Roelof Botha joined Sequoia in 2003 and serves as the managing partner and steward. Roelof led early investments in YouTube, Instagram, Natera, and MongoDB among others. He currently sits on the board of Natera, Unity, Block (fka Square), MongoDB, Ethos, Pendulum, Airtime, and Flow Engineering. Roelof also co-led Sequoia’s backing of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) in 2022. Prior to Sequoia, Roelof was the CFO of PayPal and led the company’s IPO at the age of 28, and later through its acquisition by eBay.

We covered:

Paranoia that drives success
Venture not being an asset class
Full contact conversations
Cost being the secret to Silicon Valley
The next trillion dollar markets

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:52) Becoming the steward

(5:16) Keeping healthy paranoia

(9:26) Drivers of joy as a leader

(11:17) Current venture playing field

(13:38) Venture is not an asset class

(18:50) Advice to new managers

(19:47) Decision making at Sequoia

(30:11) Investing across stages

(37:12) Component of cost

(46:57) Conflicting investments

(50:48) The next trillion dollar markets

(59:30) Team building

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

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https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

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This episode is presented for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. The discussion herein similarly does not constitute a solicitation with respect to any Sequoia fund or an offer of investment advisory services. Investments identified herein are discussed solely for illustrative purposes and there is no guarantee that current or future investments of Sequoia will be similar in quality or kind.

1154. Q&A with Fr Joe | Friday, August 29, 2025