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We're back with another great conversation, this time with Roelof Botha! Lessons from 20 Years of Venture Capital: Roelof Botha (Managing Partner and Steward at Sequoia Capital) Sequoia Capital is synonymous with outstanding performance, backing companies like Apple, Google, Airbnb, and Stripe. In our latest episode, I chat with...

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Mario Gabriele 🦊

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35,747 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce •via X (Twitter)

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Evan Armstrong 📧1 yıl önce

@sequoia @Apple @Google 🐐🐐🐐

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Kurtis Hanni1 yıl önce

This last year+ has been a dream. I meet with business owners daily to look for financial solutions. We help them: 1. Optimize their cash flow 2. Create more profit 3. Pay less taxes But more than anything, we’re a strategic partner and coach. Someone they turn to when they don’t know the answer. When the times get tough. I’ve had more than one business owner tell me they’re sleeping better, more present when with family, and feel like they’re finally in control of their business (instead of it controlling them). I can’t imagine anything more rewarding. For people watching from the sidelines, it seems like an overnight success. But in reality, it came after a 15+ year career of day-in and day-out partnering with my CEOs as a full-time CFO. Now instead of building one business at a time, I get to help many at the same time! Today, I’m headed to meet with a group of other business owners to learn and grow together. I am truly living the dream!

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Muhammad Ayan1 yıl önce

@sequoia @Apple @Google Sequoia’s way of thinking never stops impressing me.

Görkem Çetin profil fotoğrafı
Görkem Çetin1 yıl önce

@sequoia @Apple @Google Just listened to this conversation with Roelof - so many insights packed into the episode.

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Steph from OpenVC1 yıl önce

@sequoia @Apple @Google This is going to be a great one.

Benzer Videolar

THE LIBRARY OF MINDS: EPISODE 2 - featuring Roelof Botha (Roelof Botha) Managing Partner of Sequoia. Ex-CFO of PayPal. Early backer of YouTube, Instagram, Square. Quiet architect behind generational companies. We cover: • How elite orgs think like teams-not stars • The false choice between growth & revenue • Cultural discipline > technical talent • Lessons from PayPal’s defining chaos • What founders still get wrong about scale Plus: How Sequoia Capital beats complacency, the discipline to cut early for culture, personal tales of hardship, and what it means to digitize a mind. (00:00) - Intro (01:00) - Who is Roelof (01:49) - Managing chaos: Focus and trust at PayPal during crisis (03:28) - Metrics: PayPal’s Total Payment Volume as growth driver (04:42) - Growth vs. revenue: Why great companies do both (06:48) - Square’s wedge: Card reader to financial ecosystem (09:31) - Category creation: Product quality over hype (10:55) - Retention > Distribution: Building lasting value (13:03) - companies: Mission, values, and discipline (14:34) - AI era: Rethinking org design and founder leverage (15:56) - Hardship: Pressure as a catalyst for innovation (19:03) - The crater lesson: Why immunity breeds weakness (20:23) - Adversity: Learning from PayPal’s and Sequoia’s toughest moments (23:17) - Patience: Thinking in decades at Sequoia (24:21) - Delphi: Memory, legacy, and digital minds (25:59) - No complacency: Sequoia’s culture of accountability (29:05) - Leadership: Conviction and adapting to change (32:19) - The future: Pre-mortems and staying ahead
34:17

THE LIBRARY OF MINDS: EPISODE 2 - featuring Roelof Botha (Roelof Botha) Managing Partner of Sequoia. Ex-CFO of PayPal. Early backer of YouTube, Instagram, Square. Quiet architect behind generational companies. We cover: • How elite orgs think like teams-not stars • The false choice between growth & revenue • Cultural discipline > technical talent • Lessons from PayPal’s defining chaos • What founders still get wrong about scale Plus: How Sequoia Capital beats complacency, the discipline to cut early for culture, personal tales of hardship, and what it means to digitize a mind. (00:00) - Intro (01:00) - Who is Roelof (01:49) - Managing chaos: Focus and trust at PayPal during crisis (03:28) - Metrics: PayPal’s Total Payment Volume as growth driver (04:42) - Growth vs. revenue: Why great companies do both (06:48) - Square’s wedge: Card reader to financial ecosystem (09:31) - Category creation: Product quality over hype (10:55) - Retention > Distribution: Building lasting value (13:03) - companies: Mission, values, and discipline (14:34) - AI era: Rethinking org design and founder leverage (15:56) - Hardship: Pressure as a catalyst for innovation (19:03) - The crater lesson: Why immunity breeds weakness (20:23) - Adversity: Learning from PayPal’s and Sequoia’s toughest moments (23:17) - Patience: Thinking in decades at Sequoia (24:21) - Delphi: Memory, legacy, and digital minds (25:59) - No complacency: Sequoia’s culture of accountability (29:05) - Leadership: Conviction and adapting to change (32:19) - The future: Pre-mortems and staying ahead

