Sequoia Capital

David Cahn is a partner at Sequoia Capital. Cahn joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how much revenue the AI industry must generate to pay back its massive infrastructure investments and why the pursuit of AGI is driving companies to keep spending. Tune in to hear his assessment of the strategies guiding OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, and SpaceX. We also cover the risk of an investment-timeline mismatch, the value of AI talent and proprietary chips, and whether building artificial intelligence could change religion and spirituality. Hit play for a cool-headed examination of the enormous financial and strategic bets shaping the future of AI. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Watch the full documentary here: https://www.gravitee.io/ai-agent-documentary Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Cahn

Partner

Sequoia Capital

David Cahn is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading AI investors. At Sequoia David has led investments in Clay, Juicebox, Sesame, Kela, Stark, etc.. Before Sequoia, David was a General Partner @ Coatue where he led investments in Notion and Hugging Face. AGENDA: 00:00 We Are in an AI Bubble 05:04 Why Building Physical Data Centres is a Moat 13:58 Winners and Losers in a World of AI 19:13 The Role of Big Tech and Monopolies 23:37 Breaking Down Circular Deals in AI: The Truth No One Sees? 38:19 Why Kingmaking is BS and VCs Do Not Make or Break Companies 41:30 The Importance of Margins in AI Investments 43:41 The Required Growth Rates in AI to Get Funded by Sequoia 45:30 The $0-$100M Revenue Club: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead? 51:53 Why the Most Important Hire for Startups Today is 23 Year Olds 01:01:19 The Future of Defence: Who Wins and Who Loses 01:10:15 Quickfire: Biggest Miss, Parenting Advice, Doug Leone Advice

David Cahn

Partner

Sequoia Capital

(0:00) Introducing Roelof Botha (1:08) Sequoia's Scout program and its best-performing funds ever (3:38) State of Venture Capital: Why it's broken, too much capital, not enough great companies (9:01) Why Sequoia separated from its China business, how they adapt to changing macro landscapes (13:05) Sequoia's culture, picking partners, investment decision-making, The Sequoia Capital Fund and holding winners (20:18) What makes a great founder, what Roelof learned from Doug Leone and Michael Moritz (26:06) Investing in biotech, importance of expertise in VC Thanks to our partners for making this happen! Solana - Solana is the high performance network powering internet capital markets, payments, and crypto applications. Connect with investors, crypto founders, and entrepreneurs at Solana's global flagship event during Abu Dhabi Finance Week & F1: https://solana.com/breakpoint OKX - The new way to build your crypto portfolio and use it in daily life. We call it the new money app. https://www.okx.com/ Google Cloud - The next generation of unicorns is building on Google Cloud's industry-leading, fully integrated AI stack: infrastructure, platform, models, agents, and data. https://cloud.google.com/ IREN - IREN AI Cloud, powered by NVIDIA GPUs, provides the scale, performance, and reliability to accelerate your AI journey. https://iren.com/ Oracle - Step into the future of enterprise productivity at Oracle AI Experience Live. https://www.oracle.com/artificial-intelligence/data-ai-events/ Circle - The America-based company behind USDC — a fully-reserved, enterprise-grade stablecoin at the core of the emerging internet financial system. https://www.circle.com/ BVNK - Building stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure that helps businesses send, store, and spend value instantly, anywhere in the world. https://www.bvnk.com/ Polymarket - The world's largest prediction market. https://www.polymarket.com/ Follow Roelof: https://x.com/roelofbotha Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg

Roelof Botha

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Today’s show: In this powerhouse VC roundtable, @Jason sits down with Sequoia’s Doug Leone and Cyberstarts’ Gili Raanan to share brutally honest insights on startup recruiting, evaluating second-time founders, and how to truly find product-market fit. They break down why big-tech résumés can be misleading, how to structure early teams, and what separates “missionary” talent from mercenaries. Plus, the myth of early ARR, the art of founder-board trust, and how AI is (and isn’t) reshaping startup velocity. Must-watch for founders, VCs, and anyone building from 0 to 1. Timestamps: (03:25) The origins of Wiz and how VCs know when to invest (05:17) What qualities are investors looking for in founders and entrepreneurs? (09:53) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (18:40) How to know when you’ve reached true Product Market Fit: the experts sound off (19:20) Notion - Try it for free today at https://notion.com/twist (25:39) The secrets of recruiting top talent (29:54) CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech (39:38) Judging a startup’s revenue quality and “founder vs. salesman” deals (53:38) Is venture capital kind of a SCAM? (55:00) Seed Investing: “Pick them right and early” Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: (09:53) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (19:20) Notion - Try it for free today at https://notion.com/twist(29:54) CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Doug Leone

Global Managing Partner

Sequoia Capital

Gili Raanan

Founder & General Partner

Cyberstarts

Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia and former physicist turned investor, joins the Limitless Podcast to explore why we’re on the verge of a technological renaissance. From AI and silicon photonics to humanoid robots and space infrastructure, Shaun makes the case that the next 20 years will make the internet boom look tame. We dive deep into why America needs 10 SpaceX-level companies, the return of hardware innovation, the energy constraints of the future, and how frontier technologies like Neuralink and Mars colonization might reshape civilization. ------ 💫 LIMITLESS | SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW https://pod.link/1813210890 https://www.youtube.com/@Limitless-FT https://x.com/LimitlessFT ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi https://bankless.cc/Frax 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌐SELF | PROVE YOUR SELF https://bankless.cc/Self 🟠HEMI | BTC & ETH, ONE NETWORK https://bankless.cc/hemi ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 6:36 Who’s Shaun Maguire? 9:24 Investing in the AI Age 13:06 Hardware Manufacturing 21:58 Hardware Precedes Software Revolutions 42:20 Energy 49:53 Space Solar Reflectors 55:45 Space Economy 1:04:15 Elon Musk 1:14:24 Robotics 1:17:39 Neuralink 1:25:22 Doom Scenarios 1:32:02 Closing Thoughts ------ RESOURCES Shaun Maguire https://x.com/shaunmmaguire Sequoia Capital https://www.sequoiacap.com/ Josh Kale https://x.com/Josh_Kale David Hoffman https://x.com/TrustlessState ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Shaun Maguire

