

Sequoia Capital's redesigned website: a search bar - tlrobinson
http://www.sequoiacap.com/

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dcurtis
This is possibly the most unusable website I have ever seen. I can't even get
to an "about" page. It keeps sending me to a Chinese version of the site.

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anigbrowl
Not me it doesn't. And I found out all about Sequoia Capital by simply typing
'us'. As in USA...the country comes up to the left of the search results to
tell you what domain you're searching in.

Incidentally, since SC doesn't have a 'Europe' division, I nominate myself to
create it. Well, you never know.

I disagree with your view about the design; it may break all kinds of rules,
but I found it eminently usable and intuitive. The only thing I'd add is a
history queue, so you can see where you came from rather than going outside
the interface to hit your browser's 'back' button. Overall I found it a lot
faster to navigate than most sites, including the older one. I approve of this
minimalist trend.

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DanielStraight
I imagine it's usable and intuitive if you know what Sequoia Capital is, but
since I didn't, it made no sense at all. How would I know what to search for?

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anigbrowl
how about 'what is sequoia capital'? Not being snarky, but I think people
underestimate how often a natural language query will work, and how often non-
techies use them (although if you don't know who they are, you probably aren't
likely to have a relationship with them).

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mmorris
It seems like that would make sense, but when I type in 'what is sequoia
capital', I end up at the google results page. Fortunately, it has a link to
the Sequoia website as the first result! Unfortunately, that link brings me
back to the blank search box page.

The 'us' page does have a (somewhat) helpful snippet, but I can't get to it
easily by typing 'about' or 'sequoia' either. Not a bad concept, but I think
the execution needs a bit of work.

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lawrence
Search is a very crowded space. And someone should ask Sequoia what would
prevent Google from doing this?

I don't think this is a defensible model. I think I'm going to pass.

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anigbrowl
Please tell me you are not serious.

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rjurney
You struck out too.

A better reply might have been:

"No, I think they're onto something. I feel it in my bones. They should grow
this thing and worry about a business model later."

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rjurney
Ah crap, I struck out too? At least I got the joke :)

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Estragon
That kind of thing doesn't happen much here. Try reddit. :-)

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quizbiz
They have obviously reached the point where their reputation exceeds their
accessibility.

I had to design a website for a law firm that deals exclusively with high net
worth clients. They need to be accessible but they do not wish to be
approached by 99% of the population. It's a difficult balancing act.

~~~
dmv
One of my favorite websites like that is <http://www.baupost.com>

If that doesn't say "we don't need your business... unless we already have
it", I'm not sure what would.

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Luc
Well, most hedge fund web sites are like that, even the ones that do accept
new investors. They're prohibited by law to advertise to the public, so you
generally need to email them for a password.

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ashleyw
I guess their target audience _is_ simply anyone who manages to find what they
need to find and do what they need to do on the site, but still...pretty
weird. I'd love to know _why_ they did it? How does making their website into
a search engine look-alike help them or their brand?

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ramy_d
Because now we're talking about it, and 3 minutes ago, I didn't know what
Sequoia Capital was or if it even existed. And look at me now, spelling their
weird name correctly and all.

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webwright
Might not be your world, but they are probably the best known tech VC fund on
the planet. They don't need more attention (they probably wish they had less).

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larryfreeman
Sequoia's new an experiment to dissuade the technically challenged.

I suspect that they will change their website back to something more useable
in a week or so.

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pbhjpbhj
Requires javascript?

I like it, it's an incredibly good way of determining what the use cases are -
what are people coming to the site for? Well we have a couple of weeks of data
showing exactly what people are trying to find.

I'd be very interested to see bounce and pages per user metrics from before
and after (and during).

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movix
Going generally against the grain, I really like it, but this may be because
my background is in the arts and architecture. @nir (post below - "incredible
pretense and complete incompetence rarely seen until now outside fields like
art, fashion and architecture")

Maybe as some posters suggest they want you to know what it is your looking
for answers about, I don't have a problem with that.

More interestingly though, has anyone submitted a business plan to SC? How
many do you think they get a day? Do they read them all? Do they run through
20 plans in an hour over coffee at 7.00 am each morning?

If you follow their plan submission guidelines, you'll probably end up with a
very different plan than the one you've already written. You have already
written one haven't you???

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replicatorblog
The search bar isn't bad, kind of ties in with the business in a cute way.

I'm just sorry to see the old grid design go. It was super spartan, just 50 or
so logos and faces of the companies and entrepreneur they backed. It was
amazingly impressive if only because EVERY name was a household (at least
hacker led household) name. It was almost like looking at a time line of
consumer tech.

To boot it was a nice swiss style grid with super restrained graphics and
limited color palette. Most VC firms have giant self important photos, crappy
flash galleries. Those are the good ones too! The low end look like Front Page
monstrosities.

I don't think this will hurt their business an iota, but it's sad to see a
classic go.

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jamespitts
They might get away with this in their community because the people who
actually have business to transact with sequoia will know what to do. However,
what about non-digeratti who just want to find out something? Are they now
some irrelevant person that no one cares about, awkwardly standing outside of
your imposing building?

This is ultimately a throwback to the high-design, austere, textless sites
that hit the scene just before Google thankfully became relevant.

I assume that sequoia will revert back to a more sensible approach that
conforms with the rest of the world wide web. How long it takes depends on how
much kool-aid the relevant parties have sipped.

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planck
A broken search bar, at that. I typed "tell me more" and hit enter, and it
resulted in a search for "tell me mo." I tried it again, and it searched for
"tell m."

I suppose the reasoning behind this is that _you_ don't need to know anything
about Sequoia, _they_ just need to know about you. With this black box of a
website, they've succeeded in ensuring the former.

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ujjwalg
and may i ask, why?

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vaksel
probably got tired of being spammed with business plans, so they hid it

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
Free beer to the first entrepreneur to send the following image saved as a
PDF:

<http://quinnell.us/sspb/wiki/images/gnomes.png>

