Sequoia Capital Part II (with Doug Leone)

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The wait is over. Acquired returns with a very special Part II of the Sequoia Capital story, joined by the very best person in the world to help us tell it - Doug Leone. Since 1996, Doug has served as Sequoia’s Global Managing Partner, in charge of overseeing the firm’s incredible expansion from a single, $150m early-stage fund focused on Northern California to the multi-billion dollar global powerhouse it is today. Doug is incredibly candid and insightful about all that has gone into building the modern Sequoia: from winning Google and missing Facebook, to the enormous (and enormously successful) bet on decentralized expansion in China and India, to the firm’s “proudest moment” at the depth of the dot com bust. This episode is an absolute must-listen for anyone in the tech, startup and venture ecosystems today. Thank you to Doug and all of the Sequoia team for joining us to make it happen!

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

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

Note:

You can listen to Part I of our Sequoia story, which dives deep into the history and background of the firm, here: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1

Sources:

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey acquired listeners, instead of a cold opener, we want to use this space to dedicate today's episode to the late Don Valentine who passed last year.
0:08.0	We are excited to be working with Sequoia today to bring you something really special for part two.
0:13.7	And with that, on to the show. Welcome to Season 6, Episode 2 of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories behind them.
0:33.7	I'm Ben Gilbert, I'm David Rosenthal, and we are your hosts.
0:37.6	Today we tell part two of the Sequoia Capital Story.
0:41.3	We are going to pick up where we left off in 1996 when Sequoia's
0:45.8	legendary founder Don Valentine turned the firm over to Sir Michael Merritts and Doug
0:50.8	Leone. In this modern era of Sequoia since 1996, Sequoia has been the
0:55.6	investing partner behind an absurd number of the industry defining companies of
1:00.2	the last 25 years, including Yahoo, Google, PayPal, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit,
1:06.1	23 and Me, HubSpot, WhatsApp, Dropbox, Airbnb, Docker Stripe, Instacart,
1:10.5	UIP Path DoorDash Dash and Robin Hood.
1:13.2	Whoo!
1:14.4	No kidding.
1:15.4	And while David and I spelunked into part one of Sequoia's history on our own,
1:19.6	we have the very best person in the world with us today to help us do part two right
1:24.7	Doug Leone. Now David who is Doug. Doug is the global managing partner of
1:31.1	Sequoia Capital in charge of overseeing the firm's many diverse businesses,
1:35.0	which we will get into, from seed
1:37.0	to global growth investing across the US, India, and China.
1:40.8	Doug first joined Sequoia in 1988 after famously cold calling Don Valentine and was the
1:46.4	champion of Sequoia's expansion from a single $150 million early stage fund to the
	...

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