, but there was a time in my first month where I became a partner that I was homeless. I slept in my car for a week. I showered at 3000 Sand…”
Insight
Leone's three rules for making any venture capital investment
“One of them is, would I put my kids money into it? Second, if I only make 20 investments in my life, Is this one of the 20? Third, can I return the whole fund with this investment? And if I don't pass those three, I'm not gonna make the investment.”
Insight
Leone: Established talent will not join early-stage startups
“No one that's establishing great is going to join you as a startup. That means you have to have an eye for these up and comer people in sales and marketing, because the made people are going to play it a little safer.”
Insight
Leone: Founders must architect boards the same way they architect products
“Choose to architect your board the same way you architect your product.”
Opinion
Leone: Michael Moritz was best in the world at assessing total upside
“Mike had the ability to dream broadly in ways that I've never seen before. He could answer the question better than anybody I've ever known. What if everything goes right? Not, oh, we're hedges and that, no, what if everything goes right? What can this busines…”
Insight
Leone: Sustained dominance stems from fear of irrelevance, not vision
“Starting with the why, I think it's a deep and secure need to remain relevant and prove to yourself that you're not getting old and you're not going to be out of date. I mean, if I look back on my career each time I remade myself, it wasn't really done out of …”
Disclosure
Leone admits to feeling miserable three months into his return to Sequoia
“I'm quite miserable at Sequoia right now, not because of what anybody else does, because I feel that three months into it, I'm really good for nothing.”
Insight
Leone: Board members have nothing to do when a company is working
“When a company's working, there is no, there's nothing to do.”
Assertion Partly supported
Sequoia historically owned 20% of Nvidia and 10% of Google
“And you know, we own 20% of NVIDIA. Think about that. I mean, you know, we own 10% of Google. And there's many others, you know. Apple. Are you kidding me? We were the first investor of Apple, in Apple. Cisco. We own a quarter of Cisco systems.”
Insight
Leone: Startups are in trouble if founders rely on VCs for product
“If they have to rely on me to help shape the product 10, 20%, we're in big trouble.”
Disclosure
Sequoia closed its Instagram investment just days before the Facebook acquisition
“We closed the investment in Instagram on a Thursday, and he sold it on a Sunday. Great IR, but we didn't make any money, really.”
Assertion Supported
Sequoia sold its 25% stake in Cisco for only a $90M gain
“We sold our Cisco shares for cash for the total gain of ninety million. We owned a quarter of Cisco systems.”
Disclosure
Leone: David Vélez is my only founder friend; others are strictly business
“Well, you know, I think the closest friend I have as a founder is Velez. All the other founders are pure business. I don't socialize with spouses or anything with any of my, with any of the founders.”
Doug Leone