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Workday CEO and Sequoia partner Carl Eschenbach explains how the company is evolving its platform to handle both human and AI workers. He shares Workday’s three-pronged approach to monetizing AI through seat-based pricing, role-based agents and consumption-based API access. Eschenbach discusses why domain-specific agents with curated data will be more valuable than general-purpose models in the enterprise, and how Workday is helping enterprises navigate the transition to an AI-powered workplace while maintaining human connection. Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital

Carl Eschenbach

Partner

Sequoia CapitalWorkday

Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years published once a month. These are N of one conversations with N of one people. There's nobody I've met quite like Doug Leone. Doug led one of the world’s most successful venture firms, Sequoia, for over 25 years after he was given responsibility for the firm by its founder, Don Valentine, in 1996. Alongside Mike Moritz, the pair managed its expansion from a single $150m early-stage fund into an $85 billion global powerhouse. It was a privilege to sit down with Doug and learn from him. We talk about his tough start at Sequoia, get into the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and survey his advice for other investors in the industry. A key theme that will stick with me from this conversation is Doug’s insistence on keeping things simple and clear. I listen to this at least once a year. I hope you enjoy it. Subscribe to Colossus Review. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Passthrough. Passthrough streamlines subscription documents, KYC, and AML compliance, so you can focus on running your fund, not managing paperwork. New SEC Update 31 CFR hits investment firms in under a year, and managers are getting ready for it now. If you think basic OFAC screening is enough, think again. You'll need continuous monitoring of your investors and all their beneficial owners across multiple watchlists, plus a comprehensive anti money laundering program. Passthrough has already processed 50,000 LPs and built the complete solution. Don't risk SEC deficiency letters, fines, or regulatory enforcement. Visit passthrough.com to get compliant now. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes [00:00:00] Welcome to Invest Like the Best [00:05:21] What Don Valentine’s heart was like [00:08:30] The most productive and unproductive parts of Don’s toughness  [00:12:55] Why it’s so important to understand someone’s core motivations [00:18:44] The most formative experiences he had prior to becoming an investor that impacted his investing the most  [00:22:37] What venture looks like to him today relative to his prior career [00:28:37] Whether or not he’d go into venture today if he was in his late 20s  [00:34:10] Helping companies circumnavigate mediocre positioning  [00:39:15] How interacting with companies early on has changed over the ears [00:43:12] Whether or not new entrants into venture should build firms with enterprise value  [00:48:14] Sussing out the killer gene in somebody  [00:51:04] How successful people can instill the lessons learned from hardship into their children  [00:54:30] Whether or not competitive advantage can be architected ahead of time when building a company   [00:57:21] The early 2000s clawback at Sequoia and what navigating that period was like  [01:01:06] What he’s learned about picking the right LPs and partnering with them [01:04:18] Making sure that performance is on everyone’s minds all the time  [01:09:59] The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Doug Leone

Global Managing Partner

Sequoia Capital

My guest today is Ravi Gupta. Ravi is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and a host on Glue Guys, a podcast on the Colossus network that intersects business and sports. I wanted to have him back on Invest Like the Best to discuss his recent most recent blog post titled “AI or Die.” As both an investor and former Instacart operator and CFO, Ravi believes we're entering an era where the constraints that historically limited small teams are dissolving, creating unprecedented opportunities for those willing to embrace change aggressively. We discuss why traditional metrics of corporate success like headcount and process adherence may become liabilities, what it means to be a world-class reactor vs predictor, and how "magic per employee" and organizational agility will emerge as crucial measures of value creation. Please enjoy my conversation with Ravi Gupta. Subscribe to Colossus Review. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Ramp is the fastest-growing FinTech company in history, and it’s backed by more of my favorite past guests (at least 16 of them!) than probably any other company I’m aware of. Go to Ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. – This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform. – This episode is brought to you by AlphaSense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).  Show Notes: (00:00:00) Learn About Ramp, Ridgeline, & Alphasense (00:06:00) Introduction to 'AI or Die' Essay (00:06:29) Initial Reactions to AI Advancements (00:08:24) The Concept of 'AI or Die' (00:10:40) Adapting to Rapid Technological Change (00:12:02) Using AI for Real Work (00:13:58) Evaluating Company Agility and AI Integration (00:18:58) The Cost of Employees in the AI Era (00:25:36) AI's Impact on Business Strategy (00:36:55) Changing Perspectives on AI Models (00:37:50) The Importance of Context in AI (00:39:09) Optimism in the Age of AI (00:40:22) Predictors vs. Reactors (00:42:54) AI Tools in Business Operations (00:46:07) The Future of Small Teams and Efficiency (00:49:01) Investing in the AI Era (00:55:11) The Role of Board Members in AI Adoption (00:57:22) Embracing Change with Humility (00:59:17) The Ghost of Competition (01:05:04) Seizing the AI Opportunity

Ravi Gupta

Partner

Sequoia Capital

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with David Cahn, partner at Sequoia Capital, for a compelling discussion on the dynamic world of AI investments. They dive into recent developments, including DeepSeek and Stargate, exploring their implications for the AI industry. Drawing from his articles, "AI's $200 Billion Question" and "AI's $600 Billion Question," David unpacks the financial challenges and opportunities surrounding AI infrastructure spending and the staggering revenue required to sustain these investments. Together, they examine the competitive strategies of cloud providers, the transformative impact of AI on business models, and predictions for the next wave of AI-driven growth. This episode offers an in-depth look at the crossroads of AI innovation and financial strategy. Mentioned Articles: AI’s $200B Question AI’s $600B Question 🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms: Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcasts Spotify: http://wandb.me/spotify Google: http://wandb.me/gd_google YouTube: http://wandb.me/youtube Connect with David Cahn: @DavidCahn6 Follow Weights & Biases: https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server: https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