Dara

322,445 görüntüleme • 10 ay önce

BREAKING: The Future According to Sequoia $10 Trillion Companies Are Coming.. Alfred Lin, Partner & new Co-Steward of Sequoia (#1 investor on the Midas List) “When I joined Sequoia the largest market cap company was probably $300B or $400B dollars. Today we have companies that are worth $4-5T.” “If you give it another 5-10 years… those companies continue to compound, it’ll be worth $10 trillion or more.” For more than 5 decades, Sequoia Capital has backed many of the most consequential companies in technology, from Apple, Nvidia, Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, & more. But as Alfred Lin explains in this conversation, Sequoia does not think about the 54-year-old firm the way many others do. Rather than optimizing around AUM, Sequoia focuses on DPI & being a net liquidity provider to LPs. Since 2020, the firm has distributed more than $43 billion back to investors (as of Oct 27, 2025). In this conversation, Alfred breaks down: - Why AI is accelerating startup growth and product velocity - Why “AI kills SaaS” is the wrong framework - How moats change during paradigm shifts - What Alfred is hearing in boardrooms right now - Which companies are most vulnerable in the AI era - Founder-market fit & the importance of “spikes” - Why the next generation of companies could be much bigger than today’s giants - How Sequoia identifies outlier founders across companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, Kalshi, Zipline, Clay, Commure, Nominal, Physical Intelligence, Crosby, OpenAI, and Citadel Securities. Recorded live Feb 26th at the Upfront Ventures Summit 2026 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Alfred Lin, Partner & Co-Steward at Sequoia Capital (01:00) The metric Sequoia actually cares about (02:54) $43B distributed since 2020 (05:41) The biggest wave Alfred has seen in his career (08:19) Amazon did not k*ll Walmart (10:09) Paradigm shifts and changing moats (14:38) Boardroom conversations about the future (17:11) Companies that fail to adapt fall behind (19:31) From waterfall development to agile teams (23:06) Sequoia’s AI investment strategy (24:48) Managing context switching between portfolio companies (26:00) Becoming Co-Steward of Sequoia Capital (29:31) How to navigate the AI wave
32:21

BREAKING: The Future According to Sequoia $10 Trillion Companies Are Coming.. Alfred Lin, Partner & new Co-Steward of Sequoia (#1 investor on the Midas List) “When I joined Sequoia the largest market cap company was probably $300B or $400B dollars. Today we have companies that are worth $4-5T.” “If you give it another 5-10 years… those companies continue to compound, it’ll be worth $10 trillion or more.” For more than 5 decades, Sequoia Capital has backed many of the most consequential companies in technology, from Apple, Nvidia, Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, & more. But as Alfred Lin explains in this conversation, Sequoia does not think about the 54-year-old firm the way many others do. Rather than optimizing around AUM, Sequoia focuses on DPI & being a net liquidity provider to LPs. Since 2020, the firm has distributed more than $43 billion back to investors (as of Oct 27, 2025). In this conversation, Alfred breaks down: - Why AI is accelerating startup growth and product velocity - Why “AI kills SaaS” is the wrong framework - How moats change during paradigm shifts - What Alfred is hearing in boardrooms right now - Which companies are most vulnerable in the AI era - Founder-market fit & the importance of “spikes” - Why the next generation of companies could be much bigger than today’s giants - How Sequoia identifies outlier founders across companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, Kalshi, Zipline, Clay, Commure, Nominal, Physical Intelligence, Crosby, OpenAI, and Citadel Securities. Recorded live Feb 26th at the Upfront Ventures Summit 2026 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Alfred Lin, Partner & Co-Steward at Sequoia Capital (01:00) The metric Sequoia actually cares about (02:54) $43B distributed since 2020 (05:41) The biggest wave Alfred has seen in his career (08:19) Amazon did not k*ll Walmart (10:09) Paradigm shifts and changing moats (14:38) Boardroom conversations about the future (17:11) Companies that fail to adapt fall behind (19:31) From waterfall development to agile teams (23:06) Sequoia’s AI investment strategy (24:48) Managing context switching between portfolio companies (26:00) Becoming Co-Steward of Sequoia Capital (29:31) How to navigate the AI wave

Molly O’Shea

303,938 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce

How Sequoia doubted Musk and passed on investing in SpaceX. This video is from a 2011 tour of SpaceX taken by David Spector (David Spector), a partner at Sequoia Capital. The exploding tank was actually a pressure test of the fuel tank. Spector recently shared the story on LinkedIn of how Sequoia had the chance to invest in SpaceX back then and passed. Elon Musk was looking to raise capital, a low single-digit billion dollar valuation. David shares "Touring the factory and spending time with Elon was mind-blowing, and we came away excited about the team and convinced cheap launch would blow open a market". He prepared the materials, the memo, presented to his partners at Sequoia. And got turned down. Sequoia did eventually invest in SpaceX, but not until 2019. Eight years later. Hindsight 20/20. It's easy to only share the wins, but stories like these are important too.
0:36

