20VC: Sequoia's Roelof Botha on His Biggest Lessons Working Alongside Don Valentine, Mike Moritz and Doug Leone, Leading Sequoia's US Business and What Sequoia Do To Retain Their Edge at the Top & The Crucible Moments That Define Startup Success
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2020
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Roleof Botha is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s leading venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Instacart, Stripe, UiPath, Zoom, the list goes on. As for Roelof, at Sequoia he has led rounds into the likes of YouTube, Instagram, Eventbrite, Square, MongoDB, 23andMe and Unity Technologies to name a few. Before joining the world of venture, Roelof was the CFO @ Paypal playing a key role in their hyper-growth from 2000-2003.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Roelof go from actuary in South Africa to CFO @ Paypal? What were his biggest lessons from seeing Paypal burn $10M per month? How did Paypal lead to his joining Sequoia as a Partner?
2.) Market Evaluation: Does Roelof agree that the market is crazy today? How does today compare to prior vintages? How does Roelof assess the compression of fundraising timelines? With compressed timelines, how does he build relationships of trust with founders?
3.) Founder Evaluation: What were Roelof's lessons on founder assessment from Don Valentine? What matrix did Don teach Roelof to assess founders on? How does Roelof feel about the rise of competitive rounds? When should founders take them vs remain heads down on execution?
4.) Investment Mentality: How did Roelof prevent becoming too confident when early investments went well? How does Roelof prevent relying on past failures as a reason for turning down opportunities today? What can investors do to retain a very flexible mind? Why does Roelof believe you are only as good as your next investment?
5.) Sequoia's Edge: How does Roloef think about what it takes for Sequoia to retain it's edge at the top? How does Roloef measure the success of the Sequoia scout program? How did they structure it? How has the structure changed? What do they plan to do moving forward?
6.) Board Membership: How would Roloef evaluate his current style of board membership? How has that style changed over time? What elements did he find challenging? What advice would Roelof give to new board members adopting their first board seats?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Roelof’s Favourite Book: Man's Search For Meaning
Roelof’s Most Recent Investment: mmhmm
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and my word, what a show we have in store |
| 0:03.7 | Fuse Day. For many years growing up in the industry, I've hugely respect and admired this |
| 0:07.7 | incredible guest. And so it's a huge honour to welcome, Rolof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital, |
| 0:12.4 | one of the world's leading venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Instacart, Stripe, UiPath, Zoom, the list really does go on. |
| 0:30.8 | As for Roloff, at Sequoia, he's led rounds in the likes of YouTube, Instagram, Eventbrite, Square, MongoDB, 23 and Me, Unity Technologies, just to name a few again. |
| 0:37.6 | And before joining the World of Venture, Roloft was the CF at PayPal, playing a key role in their hypergrowth from 2000 to 2003. |
| 0:41.8 | I'd also want to say huge thank you to Pat Grady, Ravi Gupta and Kalene at Pendulum, |
| 0:44.0 | as well as Julia and Kevin Hart at Eventbrite. |
| 0:46.1 | Some amazing questions suggestions today. |
| 0:47.9 | I really did so appreciate that. |
| 0:50.6 | But before we move into the show today, I'm sure you've heard about it, |
| 0:52.6 | but my word, I love a product called Carter. |
| 0:59.8 | Carter simplifies how startups and investors manage equity, track cap tables and get valuations. Go to Carter.com forward slash 20 VC to get 10% off. More than 800,000 employees and shareholders, use Carter to |
| 1:06.4 | manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity, and Carter now offers fund administration, |
| 1:10.8 | so you can |
| 1:11.1 | see real-time data in the Carter platform and work with Carter's team of experienced fund accountants. |
| 1:16.4 | Go to carter.com forward slash two zero VC to get 10% off. And if you've been listening to our show, |
| 1:21.7 | you've probably heard of Brex, the first corporate card for startups, with no personal guarantee |
| 1:26.1 | or credit check, up to 20 times higher |
| 1:28.5 | credit limits than traditional cards, plus rewards like 3x1 eligible Apple products and 7x points |
| 1:34.6 | on tools like Zoom and Slack. Brax has helped thousands of companies scale faster to reach |
| 1:39.3 | their potential. This month, they are extending their special offer to our listeners, apply for |
... |
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