Sequoia Capital

About

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972 in Menlo Park, California ¹². Valentine, a former sales executive at Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, formed Sequoia’s first venture capital fund in 1974 with $3 million ¹³. The firm’s earliest investments included Atari (1975) and Apple ($150,000 in 1978), establishing its pattern of identifying transformative technology companies at their earliest stages ¹⁴.

Valentine led the firm until recruiting Michael Moritz and Doug Leone, who became co-stewards — a term Sequoia uses instead of “managing partner” to reflect its culture of inherited, not purchased, leadership ⁵⁶. Moritz and Leone ran the firm for decades before handing stewardship to Roelof Botha, the former PayPal CFO, in 2017 ⁵. In November 2025, Botha stepped aside and Alfred Lin and Pat Grady were named co-stewards, returning the firm to its historical co-leadership model ⁵⁶.

In October 2021, Sequoia dramatically restructured its U.S. and European operations, abandoning the traditional 10-year closed-end fund model in favor of an evergreen structure ⁷⁸. The new structure centers on the Sequoia Capital Fund, an open-ended vehicle that holds public company stakes and recycles returns into sub-funds for seed, venture, and growth investments ⁷. As part of this restructuring, Sequoia registered as a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) with the SEC ⁷. By February 2025, the evergreen fund had grown to approximately $19.6 billion ⁹.

In June 2023, Sequoia announced it would split into three independent entities, a separation completed by March 2024: Sequoia Capital (U.S. and Europe), HongShan (China), and Peak XV Partners (India and Southeast Asia) ¹⁰¹¹. The split was driven by rising U.S.–China geopolitical tensions and the increasing complexity of running a decentralized global investment operation ¹⁰¹¹.

As of January 2025, Sequoia Capital manages approximately $56 billion in assets ¹. The firm has invested in 1,668 companies over 48 years, with 134 unicorns in its portfolio ¹². Companies backed by Sequoia have generated over $3.3 trillion in combined market capitalization ⁴. In October 2025, the firm launched $950 million in new early-stage funds: a $750 million venture fund and a $200 million seed fund (its sixth dedicated seed fund) ¹³¹⁴.

The firm’s most notable failure in recent years was its $214 million investment in FTX, made in July 2021 when the crypto exchange was valued at $18 billion ¹⁵¹⁶. Sequoia wrote the entire position down to zero in November 2022 following FTX’s collapse. The $150 million from Global Growth Fund III represented less than 3% of committed capital, and the $63.5 million from the SCGE Fund was under 1% of portfolio ¹⁵¹⁶. Sequoia stated: “We are in the business of taking risk. Some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside” ¹⁵.

Don Valentine passed away on October 25, 2019 ³.

Stated Thesis

Sequoia Capital’s stated investment philosophy, established by Don Valentine and carried forward across five decades, centers on market size as the primary filter. Valentine stated: “If you don’t attack a big market, you’re highly unlikely to build a big company” ³. His approach was Socratic and market-first: “We’re never interested in creating markets — it’s too expensive. We’re interested in exploiting markets early” ³.

The firm publicly states its mission is to help “the daring build legendary companies” ¹⁷. Sequoia describes its approach as long-term partnership with founders: “It’s not about Sequoia, it’s about the founders. It’s more importantly about the companies” ¹⁸.

On founder selection, Valentine looked for “people who have a dream and a way to solve a problem — who are interested in solving technological problems and creating new products” ³. He also emphasized intellectual diversity in decision-making: “I look for people that are as far different as possible than I am because we do things here on the basis of consent among the partners and I don’t like having a homogenized set of opinions” ³.

The firm’s stewardship model is a core part of its identity. Botha has described the intergenerational transfer: “He handed the partnership over to a next generation… We didn’t have to pay to get the partnership from the previous generation and nor will we charge the next generation” ⁶. This creates incentives for multi-decade value creation over short-term optimization.

Under new co-stewards Lin and Grady, Sequoia has stated it will deepen its focus on artificial intelligence, viewing AI as “a foundational platform shift as transformative as the rise of the internet” ¹⁴¹⁹. In January 2026, Sequoia joined Anthropic’s $25 billion funding round at a $350 billion valuation, despite already holding stakes in both OpenAI and xAI — breaking the traditional VC taboo against backing direct competitors ²⁰.