How Sequoia doubted Musk and passed on investing in SpaceX. This video is from a 2011 tour of SpaceX taken by David Spector (David Spector), a partner at Sequoia Capital. The exploding tank was actually a pressure test of the fuel tank. Spector recently shared the story on LinkedIn of how Sequoia had the chance to invest in SpaceX back then and passed. Elon Musk was looking to raise capital, a low single-digit billion dollar valuation. David shares "Touring the factory and spending time with Elon was mind-blowing, and we came away excited about the team and convinced cheap launch would blow open a market". He prepared the materials, the memo, presented to his partners at Sequoia. And got turned down. Sequoia did eventually invest in SpaceX, but not until 2019. Eight years later. Hindsight 20/20. It's easy to only share the wins, but stories like these are important too.

Ksenia Moskalenko

143,908 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce

BIG NEWS: Today we are launching Blockit AI -- the first AI scheduling agent that actually understands your time. After spending my career as a partner at Sequoia Capital, I stepped back to build this. Why? Because I believe the calendar is the last untouched social network, and it can only now be unlocked through AI. Our scheduling agent can handle any degree of complexity and has spread purely through virality to date. Blockit now works for 200+ companies and has coordinated 100,000+ meetings — all with zero humans in the loop. We're excited to emerge from stealth and announce our $5M raise from Sequoia Capital led by Pat Grady (Pat Grady) with participation from Haystack, Adjacent, Original, and NPV, i.e. Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of Linkedin. Come for the agent, stay for the network — get started free today at
2:01

BIG NEWS: Today we are launching Blockit AI -- the first AI scheduling agent that actually understands your time. After spending my career as a partner at Sequoia Capital, I stepped back to build this. Why? Because I believe the calendar is the last untouched social network, and it can only now be unlocked through AI. Our scheduling agent can handle any degree of complexity and has spread purely through virality to date. Blockit now works for 200+ companies and has coordinated 100,000+ meetings — all with zero humans in the loop. We're excited to emerge from stealth and announce our $5M raise from Sequoia Capital led by Pat Grady (Pat Grady) with participation from Haystack, Adjacent, Original, and NPV, i.e. Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of Linkedin. Come for the agent, stay for the network — get started free today at

Kais

809,483 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce

Matt Miller left Sequoia Capital last year to start his own fund. Since then he's raised $400m and invested in some of the most exciting companies in the world including Synthesia 🎥, , Lovable, n8n.io, Harvey and many more. He's built an entirely new model around his group of "Legends" - 150 of the top founders, operators and investors from around the world. In Europe @matiii, Victor Riparbelli and Laura Modiano are all members. I sat down with him at the Evantic Capital offices for his FIRST INTERVIEW since leaving Sequoia Capital where we discussed: (00:00) - Introduction (01:02) - The Evantic Model and The Legends (05:02) - Getting access to the hottest deals (10:02) - The Gala, Europe's biggest tech event (15:26) - What investments and why (18:01) - Building a global firm from Europe (20:01) - We need more than one Index (21:31) - Why he's betting on Europe (22:45) - LP rejections and why (24:30) - Transition to Founding Partner (27:18) - Why he left Sequoia (29:48) - Lessons learnt from Sequoia (31:41) - Building Sequoia's presence in Europe (33:15) - Evolution of European Tech (35:00) - What's not going well in European Tech (36:00) - The role of EU–INC (37:14) - Sovereignty in Europe (38:50) - What makes a great founder (40:50) - Quickfire Tonight Matt Miller is hosting some of best of global tech at his new flagship event. If you're going to be there let me know.
46:06

Matt Miller left Sequoia Capital last year to start his own fund. Since then he's raised $400m and invested in some of the most exciting companies in the world including Synthesia 🎥, , Lovable, n8n.io, Harvey and many more. He's built an entirely new model around his group of "Legends" - 150 of the top founders, operators and investors from around the world. In Europe @matiii, Victor Riparbelli and Laura Modiano are all members. I sat down with him at the Evantic Capital offices for his FIRST INTERVIEW since leaving Sequoia Capital where we discussed: (00:00) - Introduction (01:02) - The Evantic Model and The Legends (05:02) - Getting access to the hottest deals (10:02) - The Gala, Europe's biggest tech event (15:26) - What investments and why (18:01) - Building a global firm from Europe (20:01) - We need more than one Index (21:31) - Why he's betting on Europe (22:45) - LP rejections and why (24:30) - Transition to Founding Partner (27:18) - Why he left Sequoia (29:48) - Lessons learnt from Sequoia (31:41) - Building Sequoia's presence in Europe (33:15) - Evolution of European Tech (35:00) - What's not going well in European Tech (36:00) - The role of EU–INC (37:14) - Sovereignty in Europe (38:50) - What makes a great founder (40:50) - Quickfire Tonight Matt Miller is hosting some of best of global tech at his new flagship event. If you're going to be there let me know.