David Cahn

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner slice into the juiciest topics in crypto. This week, Robert Leshner welcomes two special guests: Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy, and Shaun Maguire, general partner at Sequoia Capital, for a one-of-a-kind debate on how the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election could shape the future of crypto. With the stakes higher than ever, they explore what a Harris or Trump presidency could mean for crypto regulation, market infrastructure, and the populist undercurrents driving the industry forward. From blockchain voting possibilities to the macroeconomic forces impacting Bitcoin and stablecoins, the conversation pushes beyond policy to the heart of crypto's role in tomorrow's world. This episode delivers crucial insights on the political forces that could redefine crypto’s trajectory in the U.S. and beyond. Show highlights 🔹 Crypto in the Election Crosshairs: Mike Novogratz and Shaun Maguire debate how a Trump or Harris presidency could reshape the U.S. crypto landscape. 🔹 Deregulation vs. Innovation: Trump’s pro-deregulation stance meets Harris’s pro-innovation campaign promises. Which path is better for crypto growth? 🔹 Crypto's Populist Appeal: How Trump’s base connects with crypto’s populist movement and why that resonates with “the people at the bottom” of the income bracket. 🔹 Deep State and Political Jaywalking: Shaun Maguire dives into the concept of “political jaywalking” and its impact on trust in U.S. elections. 🔹 The Future of Blockchain Voting: Could blockchain-based voting bring transparency to elections? The crew weighs in on the feasibility and timing of decentralized voting. 🔹 Bitcoin's Role in Macro Trends: With U.S. debt surging, Mike and Shaun share their thoughts on Bitcoin as a hedge, whether Trump or Harris takes office. 🔹 The Crypto Political Machine: A look at how crypto insiders engage with political campaigns and the industry’s impact on down-ballot races. 🔹 Wildcard Assets: How a national Bitcoin reserve might impact U.S. fiscal policy – could it ever happen under Harris? Hosts ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate Guests ⭐️Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy ⭐️Shaun Maguire, general partner at Sequoia Capital Disclosures Timestamps  00:00 Introduction 02:03 Shaun’s Argument for Trump 05:10 Mike's Argument for Harris 11:10 Political Bias and Prediction Markets 18:25 Flynn & Political Jaywalking 24:26 Macroeconomic Implications for Crypto 30:29 Bitcoin Price Predictions Post-Election 32:38 Gold & Central Bank Dynamics 34:41 Nation States & Bitcoin Reserves 37:35 Military Technology & Future Dominance 39:10 Presidential Campaign Issues & AI 47:44 Election Integrity & Blockchain Voting 53:17 Crypto's Influence in Politics 56:42 $WLFI Endeavors 01:00:17 Closing Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Novogratz

Founder & CEO

Galaxy DigitalGalaxy Investment Partners

Shaun Maguire

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Jeff Wang is the Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital Global Equities (SCGE), a public/private crossover investment firm with investments spanning from late-stage private companies to public companies. As Managing Partner, Jeff has primarily focused on public growth technology companies but has also invested $3 billion in private companies including Bytedance, SpaceX, and Stripe. Prior SCGE private investments that have since gone public include Airbnb, Doordash, MongoDB, Nubank, and Snowflake. Before joining SCGE in 2010, Jeff also worked at TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners where he focused on investments in technology buyouts. 10 Questions with the Leader of Sequoia's $9BN Global Equities Fund: 1. Crossover Fund Opportunity: Why are crossover funds more attractive today than ever? Have the tourists gone? 2. Public Market Opportunity: Why is the opportunity in the public markets, not the private markets today? 3. IPO Markets: When will IPO markets open? What will cause them to open? 4. Breaking Hedge Fund Rules: What are the biggest ways that Sequoia break the traditional rules of hedge funds? 5. Google: Why does Jeff believe that Google's cash cow of search is under threat? 6. Meta: Why does Jeff believe Meta will be the biggest competitor to Google? 7. NVIDIA: Why is NVIDIA's price today reasonable? What is the bull and bear case? 8. China: Is there a recovery for China? How do Sequoia play China in this market? 9. AI in Public Markets: How are Sequoia playing the AI game in the public markets? 10. Investing Lessons: What have been Jeff's biggest investing lessons from Mike Moritz, Doug Leone and Roelof Botha?

Jeff Wang

Managing Partner

Sequoia CapitalCodeium

This week's episode is special because it marks the launch of a new Colossus show: Glue Guys. My guests this week are the hosts of the new show, Shane Battier, Alex Smith, and Ravi Gupta. Shane, Ravi, and Alex’s stories are remarkable. Each has been at the very top of their profession. Shane as an NCAA and NBA champion. Alex as the first pick in the NFL draft, 3 time-pro bowler, and 16-year NFL veteran. Ravi as a leader at KKR, and then as a critical leader turning around & building Instacart, and now as a partner at Sequoia. But those parts of their stories pale in comparison to the stories you’ll hear on Glue Guys.  Glue Guys is an unfolding manual for HOW to be a professional, a teammate, a leader, and even a friend and family member. In this episode of ILtB, we explore the general concept of glue guys—the people who are obsessed with helping the team win, whether they are the leader or newest member of the team. Please enjoy this conversation with Shane, Alex, and Ravi. Subscribe to Glue Guys! For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform. — This episode is brought to you by Tegus, where we're changing the game in investment research. Step away from outdated, inefficient methods and into the future with our platform, proudly hosting over 100,000 transcripts – with over 25,000 transcripts added just this year alone. Our platform grows eight times faster and adds twice as much monthly content as our competitors, putting us at the forefront of the industry. Plus, with 75% of private market transcripts available exclusively on Tegus, we offer insights you simply can't find elsewhere. See the difference a vast, quality-driven transcript library makes. Unlock your free trial at tegus.com/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:05:06) Talent vs. Teamwork: A Business Perspective (00:06:56) Talent vs. Teamwork: A Sports Perspective (00:09:40) Personal Stories of Overcoming Adversity (00:12:50) The Importance of Trust and Mission Focus (00:21:09) Facing Rock Bottom and Rising Again (00:34:59) The Hardest Moments and Lessons Learned (00:42:39) Unsung Heroes of Special Teams (00:45:01) Mentorship and Team Dynamics (00:46:49) Lessons from Duke Basketball (00:49:25) Instacart and the All-In Mentality (00:51:52) Building Successful Teams (00:55:42) Family Legacy and Personal Sacrifice (01:05:02) Strength and Vulnerability in Leadership (01:10:36) The Urge to Dominate and Winning (01:14:41) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Alex