Pat Grady has described the firm’s competitive philosophy: “Sequoia partners and the founders we back are the same in one important regard: we have a desperate need to win” ²¹.

Inferred Thesis

The following analysis is based on Tracxn data covering 1,668 investments over 48 years ¹², supplemented by Sequoia’s own portfolio page listing 399+ active companies ²², and cross-referenced with publicly reported deals.

Stage Distribution (from Tracxn data on 1,668 investments)

• Series A: 559 investments (34%) with average round size of $17.6M ¹²
• Seed: 380 investments (23%) with average round size of $9.15M ¹²
• Series B: 262 investments (16%) with average round size of $68.2M ¹²
• Later stages (Series C+, Growth): approximately 467 investments (28%)

Sequoia is primarily a Series A and Seed investor by deal count. However, the firm’s largest capital deployments are at growth stage through its evergreen fund structure, which held $19.6 billion in assets as of February 2025 ⁹. The $950 million in new early-stage funds (October 2025) is small relative to total AUM, suggesting the majority of capital is deployed at later stages ¹³.

Sector Allocation (from Tracxn categorization of 1,668 investments)

• Enterprise Applications: 673 investments (40%) ¹²
• High Tech / Infrastructure: 271 investments (16%) ¹²
• Consumer (B2C): 623+ investments (37%) ¹²
• Fintech: significant presence (Stripe, Klarna, Nubank, Block, PayPal)
• AI/ML: rapidly growing allocation, with investments in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and numerous AI-native startups ¹⁴²⁰

Note: Categories overlap as many companies span multiple sectors. Tracxn classifies 1,403 as “Tech,” 993 as “Enterprise (B2B),” 873 as “Software,” and 623+ as “Consumer (B2C)” ¹².

Geographic Concentration

Sequoia’s U.S. and European operations (post-2024 split) focus primarily on U.S.-based companies, with growing European presence through partner Luciana Lixandru ¹⁴. The firm maintains its headquarters in Menlo Park, with strong representation of Bay Area and broader U.S. companies in its portfolio ²².

Check Size

Based on available data: - Seed: average $9.15M ¹² (dedicated $200M seed fund) ¹³ - Series A: average $17.6M ¹² (dedicated $750M venture fund) ¹³ - Series B: average $68.2M ¹² - Growth / Late Stage: $100M–$1B+ (via evergreen fund; e.g., multi-billion-dollar AI rounds in OpenAI, Anthropic) ⁹²⁰

Co-Investor Patterns

Based on the startup profiles in this database, Sequoia frequently co-invests with Andreessen Horowitz (both appear in Airbnb, Stripe, Databricks, OpenAI), Kleiner Perkins (Airbnb, Google, Figma, DoorDash), and SV Angel (Google, Airbnb). At growth stage, Sequoia regularly appears alongside Tiger Global, Coatue, and sovereign wealth funds.

Founder Profile Patterns

Sequoia has historically favored technical founders building in large markets. Notable patterns include: - Deep domain experts (Jensen Huang/Nvidia, Eric Yuan/Zoom, Patrick Collison/Stripe) - Repeat founders and operators with prior scaling experience - Immigrant founders (a longstanding pattern dating to Valentine’s Apple and Nvidia bets) - Founders with obsessive product focus (Brian Chesky/Airbnb, Jan Koum/WhatsApp)

Notable Gaps Between Stated and Actual Thesis

• AI concentration is accelerating. While Sequoia invests across many sectors, its 2025-2026 activity is dominated by AI: backing all three leading frontier AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI) simultaneously ²⁰, and partner commentary in the October 2025 fund announcement focused almost exclusively on AI opportunities ¹⁴. This is a departure from the firm’s traditional sector-diversified approach.
• Growth stage dominates by dollars despite seed/venture branding. The $19.6 billion evergreen fund dwarfs the $950 million in early-stage funds ⁹¹³. By capital deployed, Sequoia is primarily a growth/crossover investor. By deal count, it is primarily seed/Series A.
• The stewardship model creates genuine long-termism. Unlike most VC firms where departing partners cash out, Sequoia’s stewardship succession (Valentine to Moritz/Leone to Botha to Lin/Grady) means leadership transitions don’t trigger capital disruption ⁶. This structural advantage allows truly patient capital.
• Post-split geographic focus. Since separating from HongShan and Peak XV in 2024, Sequoia’s investable universe is now U.S. and Europe only ¹⁰¹¹. This is a meaningful narrowing from the firm’s prior global scope.