Seb Johnson

25,306 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce

Why it’s never been easier to start a company, and never been harder to scale one with Brian Halligan Brian is Sequoia Capital's in-house CEO coach, long-time CEO and co-founder of HubSpot, and more than anyone I’ve ever met, a student of the job of a CEO. We discuss: 🔸 The most common skill gap in new CEOs 🔸 Why you should build your team like the 2004 Red So 🔸 Why “When you have to eat a shit sandwich, don’t nibble.” 🔸 His LOCKS framework for evaluating founders 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Sentry — Code breaks, fix it faster: 🏆 Datadog, Inc. — Now home to Eppo, the leading experimentation and feature flagging platform: 🏆 WorkOS — Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs:
1:00

Why it’s never been easier to start a company, and never been harder to scale one with Brian Halligan Brian is Sequoia Capital's in-house CEO coach, long-time CEO and co-founder of HubSpot, and more than anyone I’ve ever met, a student of the job of a CEO. We discuss: 🔸 The most common skill gap in new CEOs 🔸 Why you should build your team like the 2004 Red So 🔸 Why “When you have to eat a shit sandwich, don’t nibble.” 🔸 His LOCKS framework for evaluating founders 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Sentry — Code breaks, fix it faster: 🏆 Datadog, Inc. — Now home to Eppo, the leading experimentation and feature flagging platform: 🏆 WorkOS — Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs:

Lenny Rachitsky

181,893 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce

BREAKING: Sequoia Launches Two New Early Stage Funds: $200M Seed Fund VI & $750M Venture Fund XIX Alfred Lin (Alfred Lin), No 1 Midas List Investor (2 yrs in a row) shares Sequoia’s company-building philosophy with stories from OpenAI, DoorDash, Airbnb, Kalshi, Commure, Zipline, + For more than 50 years, Sequoia has partnered with founders to build some of the most consequential companies in history. Stats: - Since 2020, Sequoia has distributed over $43B+ to investors - Companies backed by Sequoia now account for more than 30% of NASDAQ’s total value, many of which were first supported at the seed or Series A stage, long before IPOs. With these two new funds, the mission remains the same: to help daring founders build legendary companies from idea to IPO & beyond. Highlights: (00:00) Alfred Lin, Sequoia (02:37) What makes an “outlier founder” (04:15) Founder support: Airbnb & DoorDash (07:10) Stories from Kalshi: regulation, elections & more markets (14:00) Little “p” pivots vs. Big “P” pivots (14:17) Zipline’s dramatic pivot to medical drones (18:00) DoorDash vs. Uber: efficiency as a weapon (19:49) When to pour capital into growth (20:07) Growth vs. true product-market fit (22:19) The race to $100M revenue – healthy or not? (25:55) Pilot/experimental revenue vs. real ARR (27:26) Breaking down revenue quality: SaaS vs. hardware vs. services (29:00) AI cycle, hype, & founder pressure (31:36) Why Sequoia expects more from this generation of founders (34:21) Measuring company velocity, not just revenue
34:55

BREAKING: Sequoia Launches Two New Early Stage Funds: $200M Seed Fund VI & $750M Venture Fund XIX Alfred Lin (Alfred Lin), No 1 Midas List Investor (2 yrs in a row) shares Sequoia’s company-building philosophy with stories from OpenAI, DoorDash, Airbnb, Kalshi, Commure, Zipline, + For more than 50 years, Sequoia has partnered with founders to build some of the most consequential companies in history. Stats: - Since 2020, Sequoia has distributed over $43B+ to investors - Companies backed by Sequoia now account for more than 30% of NASDAQ’s total value, many of which were first supported at the seed or Series A stage, long before IPOs. With these two new funds, the mission remains the same: to help daring founders build legendary companies from idea to IPO & beyond. Highlights: (00:00) Alfred Lin, Sequoia (02:37) What makes an “outlier founder” (04:15) Founder support: Airbnb & DoorDash (07:10) Stories from Kalshi: regulation, elections & more markets (14:00) Little “p” pivots vs. Big “P” pivots (14:17) Zipline’s dramatic pivot to medical drones (18:00) DoorDash vs. Uber: efficiency as a weapon (19:49) When to pour capital into growth (20:07) Growth vs. true product-market fit (22:19) The race to $100M revenue – healthy or not? (25:55) Pilot/experimental revenue vs. real ARR (27:26) Breaking down revenue quality: SaaS vs. hardware vs. services (29:00) AI cycle, hype, & founder pressure (31:36) Why Sequoia expects more from this generation of founders (34:21) Measuring company velocity, not just revenue