Ravi Gupta

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Shane Battier

Host, Glue Guys

Miami Heat

Alex Smith

Host, Glue Guys

Shaun Maguire is a Partner at Sequoia Capital. At Sequoia he led their investment into SpaceX, The Boring Co and X among many others. Before Sequoia he co-founded a cybersecurity company called Expanse which Palo Alto Networks acquired for $1B. Before Expanse, Shaun worked at DARPA and was deployed to Afghanistan. In Today's Episode with Shaun Maguire We Discuss: 1. Why Iran is the Greatest Evil in the World: What specifically makes Iran the greatest danger to the world today? How should the US respond to the threat posed by Iran? Does the US have to go to war with Iran knowing that they now have nuclear weapons? How did the Biden-Harris administration worsen relations both with Iran and Saudi? Is Trump the best chance we have of bringing peace and stability to the Middle East? 2. Russia, Ukraine, Gaza and Israel: What is the Right Next Step: Does Shaun believe that the US should remove funding from Ukraine? How would Trump change the US' relationship with Putin? What does Shaun believe is the right next step for the US in Gaza and Israel? What does Shaun mean when he says the public have no idea how much crazy s**** happens? 3. Freedom of Speech and DEI: Remnants of the Past: Does Shaun believe we live in a society with freedom of speech? How does it differ between the US and Europe? Is Shaun negative on the future of Europe? Does he agree with Larry Summers that "it is a museum"? How does Shaun evaluate the state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)? Why does Shaun believe that wokeness and cancel culture is one of the greatest dangers to society? When does Shaun believe that transgender becomes a problem in children? Where is the line? 4. The Election: Who Wins and What Happens: Does Shaun agree that Kamala is pulling ahead and Trump is now chasing her? How does Shaun analyse the chances of Trump winning? To what extent is it a real threat that there will be civil unrest if Trump does not win? Why does Shaun argue that too much blame is placed on Trump for Jan 6th and he did nothing that Hilary Clinton had not done in disputing prior elections? How does Shaun evaluate the appointment of JD Vance? Does Shaun agree with the echoes from the crowd for Trump to remove him? 5. Elon Musk, US Selling All BTC & Inside Sequoia: What does Shaun believe are the three qualities that make Elon Musk one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time? Why does Shaun believe that it is a massive mistake for the US to sell all BTC holdings? Who is the best picker in Sequoia? Who is the best at sourcing? Does Shaun get told off internally for his opinions being shared so freely externally? What have been Shaun's biggest lessons from working alongside Doug Leone? 20VC: Sequoia's Shaun Maguire on Will We See WW3 Shortly | Why DEI is a Cancer for Society | Why Iran is the World's Greatest Evil | Why Trump is the Only Hope for Peace in the Middle East | Trump vs Harris: Who Wins & What Happens

Shaun Maguire

Partner

Sequoia Capital

David Cahn is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the great venture firms of the last 5 decades. Before joining the Sequoia partnership, David led Coatue's venture business as a General Partner and COO where he led investments in Hugging Face, Runway and Supabase. David also joined the boards of Weights & Biases and Replit. In Today's Episode with David Cahn We Discuss: 1. AI's $600BN Question: What is the $600BN question in AI today? Is it possible to believe "AI will change the world" and "Capex levels are too high" at the same time? Why do the cloud players have to act now? When does the Capex reduce for them? How does Meta not having a core cash cow in cloud change the way they can respond? Why is all the risk today being borne by the large incumbents? Why is that good for startups? How will we see Satya and Zuckerberg change their narrative towards their Capex spend to the public markets? 2. The Data Centre is the Most Important Asset: Why does David believe that data centre is the most important asset? What does he mean when he says "servers, steel and power" are the pillars of AI? What happens when the development of models outpaces the construction of data centres? Why does David believe no one will ever train a frontier model on the same data centre twice? 3. The Biggest Opportunities in AI: Why does David believe the biggest opportunity right now is in the build-out of data centres? What does the supply chain look like for the build-out of data centres? Who are the winners? Why does David believe the biggest opportunity in finance is in creating new debt instruments that will allow the largest incumbents in the world to move this data centre spend off balance sheet? Why does David believe that AI will drive more energy innovation than any policy has done? 4. The Secrets of Sequoia: Inside the Walls of the Greatest Firm in Venture: What does David and Sequoia believe is the one definition of success in venture? Who is the best at find companies in Sequoia? Who is the best at picking? Why does David believe conviction, not picking is the hardest part in venture? How do Sequoia want to shape and mould every investor in the firm? 20VC: Sequoia's David Cahn on AI's $600BN Question | Why the Data Centre is the Most Important Asset | Servers, Steel and Power: The Core Pillars Powering the Future of AI

David Cahn

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Ed speaks with Varun Mohan and Jeff Wang from Codeium, an AI code generator. They discuss the importance of being a lean company, how their product stacks up against competitors and why having a level of paranoia has been imperative to their success. Follow the podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Follow Ed on Instagram and X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Varun Mohan

Co-founder & CEO, Codeium

CodeiumWindsurf

Jeff Wang

Managing Partner

CodeiumSequoia Capital

Pat Grady is one of the most successful growth investors of the last decade. As the Head of Sequoia's growth investing practice, Pat has invested in companies with a combined market cap exceeding $250BN. Among Pat's immense portfolio is Hubspot, Snowflake, ServiceNow, Okta, Amplitude, Zoom and Qualtrics. Pat is also one of the best acquirers of talent in venture hiring Andrew Reed, Matt Huang, Julien Bek. In Today's Episode with Pat Grady We Discuss: 1. The Sequoia Investment Process: What is the Sequoia investment process today? How has it changed over time? What could be improved about the process? Where is it weak? What is the biggest strength of the process? How do Sequoia remove politics from the investment decision-making process? Are the best deals "contrarian"? What does Pat mean when he says you do not "get extra points for being contrarian and right"? 2. What Sequoia Look for When Investing: What is Pat's framework for assessing founders? How does it differ when investing early vs late? Team, traction, TAM, how does Pat rank the three when investing? What have been Pat's biggest lessons on market sizing? Does Pat take market timing risk? How much weight does Pat place on "traction" when investing? How sustainable is PMF? 3. The Three Core Pillars of Venture: Sourcing: What does Pat rank Sequoia for sourcing? Who is the best at sourcing in the firm? Selecting: How does Pat rank Sequoia at picking? How has it changed over time? What could Sequoia do to improve their picking ability? Servicing: What does Pat give Sequoia for their "value add"? To what extent does Pat truly believe that venture investors do add value? 4. Pat Grady: AMA: Pat has hired some of the best in the next generation of venture investors; what are his biggest lessons in what he looks for when hiring investing talent? What is his single biggest takeaway from working with Alfred Lin, Roelof Botha and Doug Leone? What are his biggest takeaways from working with Hubspot, Snowflake and ServiceNow?

