Adapting Episode 2: Sequoia’s Black Swan Memo (with Roelof Botha)

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On March 5th 2020, Sequoia Capital published a Medium post entitled ‘Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020’. The memo minces no words, admonishing founders & CEOs to “question every assumption about your business”, and portends that “as Darwin surmised, those who [will] survive ‘are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.’” We’re joined by longtime Sequoia partner and head of the firm’s US business Roelof Botha to discuss on what Sequoia saw leading up to the memo and why they decided to publish it, how they and their portfolio companies are adapting to the new world it warned of, and what lasting changes might come to Sequoia itself from this moment. For anyone facing hard decisions and/or looking for ways to think about opportunity, this is not one to miss.

Want more Adapting/Acquired? You can join the Acquired Limited Partner program at: https://glow.fm/acquired/

Sponsors:
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

Statsig: bit.ly/statsigacquired
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury

Links:

The Black Swan Memo: https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/coronavirus-the-black-swan-of-2020-7c72bdeb9753
The COVID-19 Decision Matrix: https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/the-matrix-for-covid-19-c25bd5195f46

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It was pretty good. It was, yes, it was pretty good. Don't doubt your vibe.
0:06.5	For not being his full-time gig, it was pretty good.
0:09.0	EmoG Records. Kurds. Welcome to episode 2 of Adapting by Acquired.
0:27.0	Eh, now you got it.
0:29.0	Yeah, well, I rehearsed.
0:31.0	Or for those keeping track at home,
0:34.4	season six, episode five.
0:36.3	We are continuing our series to bring you
0:38.8	the stories of great companies and great leaders
0:41.3	who are adapting to a world that's changing in real time.
0:44.7	Today we are covering the story behind the memo, Red, Around the World, Sequoia Capital's Black Swan
0:50.8	memo, amazingly published only 20 days ago as we record this.
0:55.3	Man, feels like 20 lifetimes ago. I know, I know. Well we are joined by the best
1:01.7	person in the world to tell us about it,
1:03.6	longtime Sequoia partner, Ruloff Bota.
1:06.3	Today's episode is different than last week's episode with Canless.
1:10.2	We are going much closer to acquired bread and butter of technology and venture capital.
1:15.0	This conversation is particularly interesting not just to hear the story behind the Black Swan memo,
1:20.0	but also to get a real-time look at how Sequoia themselves are thinking about adapting
1:25.1	during this time, along with their portfolio companies.
1:28.7	Before we jump in, if you haven't already, we want to strongly encourage you to join the acquired Slack community.
1:34.9	I honestly think at this point, it's probably the best community on the internet for people
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.