Sequoia's Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
All-In Podcast, LLC
4.2 • 7.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
(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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sequoia is the most sought after name in the venture capital business. |
| 0:05.0 | The firm has made over a thousand investments now worth in the trillions in public market value. |
| 0:11.0 | There's a list of five VCs who I think can really transform a company, and you're one of those five. |
| 0:17.0 | When I joined Sequoia, it was clear that if I wanted to make it as a partner, you needed to |
| 0:21.6 | produce meaningful games. |
| 0:23.6 | YouTube, Instagram, Square. |
| 0:25.6 | This is a list of amazing, amazing startups. |
| 0:28.6 | Our ambition is to build a partnership that endures, and that means we need to leave it in a better place than we found it. |
| 0:34.6 | Ladies and gentlemen, |
| 0:41.3 | please welcome Sequoia Capitals Rolloff Botha. |
| 0:46.0 | See you, bro. |
| 0:47.0 | See you. |
| 0:48.2 | How are I? Good to see you. |
| 0:49.6 | Welcome. |
| 0:51.2 | Roll off. |
| 0:52.5 | There's a question. |
| 0:53.8 | What did Sax go? Get to that? Where did Sacks go? |
| 0:55.0 | He had to pee-pee. |
| 0:57.0 | He had to make a wee-week. |
| 0:59.0 | Come on. |
| 1:00.0 | Yeah, exactly. |
| 1:01.0 | You guys did work together. |
... |
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