Pat Grady

Partner

Sequoia Capital

My guest today is Pat Grady, a longtime growth investor at Sequoia and one of the firms senior leaders. Pat has been a part of a long list of legendary investments, ranging from Snowflake, Zoom, ServiceNow, Qualtrics, Okta, Hubspot, Notion, and OpenAI, among many others. There aren't many investors who reference as well at Pat, both inside and outside of his firm. We talk about investing, building an investing firm, and building enduring companies. Please enjoy this great conversation with Pat Grady. Listen to Founders Podcast For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus, where we're changing the game in investment research. Step away from outdated, inefficient methods and into the future with our platform, proudly hosting over 100,000 transcripts – with over 25,000 transcripts added just this year alone. Our platform grows eight times faster and adds twice as much monthly content as our competitors, putting us at the forefront of the industry. Plus, with 75% of private market transcripts available exclusively on Tegus, we offer insights you simply can't find elsewhere. See the difference a vast, quality-driven transcript library makes. Unlock your free trial at tegus.com/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:05:48) Doug Leone's Leadership and Changes (00:06:54) Creating Internal Pressure and Structure (00:10:46) Sequoia's Team Values and Family Influence (00:13:40) Assessing Founders and Investments (00:20:28) Winning Competitive Investments (00:24:45) Pat’s Early Career at Sequoia (00:29:38) Memo Writing and Investment Criteria (00:35:20) Evaluating Companies Through Three Business Criteria (00:40:15) Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage (00:47:48) Turning Bad Numbers into Good Investments (00:51:20) The AI Frontier: Market and People (01:01:13) Harvey: The AI Legal Assistant (01:05:33) Sequoia's Platform Strategy (01:17:16) The Importance of Teamwork and Performance (01:26:07) Legendary Potential: Relentless Application of Force (01:28:37) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Pat

Pat Grady

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Vickie Peng is a Product Partner at Sequoia and the co-creator of Arc, their company-building immersion programme for pre-seed and seed stage founders. Prior to Sequoia, Vickie was a product manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo for $200M) and Instagram, where she grew SMB advertising from $200M to $1BN. In Today's Episode with Vickie Peng We Discuss: Lessons from 15 Years in Product How did Vickie make her way into the world of product? How did Vickie turn a small side business into a massive revenue machine at TrialPay? How did Vickie scale Instagram SMB ads to $1BN? What were her takeaways? What was Vickie's business model at Polyvore that eventually led to the $200M acquisition by Yahoo? Lessons from Scaling 100+ Companies in Sequoia What does Vickie believe are the biggest mistakes early stage founders make when telling stories? Which 2 components does Vickie believe every great product mission should include? How should pre-product-market fit founders set their north star metric? Perfecting Product Strategy What was Vickie's biggest product mistake? What were her lessons? Why does Vickie think the best product people build less product? What is Vickie's advice to product leaders starting their first day on the job? What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring product teams? Product-Market Fit Masterclass Why does Vickie believe product-market fit is a journey not a destination? What are the biggest reasons founders fail to get product-market fit? What are the 3 types of product-market fit? How does Vickie advise founders to differentiate themselves in competitive markets? What is Vickie's framework for competing against incumbents?

Vickie Peng

Product Partner

Sequoia Capital

Doug Leone is the Global Managing Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world's most renowned and successful venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Google, Airbnb, Whatsapp, Stripe, Zoom and many more. Marcelo Claure is the Founder & CEO of Claure Group, a multi-billion-dollar global investment firm. He is the Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Bicycle Capital, a $500M Latin America-focused growth equity fund, and was appointed Chairman in Latin America of SHEIN, the global #1 on-demand fashion company in the world. Claure was also the CEO of SoftBank Group International where he launched SoftBank's $8B Latin America Funds, and had direct oversight for SoftBank's operating companies. Geoff Lewis is a Founder and Managing Partner of Bedrock, one of the breakout and new venture firms of the last decade, famously in search of narrative violations. He serves or has served on the Board of Directors for companies including Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Nubank (NYSE: NU), Epirus, and Vercel. Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Martín Escobari is Co-President, Managing Director and Head of General Atlantic's business in Latin America. Martín is Chairman of the firm's Investment Committee and also serves on the Management and Portfolio Committees. Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo's early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. In Today's Episode on Price Sensitivity We Discuss: Doug Leone: Why the attitude of "deploy, deploy, deploy will get so many in trouble"? Marcelo Claure: How to know when price matters and when it does not? Geoff Lewis: What is the right framework to assess price at an early stage? David Tisch: How does the importance of price change vis a vis company vs portfolio? Orlando Bravo: What have been Thoma Bravo's biggest lessons on price? Cyan Banister: Why does Cyan believe there will be a reckoning?

Doug Leone

Global Managing Partner

Sequoia Capital

Marcelo Claure

Founder & CEO

Claure GroupBicycle CapitalClaure CapitalSoftBank Group International

This week we are replaying our episode with Doug Leone. Doug led one of the world’s most successful venture firms, Sequoia, for over 25 years after he was given responsibility for the firm by its founder, Don Valentine, in 1996. Alongside Mike Moritz, the pair managed its expansion from a single $150m early-stage fund into an $85 billion global powerhouse. It was a privilege to sit down with Doug and learn from him. We talk about his tough start at Sequoia, get into the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and survey his advice for other investors in the industry. A key theme that will stick with me from this conversation is Doug’s insistence on keeping things simple and clear. Please enjoy my great conversation with Doug Leone. Listen to Founders Podcast For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. Tired of running your own expert calls to get up to speed on a company? Tegus lets you ramp faster and find answers to critical questions more efficiently than any alternative method. The gold standard for research, the Tegus platform delivers unmatched access to timely, qualitative insights through the largest and most differentiated expert call transcript database. With over 60,000 transcripts spanning 22,000 public and private companies, investors can accelerate their fundamental research process by discovering highly-differentiated and reliable insights that can’t be found anywhere else in the market. As a listener, drive your next investment thesis forward with Tegus for free at tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes [00:03:21] - [First question] - What Don Valentine’s heart was like [00:06:30] - The most productive and unproductive parts of Don’s toughness  [00:10:55] - Why it’s so important to understand someone’s core motivations [00:14:18] - Questions or topics he returns to when getting to know people  [00:16:44] - The most formative experiences he had prior to becoming an investor that impacted his investing the most  [00:20:37] - What venture looks like to him today relative to his prior career [00:23:51] - His style of approaching emerging technology markets like AI as an investor   [00:26:37] - Whether or not he’d go into venture today if he was in his late 20s  [00:28:30] - Commonalities between the very best at going to market effectively  [00:31:11] - The key components of great product positioning   [00:37:15] - How interacting with companies early on has changed over the ears [00:41:12] - Whether or not new entrants into venture should build firms with enterprise value  [00:46:14] - Sussing out the killer gene in somebody  [00:49:04] - How successful people can instill the lessons learned from hardship into their children  [00:53:52] - Whether or not his view on competitive advantage has changed   [00:55:21] - The early 2000s clawback at Sequoia and what navigating that period was like  [01:00:40] - The most interesting question an LP has ever asked him  [01:05:00] - Which dinner companions he’d pick to educate a newly successful founder [01:07:59] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Doug Leone