Molly O’Shea

356,307 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce

Our next episode is out! Today's conversation is with Chris Miller, Author of Chip War. The Semiconductor Century with Chris Miller What really determines success in the age of AI? Is it better models or broader reach? Chris Miller, author of the bestselling book Chip War, explains how semiconductors have become the strategic center of gravity for global power, economics, and innovation. As a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Chris has spent nearly a decade studying how chips are reshaping geopolitics and why they're essential to understanding everything from military capabilities to artificial intelligence. Listen now: • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: A big thank you to the incredible sponsors that make the podcast possible: ✨ Explo – Customer-facing analytics for any platform: ✨ Generalist+ – Essential intelligence for modern investors and technologists: We explore: → Why diffusion and adoption of technology are more important markers of impact than actual capabilities → What most people got wrong about DeepSeek's breakthrough, but why China's AI talent still matters → Huawei's surprising transformation from telecom giant to potential AI powerhouse → The critical role India and Southeast Asia may play in chip manufacturing → How the Trump administration's policies will impact the technological battle → Why China will likely achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency in mainstream chips within five years → Barriers to rebuilding a domestic chip industry in the US → The massive infrastructure investments being made in AI computing power → The implications of Stargate …And much more! Books 📕 Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology: 📕Isaac Newton: 📕A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains:
0:49

Our next episode is out! Today's conversation is with Chris Miller, Author of Chip War. The Semiconductor Century with Chris Miller What really determines success in the age of AI? Is it better models or broader reach? Chris Miller, author of the bestselling book Chip War, explains how semiconductors have become the strategic center of gravity for global power, economics, and innovation. As a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Chris has spent nearly a decade studying how chips are reshaping geopolitics and why they're essential to understanding everything from military capabilities to artificial intelligence. Listen now: • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: A big thank you to the incredible sponsors that make the podcast possible: ✨ Explo – Customer-facing analytics for any platform: ✨ Generalist+ – Essential intelligence for modern investors and technologists: We explore: → Why diffusion and adoption of technology are more important markers of impact than actual capabilities → What most people got wrong about DeepSeek's breakthrough, but why China's AI talent still matters → Huawei's surprising transformation from telecom giant to potential AI powerhouse → The critical role India and Southeast Asia may play in chip manufacturing → How the Trump administration's policies will impact the technological battle → Why China will likely achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency in mainstream chips within five years → Barriers to rebuilding a domestic chip industry in the US → The massive infrastructure investments being made in AI computing power → The implications of Stargate …And much more! Books 📕 Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology: 📕Isaac Newton: 📕A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains:

Mario Gabriele 🦊

10,255 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

This week on my podcast, The Most Interesting Thing in AI, I had the pleasure of talking with Audrey Tang about two big topics: How can AI help democracy? Audrey has helped get Taiwan to use the tools of modern technology to strengthen democracy even as they have frayed it around the world. What is the secret, and could it work in the U.S? How can we build humanistic and pluralistic values into the most powerful AI? Audrey has a great theory about the two races in AI---one vertical, and one horizontal---and how, with the tools of open-source, it's possible that we can align all future models with our highest ambitions. It’s a brilliant framework for thinking about the future of AI. I hope you'll listen to our conversation: Produced by Atlantic Re:think with PwC.
1:04

This week on my podcast, The Most Interesting Thing in AI, I had the pleasure of talking with Audrey Tang about two big topics: How can AI help democracy? Audrey has helped get Taiwan to use the tools of modern technology to strengthen democracy even as they have frayed it around the world. What is the secret, and could it work in the U.S? How can we build humanistic and pluralistic values into the most powerful AI? Audrey has a great theory about the two races in AI---one vertical, and one horizontal---and how, with the tools of open-source, it's possible that we can align all future models with our highest ambitions. It’s a brilliant framework for thinking about the future of AI. I hope you'll listen to our conversation: Produced by Atlantic Re:think with PwC.

nxthompson

28,514 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

Sequoia founder Don Valentine: “The art of storytelling is incredibly important” “The art of storytelling is incredibly important. And many—maybe even most of the entrepreneurs who come to talk to us can’t tell the story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that’s how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories.” The founder of Sequoia founder explains that the story is how you explain what you want to do, how long it’s going to take, who the competition is, and how much money you need. a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz shared a similar view in a 2014 Forbes interview: “Storytelling is the most underrated skill… Companies that don’t have a clearly articulated story don’t have a clear and well thought-out strategy. The company story is the company strategy.” He continues: “The story must explain at a fundamental level why you exist. Why does the world need your company? Why do we need to be doing what we’re doing and why is it important?… You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company into motion. If you don’t have a great story it’s hard to get people motivated to join you, to work on the product, and to get people to invest in the product.” This is the job of the founder and CEO: “The CEO must be the keeper of the story. The CEO is responsible for getting the story right, that it’s up to date, compelling, and can move the hearts of men and women. That’s the fundamental responsibility of the chief executive… The mistake people make is thinking the story is just about marketing. No, the story is the strategy. If you make your story better you make the strategy better.” Video source: Stanford Graduate School of Business (2010)
0:52

