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What Sequoia Looks For (sequoiacap.com)
25 points by pg on June 7, 2007 | hide | past | favorite | 13 comments



Reading their website is pretty inspiring.

I really resonated with the following statement about underdogs:

"The collision of intelligence and ambition with opportunity is unbeatable. Almost everyone we have ever invested in has been a complete unknown at the time we met. Many have been immigrants or first generation Americans with barely a penny to their name. Underdogs are our favorite kind of people."


+1 on the benefits of being unknown!

I wore a Justin.TV shirt that I got the 9th time I called Justin's public number in the three days of his launch and promised I would wear at Startup School.

One Stanford student at the event thought I was Justin. That was awesome. At least I was recognized.


For business plan formatting, I always suggest this article by David Cowan: http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-not-write-business-plan.html


Since Sequoia are fairly good judges, this is not too far removed from being a list of what makes a good startup.


Greg McAdoo's talk at Startup School is also worth a listen: http://weblava.net/2007-03/startup-school/Startup_School_2007-Greg_McAdoo.mp3


Greg's talk was wonderful. It was great to see a VC that breaks the mold: technically savvy, on the side of the entrepreneur, and knowledgeable about the markets in a real way.


I used to share an office with Greg McAdoo, at a certain subsidiary of the New York Times.


The left hand column is basically the outline of that talk.


I know; I just thought that in this audio book, online video, ADD (etc.) world, people would like to hear it rather than read it.

Plus, I happened to have the link in my clipboard while commenting on another thread.


Under "Solution" it says "Show where your product physically sits" I'm not sure exactly what that means. I'm guessing it's literal?

So for web applications, it sits on a server? For a guard dog, it sits on the front porch?


I think they are referring to it's position in the marketplace.

For example if you make load balancing software your product sets somewhere is the network stack.

If you sell designer clothing your product sits in fashionable boutiques and department stores.

In terms of web apps I think it sits in a browser on a connected device.

not sure if I nailed it, let me know if that is helpful.


Hrm, yeah, I think your answer makes much more sense than mine. Just going through it as an exercise kinda helped flushed some things out, but this question was vague for me. Perhaps for company strategists, it's a commonplace term.


the smell of founder fear




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