Global Managing Partner

Sequoia Capital

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Supergut is the easiest and tastiest way clinically-proven to regulate digestion, curb cravings, and boost energy. Get 30% off their delicious shakes, bars, and fiber mix at Supergut.com with code TWIST. Coda. A new doc that brings words, tables and teams together. All your valuable data, plans, objectives, and strategies in one place. Go to https://coda.io/twist to get a $1,000 credit! Mercury. 90 percent of startups fail — 90 percent. Just 10 out of every 100 make it. Mercury exists to close that gap — helping companies succeed with banking and credit cards engineered for the startup journey. Join over 100,000 companies banking with Mercury at http://mercury.com Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC. * Today’s show: Roelof Botha joins Jason to discuss the state of VC (3:35), Sequoia’s new series “Crucible Moments” (9:31), and much more! * Time stamps: (0:00) Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha joins Jason (3:35) The state of the Silicon Valley ecosystem (8:00) Supergut - Get 30% off with code TWIST at https://supergut.com (9:31) “Crucible Moments” and their significance (14:31) Pre-IPO vs. Post-IPO market values (18:10) Founder ambition and mistakes made during “Crucible Moments” (22:25) The importance of founders starting narrow and what makes a great VC in tech (27:20) Coda - Get a $1,000 startup credit at https://coda.io/twist (28:49) Commonalities between the AI boom and the crypto boom (33:31) U.S. frameworks regarding crypto (37:10) Mercury - Join 100K+ startups banking with Mercury at http://mercury.com (38:23) The milestone-based reward system in venture capital (43:24) Taking over as head steward at Sequoia Capital (56:02) “Crucible Moments” at Sequoia (1:05:57) Maintaining consistency in life and venture * FOLLOW Roelof: https://twitter.com/roelofbotha * Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo: https://www.launch.co/four Apply for Funding: https://www.launch.co/apply Buy ANGEL: https://www.angelthebook.com Great recent interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow Jason: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Roelof Botha

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Guest: Carl Eschenbach, co-CEO of Workday When Carl Eschenbach decided to leave VMWare after more than 14 years as COO, no one believed it: Not chairman Joe Tucci, not CEO Pat Gelsinger, and maybe not Carl himself. But he needed a more predictable work-life balance to help raise his teenage children. For the next seven years, he served as a partner at Sequoia Capital. And every day, he thought — and to his wife’s chagrin, talked — about going back: “It was always on the back of my mind,” he says. After the kids were out of the house, in late 2022, he jumped back into operating and became co-CEO of Workday. “It’s what I love to do,” he says. “I feel like I’ve been called to do it.” In this episode, Carl and Joubin discuss jumping rope, Mike Clayville, the Flowbee, focusing on the family, wrestling, commuting cross-country, servant leadership, Sequoia Capital, Aneel Bhusri, co-CEOs, and Palo Alto Networks. In this episode, we cover: Working on Sand Hill Road (00:55) Carl’s workout routine (03:15) Staying humble and grounded (08:04) Carl’s family and dinner table conversation (11:41) Drive and ambition (16:08) College vs. trade school (19:53) 3Com, Inktomi, and EMC (24:33) Deciding to join VMware (28:02) Virtualizing the data center (31:48) The pressure of an incredible ride (35:54) The infamous CFO story (40:14) Eyeing the CEO job (46:00) Carl’s one “big regret” (47:40) Refocusing after a tragedy (52:05) A left turn into venture (55:37) The “itch” to go back to operating (01:00:17) Joining the Workday board (01:04:37) Building an enduring business (01:07:15) “End[ing] my career in an operating role” (01:09:09) Transitioning out of venture (01:15:56) Who Workday is hiring and what “grit” means to Carl (01:18:01) Links: Connect with CarlLinkedIn Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Carl Eschenbach

Partner

Sequoia CapitalWorkday

The world increasingly runs on code. Accelerating the work of those who create that code will boost their productivity — and that’s just what AI startup Codeium, a member of NVIDIA’s Inception program for startups, aims to do. On the latest episode of NVIDIA’s AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz interviewed Codeium founder and CEO Varun Mohan and Jeff Wang, the company’s head of business, about the company's business, about how AI is transforming software. Codeium's AI-powered code acceleration toolkit boasts three core features: autocomplete, chat and search. Autocomplete intelligently suggests code segments, saving developers time by minimizing the need for writing boilerplate or unit tests. At the same time the chat function empowers developers to rework or even create code with natural language queries, enhancing their coding efficiency while providing searchable context on the entire code base. Noah spoke with Mohan and Wang about the future of software development with AI, and the continued, essential role of humans in the process.

