Doug Leone: evaluation

Transcript context

…It is lovely. Some would argue that the way that the venture model works from Sequoia has massive benefit from this momentum of you have made great investments which then (in hindsight) makes you look like a king-maker. So then, you get all the best deal flow now because everybody wants to be part of this aura that you have created. Do you think there’s truth to that? Do you think that’s true? There’s a modicum of truth to that but let me give you another truth. Success is a drug and you can’t fall prey to that. We had investors here that have been successful, made some money, and then work as hard. We have 10 tenets at Sequoia. Number one is performance. The others are not important. If you’re missing one, the other nine don’t matter. You could have clarity of thought, you could have teamwork but you’re not performing, you’re not here. I tell people we are not a family. Make no mistake. We’re a team. If you don’t like teams, we are a [...] production. Maybe the investors are the actors, but you know the actors don’t look so good without a script, without the lighting person, without a director. Everybody matters in the team, especially the people that make us lunch and breakfast. They are the ones we have to treat with the most kind of dignity. They are our team members. They are the ones that make this place run. That’s how Sequoia works internally. Michael wrote one of my favorite books of the last 10 years called Leading with Sir Alex Ferguson about his career. Obviously, all of that applies to Sequoia as well, but yeah, it’s an organization that you’re building. It’s not a family. That’s fantastic.…

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