~~~
ujjwalg
+1 from me too. I love the SP episode.

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invisible
What the hell is with the lowercase text transform for the entire site? Who
thought that would be a grand idea? I guess the same person that made the
bottom menu say "clients" but typing clients in wouldn't bring you to the
clients page. Or "start" for ideas instead of "ideas."

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jcromartie
I thought Sequoia was a bank. After poking around for a moment I realized they
were VC. If I didn't know about VC firms, I never would have figured it out. I
guess their target market is only people who already know who they are and
what they do.

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crsmith
Very unconventional. I wonder who they consider their user base.

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bbuffone
I didn't even see the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, need to
scroll down. So I kept refreshing the page because I thought it was broken.

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auston
<http://www.sequoiacap.com/us/search?q=login>

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DTrejo
It couldn't find the link in the bottom navbar
(<https://partnerlogin.sequoiacap.com/>)

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josefresco
And these guys are supposed to determine if my web app has a market and chance
at succeeding? Sequoia is a joke.

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volida
One important difference I noticed, is the focus on the team of Sequoia
responsible for each company.

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callmeed
I think I see a startup idea ... build your own Sequoia-like, search-only,
barely-usable website

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dym
sequoia capital goes lowercase.

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jmtame
capitalization is obsolete: <http://jmtame.posterous.com/capitalization-is-
obsolete>

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unalone
I like it when people attempt to declare things they don't understand
obsolete.

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hypermatt
ROFLOL this is horrible, at first glance it looks nice until you try to use it

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nir
Why is he downmodded? Try using the site. It really is horrible. Auto-complete
occasionally takes over the text box and most search results seem to lead to
missing pages.

Looks like the only function of this website is to attract coverage in Wired,
TC and the rest of the hyposphere. This is the Bruno of websites (the
character, not the movie), a unique combination of incredible pretense and
complete incompetence rarely seen until now outside fields like art, fashion
and architecture.

~~~
tsally
I'll downmod 99.999% of all posts that contain 'ROFLOL'. Not trying to be an
ass, but we can do better. ;-)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
_"we can do better.;-)"_

ROFLCOPTER ??

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mooted
Way to accidentally the whole usability!

The site even allows single letter searches.

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henning
I came searching for lulz. I found none. :(
<http://www.sequoiacap.com/us/search?q=lulz>