Varun Mohan

Co-founder & CEO, Codeium

CodeiumWindsurf

Jeff Wang

Managing Partner

CodeiumSequoia Capital

My guest this week is Doug Leone. Doug led one of the world’s most successful venture firms, Sequoia, for over 25 years after he was given responsibility for the firm by its founder, Don Valentine, in 1996. Alongside Mike Moritz, the pair managed its expansion from a single $150m early-stage fund into an $85 billion global powerhouse. It was a privilege to sit down with Doug and learn from him. We talk about his tough start at Sequoia, get into the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and survey his advice for other investors in the industry. A key theme that will stick with me from this conversation is Doug’s insistence on keeping things simple and clear. Please enjoy my great conversation with Doug Leone.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:21] - [First question] - What Don Valentine’s heart was like [00:06:30] - The most productive and unproductive parts of Don’s toughness  [00:09:01] - Being the opposite of insufferable and how it was different when he was younger [00:10:55] - Why it’s so important to understand someone’s core motivations [00:14:18] - Questions or topics he returns to when getting to know people  [00:15:31] - How much time he believes it can take to really get to know someone   [00:20:37] - What venture looks like to him today relative to his prior career [00:23:51] - His style of approaching emerging technology markets like AI as an investor   [00:26:37] - Whether or not he’d go into venture today if he was in his late 20s  [00:28:30] - Commonalities between the very best at going to market effectively  [00:31:11] - The key components of great product positioning   [00:32:10] - Helping companies circumnavigate mediocre positioning  [00:33:25] - Generating demand and leads and doing it well  [00:37:15] - How interacting with companies early on has changed over the ears [00:46:14] - Sussing out the killer gene in somebody  [00:47:25] - What high school was like for him when he first came to the US  [00:49:04] - How successful people can instill the lessons learned from hardship into their children  [00:50:45] - The most common failure modes he’s seen for investors  [00:55:21] - The early 2000s clawback at Sequoia and what navigating that period was like  [00:59:06] - What he’s learned about picking the right LPs and partnering with them [01:00:40] - The most interesting question an LP has ever asked him  [01:02:18] - Making sure that performance is on everyone’s minds all the time  [01:04:04] - What the components of a fantastic investment memo are [01:05:00] - Which dinner companions he’d pick to educate a newly successful founder [01:05:29] - What first popped out at him as black magic when he started investing [01:07:59] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Doug Leone

Global Managing Partner

Sequoia Capital

In the latest episode of the NVIDIA AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz is joined by Pat Grady and Sonya Huang, partners at Sequoia Capital, to discuss their recent essay, “Generative AI: A Creative New World.” The authors delve into the potential of generative AI to enable new forms of creativity and expression, as well as the challenges and ethical considerations of this technology. They also offer insights into the future of generative AI. Grady and Huang emphasize the potential of generative AI to revolutionize industries such as art, design and media by allowing for the creation of unique, personalized content on a scale that would be impossible for humans to achieve alone. They also address the importance of considering the ethical implications of the technology, including the potential for biased or harmful outputs and the need for responsible use and regulation. Listen to the full episode to hear more about the possibilities of generative AI and the considerations to be made as this technology moves forward.

Pat Grady

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Sonya Huang

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Oliver Jay (OJ) is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, OJ spent 6 years as CRO @ Asana and grew the team from 20 to over 450, becoming a master in sales onboarding in the process. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox, where OJ was Head of APAC & LATAM. Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo. Prior to this role, Jordan spent 4 years at Segment as VP of Sales, leading a sales team of 50+ Account Executives. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for 4 years leading enterprise sales for Dropbox Business. Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and before Sequoia, Dannie spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales, growing the business from $100M – $1B in revenue. Before Slack, Dannie spent over 5 years at Hubspot building sales teams. Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro. At Miro, Zhenya runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment where he built and ran the global go-to-market team of 200+ people. Pre-Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across different functional areas. Lauren Schwartz is VP of Enterprise Sales at Fivetran, where she has scaled the team to nearly 100, while more than tripling enterprise revenues. Previously, Lauren spent close to 4 years at Segment where she started as the first female AE and ultimately built and led sales teams in enterprise and growth. Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he built the sales engine from scratch to today, with over 100 in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, and Global Partnerships lead, responsible for growing Dropbox's partner ecosystem. In Todays Episode on Sales Onboarding We Discuss: 1.) How should the onboarding process for all new sales reps be structured? 2.) How should the onboarding process for a new sales leader be structured? 3.) What specific things can leaders do to set both reps and leaders best up for success? 4.) What are the single biggest red flags in the first 30 days that a rep is not going to work out? 5.) What tools and software can be used to improve this process of ramping new reps?

Oliver Jay

CRO

Asana

Jordan Van Horn

Revenue Leader

Monte Carlo

Dannie Herzberg

Partner

Sequoia CapitalSlack

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Michelle Bailhe Fradin, Partner at Sequoia for a wide ranging discussion on venture capital in crypto. Michelle shares her thoughts on the fat protocol thesis, how infrastructure development is necessary for application growth, changing business models during a bear market and what the biggest opportunities for growth are in this environment. To hear all of this and more, you'll have to tune in! -- Follow Michelle: https://twitter.com/michellebailhe Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ -- Circle’s USDC has quickly become one of the most trusted and widely used stablecoins because of its composability, stability and reserve transparency. As a seamless, trusted digital currency, USDC is a zero-to-one opportunity for the global financial system. Check out their Transparency Hub at circle.com/transparency that outlines everything from links to USDC weekly reserve reports, monthly attestations, and blog posts written by their executive team highlighting how and why USDC was built the way it is. -- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:05) Ask Not Wen Moon–Ask Why Moon (04:34) The Fat Protocol Thesis (12:58) The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase (16:57) Where Is Sequoia Seeing Opportunity In Crypto? (18:53) The State of Crypto VC Funding (23:10) Circle Ad (24:52) What Metrics Do VC's Track In Crypto? (33:29) How Business Models Change In A Bear Market (36:12) Rethinking Crypto Business Models (38:19) How Active Is Sequoia In Governance? (39:52) Michelle's Thesis On DAOs (48:02) How The VC Landscape Is Changing (53:33) Opportunities Outside of Crypto - - Referenced In The Show:  Ask Not Wen Moon–Ask Why Moon: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/ask-not-wen-moon-ask-why-moon/  Fat Protocols https://www.usv.com/writing/2016/08/fat-protocols/  The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase: https://www.usv.com/writing/2018/10/the-myth-of-the-infrastructure-phase/ -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Michelle Bailhe Fradin