Portfolio

The following table includes Sequoia Capital investments verified through the firm’s portfolio page, Crunchbase, press coverage, and public records. Sequoia has made 1,668 total investments ¹²; this table represents approximately 3% of the full portfolio, focused on the most notable investments.

Note: This table includes 40 companies out of 1,668 total investments (~2%). Investment years marked with “~” are approximate based on company founding dates and publicly reported rounds. Many investments span multiple rounds; the stage listed reflects Sequoia’s initial or most prominent investment.

In Their Own Words

Don Valentine on market size:

“If you don’t attack a big market, you’re highly unlikely to build a big company.” ³

Don Valentine on market exploitation:

“We’re never interested in creating markets — it’s too expensive. We’re interested in exploiting markets early.” ³

Don Valentine on intellectual diversity:

“I look for people that are as far different as possible than I am because we do things here on the basis of consent among the partners and I don’t like having a homogenized set of opinions… I want as much confrontation and different thinking as possible.” ³

Don Valentine on founder qualities:

“The art of storytelling is incredibly important. Learning to tell a story is critically important because that’s how the money works.” ³

Roelof Botha on the stewardship model:

“He handed the partnership over to a next generation… We didn’t have to pay to get the partnership from the previous generation and nor will we charge the next generation.” ⁶

Roelof Botha on venture capital discipline:

“There’s too much money and too many people who want to be investors… You need 40 Figmas a year for the industry to make the returns work, which means that they don’t.” ⁶

Roelof Botha on long-term thinking:

“There is no summit… There’s only the climb.” ⁶

Roelof Botha on the FTX loss:

“We are in the business of taking risk. Some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside.” ¹⁵

Pat Grady on competitive drive:

“Sequoia partners and the founders we back are the same in one important regard: we have a desperate need to win.” ²¹

Pat Grady on founder qualities:

“Culture and vision are the two essential roles of a founder. You can hire for any other aspect of a business, but those can’t come from outside.” ²¹

Pat Grady on trust:

“The simpler you can keep things, the more straightforward you can be, the more transparent you can be, the more people are going to trust you, and the more people trust you, the easier life becomes.” ²¹

Alfred Lin on working with founders:

“I try to parse their ideas and figure out how to make them better. I try to be a partner and a coach.” ⁵

Alfred Lin on founder temperament:

“Founders start companies by ignoring everybody’s advice. If they listened carefully to all feedback, they wouldn’t start.” ⁵

Sequoia on AI (October 2025 fund announcement):

“AI is poised to reimagine every industry… a foundational platform shift as transformative as the rise of the internet.” ¹⁴

What Founders Say

Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb:

“I was a designer and art student; I was not very operational. What I loved about Alfred was he was my opposite: incredibly analytical, but also someone who appreciated culture and would be willing to work with founders who had really strong visions.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

“Alfred was everything I hoped he would be. He was optimistic and steady. He stood by us; he actually leaned in.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

“He has a poker-faced countenance… But he’s extremely passionate, and he’s actually emotional.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO of DoorDash:

“Behind the scenes, Alfred is a person who I think first and foremost genuinely cares about the entrepreneur.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

“Alfred is someone who works a lot, and he gets into the numbers and the details and he asks tough questions.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

Adi Tatarko, Co-Founder of Houzz:

“From the outside he’s a tough person, very analytical and supersmart. But I believe inside he’s a soft person.” (Source: Fortune, May 2021) ⁵

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, on his pitch to Don Valentine:

“I did a horrible job with the pitch.” (Valentine invested $1 million in 1993 based on trust from LSI Logic’s CEO Wilfred Corrigan.) (Source: Twitter/X, Ravishankar Iyer) ²³

Note: These are independently sourced founder quotes from Fortune’s reporting and public statements. No critical or negative founder testimonials about Sequoia were found in this research pass. Sequoia’s own website features a “Founders” page as a directory but does not include testimonial quotes.

Sources