Sequoia founder Don Valentine: “The art of storytelling is incredibly important” “The art of storytelling is incredibly important. And many—maybe even most of the entrepreneurs who come to talk to us can’t tell the story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that’s how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories.” The founder of Sequoia founder explains that the story is how you explain what you want to do, how long it’s going to take, who the competition is, and how much money you need. a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz shared a similar view in a 2014 Forbes interview: “Storytelling is the most underrated skill… Companies that don’t have a clearly articulated story don’t have a clear and well thought-out strategy. The company story is the company strategy.” He continues: “The story must explain at a fundamental level why you exist. Why does the world need your company? Why do we need to be doing what we’re doing and why is it important?… You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company into motion. If you don’t have a great story it’s hard to get people motivated to join you, to work on the product, and to get people to invest in the product.” This is the job of the founder and CEO: “The CEO must be the keeper of the story. The CEO is responsible for getting the story right, that it’s up to date, compelling, and can move the hearts of men and women. That’s the fundamental responsibility of the chief executive… The mistake people make is thinking the story is just about marketing. No, the story is the strategy. If you make your story better you make the strategy better.” Video source: Stanford Graduate School of Business (2010)

Startup Archive

258,577 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

🎧 Here's my conversation with the one and only Dylan Field We discuss: 🔸 Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups 🔸 What actually happened with the Adobe deal, and how he kept morale up after it fell through 🔸 His approach to maintaining pace and a sense of urgency 13 years in 🔸 How to systematically develop taste 🔸 How Figma decides which product lines to add 🔸 Why you need to be obsessed with “time to value” 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: ⭐ This entire episode is sponsored by Stripe — Helping companies of all sizes grow revenue:
1:25

🎧 Here's my conversation with the one and only Dylan Field We discuss: 🔸 Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups 🔸 What actually happened with the Adobe deal, and how he kept morale up after it fell through 🔸 His approach to maintaining pace and a sense of urgency 13 years in 🔸 How to systematically develop taste 🔸 How Figma decides which product lines to add 🔸 Why you need to be obsessed with “time to value” 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: • Spotify: • Apple: ⭐ This entire episode is sponsored by Stripe — Helping companies of all sizes grow revenue:

Lenny Rachitsky

299,518 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce

I have had enough of people complaining about the UK and Europe being broken. It is time to stop whining and start discussing as specifically as possible, what can we do to make the UK a tech powerhouse: 💸 Flood it with VC funding 📖 What can we learn from Stripe, Sequoia and Norway 🔔 Does it matter the London Stock Exchange is f****** 👥 How to attract and retain the best talent in the UK. Stan Boland & Tom Hulme join me for this absolute banger of a discussion and my 7 key takeaways 👇
0:44

I have had enough of people complaining about the UK and Europe being broken. It is time to stop whining and start discussing as specifically as possible, what can we do to make the UK a tech powerhouse: 💸 Flood it with VC funding 📖 What can we learn from Stripe, Sequoia and Norway 🔔 Does it matter the London Stock Exchange is f****** 👥 How to attract and retain the best talent in the UK. Stan Boland & Tom Hulme join me for this absolute banger of a discussion and my 7 key takeaways 👇

Harry Stebbings

23,780 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

I asked Jake Stauch about raising Serval's $75M Series B from Sequoia the day they announced their $50M Series A: "We closed the A in August and delayed the announcement until October. The day we announced, I got a text from Sequoia asking to come to their office. I was at a customer conference in Orlando. They ended up flying out and meeting me for dinner with a term sheet. They had talked to all of our customers. They talked to everyone I'd ever worked with, managers, peers, and direct reports. They also talked to all our competitors' customers. And they had a clear picture of the market, and just knew we were going to win. So instead of waiting on the sidelines, they wanted to come in immediately. And I initially turned them down. We had just fundraised. I didn't need the money. We were maybe 15 people at the company. I didn't have a way to deploy the capital. But I thought about it more. And talked to some references that had raised from Sequoia. And we decided the support on customer introductions and signaling, recruiting, and strategy would be valuable to us now vs waiting a few months."
3:33

I asked Jake Stauch about raising Serval's $75M Series B from Sequoia the day they announced their $50M Series A: "We closed the A in August and delayed the announcement until October. The day we announced, I got a text from Sequoia asking to come to their office. I was at a customer conference in Orlando. They ended up flying out and meeting me for dinner with a term sheet. They had talked to all of our customers. They talked to everyone I'd ever worked with, managers, peers, and direct reports. They also talked to all our competitors' customers. And they had a clear picture of the market, and just knew we were going to win. So instead of waiting on the sidelines, they wanted to come in immediately. And I initially turned them down. We had just fundraised. I didn't need the money. We were maybe 15 people at the company. I didn't have a way to deploy the capital. But I thought about it more. And talked to some references that had raised from Sequoia. And we decided the support on customer introductions and signaling, recruiting, and strategy would be valuable to us now vs waiting a few months."