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Roelof Botha — Investing with the Best, Ulysses Pacts, The Magic of Founder-Problem Fit, How to Use Pre-Mortems and Pre-Parades, Learning from Crucible Moments, and Daring to Dream | Brought to you by Wealthfront's high-yield savings account, Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and Shopify global commerce platform providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business. More on all three below. Roelof Botha (@roelofbotha) has spent over 20 years building companies in Silicon Valley. He began within the walls of nascent PayPal, which he joined in March of 2000 while completing his MBA at Stanford. He became CFO in 2001 and led the company through both its IPO in early 2002 and subsequent acquisition by eBay. Roelof joined Sequoia Capital in 2003 to help founders build enduring businesses. He leads the US/Europe business as Managing Partner and serves as Senior Steward of the global Sequoia Partnership. Roelof is a director of 23andMe, Bird, Ethos, Evernote, Inside.com, Landis, mmhmm, MongoDB, Natera, Pendulum Therapeutics, Square, and Unity Technologies. Previously, he was a director of companies that include YouTube, Tumblr, Xoom, Assurex, and Eventbrite. He also led Sequoia’s investment in Instagram. Please enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn two percent APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account. That’s twenty times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov. It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and then you’ll immediately start earning two-percent interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you'll get an extra fifty dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started. * This episode is also brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. No coding or design experience required. More than a store, Shopify grows with you, and they never stop innovating, providing more and more tools to make your business better and your life easier. Go to Shopify.com/tim for a FREE 14-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. * This episode is also brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature. And now, my dear listeners—that’s you—can get $250 off the Pod Cover. Simply go to EightSleep.com/Tim or use code TIM at checkout. * [07:25] What’s the right way to say Roelof Botha? [08:14] 10 to the ninth: motivation in the margins of a Monday meeting notebook. [11:16] The Ulysses Pact. [13:38] Who was Roelof’s grandfather? [15:47] What is actuarial science, and why did Roelof choose it as his major? [20:05] Advice for young, aspiring entrepreneurs. [21:44] Don Valentine and his 2×2 matrix. [24:59] The founder-problem fit. [27:33] Don Valentine’s succinctness writ green. [29:46] Pre-mortems and pre-parades. [32:40] Why Sequoia is aptly named. [36:38] Keeping the team small can be such a big deal. [41:34] Book recommendations. [44:07] Finding balance in the relentless pursuit. [46:37] What it was like for Roelof to finally achieve his “10 to the ninth.” [47:40] The Sequoia Capital Fund. [49:40] How Sequoia’s fee structure maximizes value for clients and keeps the company strong. [58:15] Failure? It all depends on the scale of your ambition. [1:01:37] How Roelof guides founders who wants to sell too soon and for too little. [1:06:48] Founders Roelof considers influential. [1:09:39] Growing up Afrikaner. [1:12:43] How Roelof set his sights on graduating school in first place. [1:14:24] Silkworms. [1:16:40] What Roelof’s TED Talk about a secondary interest would entail. [1:18:05] Rugby. [1:21:26] Roelof’s physical routines for staying in shape. [1:24:17] Crucible moments. [1:27:18] How Roelof wound up in the world of Silicon Valley startups. [1:34:01] Early days (and challenges) at PayPal. [1:38:05] Memorable failures and the lessons they imparted. [1:44:32] Coping with VC’s high rate of failure as someone who hates to lose. [1:48:01] In case of doldrums, please present homemade pesto. [1:49:15] What Peter Thiel taught Roelof about changing his mind. [1:56:01] How professionalization in VC has developed over time. [2:02:25] Roelof’s billboard. [2:04:58] Parting thoughts. * For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast. For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Roelof Botha

Partner

Sequoia Capital

My guest today is Ravi Gupta. Ravi spent a decade in private equity at KKR before joining Instacart as their first CFO and COO. He navigated them through a critical moment in their history and returned to investing in 2019 as a partner at Sequoia. Our discussion gets to the heart of what it means to build and invest in great businesses, and we talk a lot about the personal side of the journey, which tends to get overlooked. Please enjoy this great conversation with Ravi Gupta.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick. And until 2023 every Tegus license comes with complimentary access to BamSec by Tegus.   -----   Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:34] - [First question] - Why it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing [00:04:59] - His first exposure to this idea; How Will You Measure Your Life [00:07:50] - Thoughts on the conflict of the main thing for a business and a person [00:11:45] - The most painful episode of enacting this philosophy at Instacart  [00:19:16] - Amazon’s 14 leadership principles vs. his concept of focus [00:21:55] - What good main things share in common and their attributes; Frank Slootman Episode [00:24:48] - Whether or not the feedback loop for things that work are very short  [00:26:04] - The nature of joy and competitiveness in company culture  [00:29:01] - How he assesses the depth that motivation runs through people and companies [00:32:43] - Analysis of his own motivations in life  [00:35:34] - Differences and shortcomings of virtuous and vicious motivators  [00:37:15] - How to accurately figure out someones motivators in a short period of time [00:40:22] - Being Demanding and Supportive; Why these words pair so well together [00:45:55] - What he’s looking for in companies given all of the ideas discussed so far [00:51:11] - How his ideology manifests inside of Sequoia  [00:58:44] - What it’s like to mentor an apprentice and how to do it well [01:02:40] - Adjusting behaviors to meet current markets where they’re at  [01:06:13] - Defining what a great product is [01:07:56] - What he did to turn around Instacart by narrowing their focus [01:12:28] - The things that most drove the switchover at Instacart [01:14:53] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Ravi Gupta

Partner

Sequoia Capital

Today we deconstruct the canonical question in early-stage sales. Does the founder need to create the sales playbook? Then secondly, if not, should the first sales hires be reps or a sales leader? Today we are joined by 7 of the best sales leaders to share their thoughts. Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Montecarlo. Previously Jordan spent 4 years with Segment and before that spent another 4 years at Dropbox. Oliver Jay (OJ) most recently spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company's first revenue leader. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox where he scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR. Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and previously spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales. Before Slack, Dannie spent 5 years at Hubspot building sales, opening an SF office, and then joining product to launch CRM & platform. Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro, where he runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across 11 global offices. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment. Finally, before Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across numerous different functional areas. Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he has scaled the sales team from 0 to over 100 people in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, where he scaled the Austin, Texas office from 3 to over 80 people. Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, at Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader. Jeanne DeWitt Grosser is Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ Stripe. Pre-Stripe, Jeanne was CRO @ Dialpad and also spent many years at Google in numerous different roles including most recently as Director of GSuite SMB & Mid-Market Sales, North America and LATAM. Mitch Tarica is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral and before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles. In Today's Discussion on Sales Playbooks We Learn: 1.) What is the right definition for a "sales playbook"? 2.) When is the right time to change your "sales playbook"? 3.) What are the biggest mistakes or misnomers made around the "sales playbook"? 4.) Should the founder be the one to create the first sales playbook or can it be a sales leader? 5.) When is the right time for founders to hire their first sales leaders? 6.) For the first sales hire, should founders hire sales reps or a sales leader? 7.) When should you hire a rep vs a sales leader? What are the nuances?

Jordan Van Horn

Revenue Leader

Monte Carlo

Oliver Jay

CRO

Asana

Dannie Herzberg

Partner

Sequoia CapitalSlack