The Peel

37,117 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce

Doug Leone, Sequoia Capital partner, offers a counterintuitive take: the best pitches aren't the polished ones. They're the ones where founders openly admit their mistakes. In 2007, Sequoia led Dropbox's $1.2M seed round at a $5M valuation. Eleven years later, the company went public at $9 billion. But back in 2007, Dropbox was far from a sure thing. Online storage was a crowded, commoditized market. So what made Sequoia bet on Drew Houston? Doug explains: "Drew Houston, who was going to launch a company in a crowded market and yet could clearly articulate why none of the existing products were going to make it. Crystal clear thinking is one of the things we look for. Not a fancy slide pitch, but crystal clear thinking." What won Sequoia over was clarity, not polish. Doug shares another example of a great pitch, Fred Luddy, whose company was growing like a weed: "All he told us was all the mistakes he made. Those were the great pitches. Those were people that were self-aware. They were crystal clear thinkers. They were willing to learn, willing to listen, and in some cases willing not to listen." Doug also emphasises that the smallest details reveal a founder's mindset: "We pay careful attention to little words, to the pronoun being used. When someone says, 'I can ship you this thing,' it's a little warning. Fred, what do you mean you can ship us? You're not shipping us anything. It's your company that's shipping us." And he acknowledges the paradox in great founders: "Founders tend to not be the greatest listeners. And in many cases, they're right because they're doing new things, trying new things."
1:09

Doug Leone, Sequoia Capital partner, offers a counterintuitive take: the best pitches aren't the polished ones. They're the ones where founders openly admit their mistakes. In 2007, Sequoia led Dropbox's $1.2M seed round at a $5M valuation. Eleven years later, the company went public at $9 billion. But back in 2007, Dropbox was far from a sure thing. Online storage was a crowded, commoditized market. So what made Sequoia bet on Drew Houston? Doug explains: "Drew Houston, who was going to launch a company in a crowded market and yet could clearly articulate why none of the existing products were going to make it. Crystal clear thinking is one of the things we look for. Not a fancy slide pitch, but crystal clear thinking." What won Sequoia over was clarity, not polish. Doug shares another example of a great pitch, Fred Luddy, whose company was growing like a weed: "All he told us was all the mistakes he made. Those were the great pitches. Those were people that were self-aware. They were crystal clear thinkers. They were willing to learn, willing to listen, and in some cases willing not to listen." Doug also emphasises that the smallest details reveal a founder's mindset: "We pay careful attention to little words, to the pronoun being used. When someone says, 'I can ship you this thing,' it's a little warning. Fred, what do you mean you can ship us? You're not shipping us anything. It's your company that's shipping us." And he acknowledges the paradox in great founders: "Founders tend to not be the greatest listeners. And in many cases, they're right because they're doing new things, trying new things."

Big Brain Business

21,511 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce

If you’re working in AI, you most likely saw the just-released 2025 State of AI Report from Nathan Benaich, Founder and General Partner at Air Street Capital. The annual report is a must-read deep dive into the state of the industry, with this year’s highlights including: reasoning going mainstream; AI models becoming active co-scientists; and serious commercial traction, with 44% of US businesses now paying for AI tools. Tomorrow, get the behind-the-scenes story on the report and much more in a new episode of TechBio Talks, featuring Nathan in conversation with Chris Gibson. In it, Nathan shares what it means to be an “AI-first investor” and how his approach has evolved over time with the rapid acceleration of technology. As he says in the clip, he’s interested in companies where “The AI is the product.” 🎙️ Subscribe to TechBio Talks on: ▪️ Spotify: ▪️ YouTube: ▪️ Apple:
1:07

If you’re working in AI, you most likely saw the just-released 2025 State of AI Report from Nathan Benaich, Founder and General Partner at Air Street Capital. The annual report is a must-read deep dive into the state of the industry, with this year’s highlights including: reasoning going mainstream; AI models becoming active co-scientists; and serious commercial traction, with 44% of US businesses now paying for AI tools. Tomorrow, get the behind-the-scenes story on the report and much more in a new episode of TechBio Talks, featuring Nathan in conversation with Chris Gibson. In it, Nathan shares what it means to be an “AI-first investor” and how his approach has evolved over time with the rapid acceleration of technology. As he says in the clip, he’s interested in companies where “The AI is the product.” 🎙️ Subscribe to TechBio Talks on: ▪️ Spotify: ▪️ YouTube: ▪️ Apple:

Recursion

13,947 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce

Every once in a while, you have a conversation that lingers, not just because of what’s spoken, but because of how deeply it reframes your thinking. My recent conversation with Vishal Sikka was exactly that. From leading SAP’s HANA revolution and driving Infosys’ transformation to now reimagining enterprise AI at Vianai Systems, Inc., Vishal has lived at the intersection of technology, philosophy and leadership. We spoke about what “enterprise-grade AI” really means in a world obsessed with speed over reliability, why enterprises are more like mangrove forests than machines (intricate, resilient & capable of withstanding shocks) and how India can shape the future of AI through its unique blend of scale, talent and systems thinking. Besides, if there’s anyone who can weave an analogy between mangrove forests and enterprises and make it click, it’s Vishal! These are insights that could only come from someone who has built, led and now re-imagines what the enterprise of the future looks like. Watch the full conversation at And of course, a massive thank you to Vishal for making the time for this conversation!
1:23

Every once in a while, you have a conversation that lingers, not just because of what’s spoken, but because of how deeply it reframes your thinking. My recent conversation with Vishal Sikka was exactly that. From leading SAP’s HANA revolution and driving Infosys’ transformation to now reimagining enterprise AI at Vianai Systems, Inc., Vishal has lived at the intersection of technology, philosophy and leadership. We spoke about what “enterprise-grade AI” really means in a world obsessed with speed over reliability, why enterprises are more like mangrove forests than machines (intricate, resilient & capable of withstanding shocks) and how India can shape the future of AI through its unique blend of scale, talent and systems thinking. Besides, if there’s anyone who can weave an analogy between mangrove forests and enterprises and make it click, it’s Vishal! These are insights that could only come from someone who has built, led and now re-imagines what the enterprise of the future looks like. Watch the full conversation at And of course, a massive thank you to Vishal for making the time for this conversation!

Alok Goyal

28,475 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce

Figma has been known for their obsessive product culture. Today, they began trading publicly and that ethos carried all the way from the office to the NYSE. “One of the experiences I've had with Figma, dating back to when we first invested seven years ago, is that it's a company that’s always had extraordinary attention to detail." - Andrew Reed (Partner at Sequoia Capital) "You see it in the board slides, the S-1, the conference, and how they applied that to the NYSE was incredible.” “Dylan cares a lot about the product. The roadshow demo wasn’t a five-minute flyby, it was deep in the weeds. I uncovered parts of the product I didn’t even know existed." "He cares about every single pixel and feature, and that shows through.”
1:44

Figma has been known for their obsessive product culture. Today, they began trading publicly and that ethos carried all the way from the office to the NYSE. “One of the experiences I've had with Figma, dating back to when we first invested seven years ago, is that it's a company that’s always had extraordinary attention to detail." - Andrew Reed (Partner at Sequoia Capital) "You see it in the board slides, the S-1, the conference, and how they applied that to the NYSE was incredible.” “Dylan cares a lot about the product. The roadshow demo wasn’t a five-minute flyby, it was deep in the weeds. I uncovered parts of the product I didn’t even know existed." "He cares about every single pixel and feature, and that shows through.”

TBPN

43,077 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

In 2014, Keller Cliffton Cliffton shut down his robotic toy startup to build a drone delivery network for life-saving medical supplies. Everyone said it wouldn’t work. Today, Zipline delivers for hospitals around the world. Now it’s reinventing how delivery works with Platform 2 - starting with Walmart and Chipotle in the US. This is a story of betting everything to transform the world. Featuring Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn, Maggie Jim, Alfred Lin Hosted by Roelof Botha 00:00 – Chewing Glass 00:55 – Discovering Entrepreneurship 02:00 – From Robots to Real Problems 03:00 – The Vision for Global Health Logistics 04:30 – Betting on Rwanda 06:00 – Building the System 08:00 – The First Flight 09:15 – Breakthrough and Scale 11:15 – The Moment of Validation 12:30 – Platform Two: A New Bet 14:15 – Seeing Is Believing 15:45 – The Next Frontier 16:30 – Never Giving Up
17:27

In 2014, Keller Cliffton Cliffton shut down his robotic toy startup to build a drone delivery network for life-saving medical supplies. Everyone said it wouldn’t work. Today, Zipline delivers for hospitals around the world. Now it’s reinventing how delivery works with Platform 2 - starting with Walmart and Chipotle in the US. This is a story of betting everything to transform the world. Featuring Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn, Maggie Jim, Alfred Lin Hosted by Roelof Botha 00:00 – Chewing Glass 00:55 – Discovering Entrepreneurship 02:00 – From Robots to Real Problems 03:00 – The Vision for Global Health Logistics 04:30 – Betting on Rwanda 06:00 – Building the System 08:00 – The First Flight 09:15 – Breakthrough and Scale 11:15 – The Moment of Validation 12:30 – Platform Two: A New Bet 14:15 – Seeing Is Believing 15:45 – The Next Frontier 16:30 – Never Giving Up

Sequoia Capital

1,340,956 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce