Talk:Sequoia Capital

Early history and investments
Sequoia was founded by Don Valentine in 1972 in Menlo Park, California, at a time when the state’s venture capital industry was just beginning to develop. Valentine named the firm after the redwood trees that grow in Northern California and are known for their strength and longevity.

Sequoia formed its first venture capital fund in 1974, and was an early investor in Atari the next year. In 1978, Sequoia became one of the first investors in Apple.

In the 1980s, Electronic Arts and Sierra Semiconductor both incubated in the Sequoia offices. Sequoia was an early investor in Oracle in 1983, six years after the company was founded, and also invested in Cisco in 1987.

Partners Doug Leone and Michael Moritz assumed leadership of the firm in 1996.

Global expansion
In 1999, Sequoia established a dedicated investment fund for Israeli startups, and the firm expanded its operations further into global markets in the early 2000s. In 2005, Sequoia Capital China was established. In 2006, Sequoia Capital expanded to India with the acquisition of Westbridge Capital Partners, an Indian venture capital firm. This acquisition eventually became Sequoia Capital India. Notable investments have included CloudShare and Snaptu in Israel, Alibaba and Meituan in China, and Byju and Ola in India.

2010s
In 2012, Moritz took a step back from the day-to-day operations of the firm after being diagnosed with an unspecified illness. Leone became Global Managing Partner. Jim Goetz led Sequoia’s US business from 2012 until 2017, when he was succeeded by Roelof Botha. Botha has led Sequoia’s investments in YouTube, Square, 23andMe, and Unity Technologies, among others.

In 2015, Michael Moritz was questioned about Sequoia's lack of any women investing partners. Moritz argued that there were few qualified female candidates, because American women "tend to elect not to study the sciences when they’re 11 or 12", and said that Sequoia would not "lower our standards" to hire women.

In 2016, Sequoia hired Jess Lee, making her the first female investing partner in the United States in the firm's 44-year history.

Notable investments in the late 2010s included Figma, UiPath, and Zoom. In 2019, Sequoia made more new seed-stage investments than Series A deals.

2020 to present
In March 2020, Sequoia announced it would hire Luciana Lixandru as its first partner based in Europe.

On March 5, 2020, Sequoia Capital sent a notice to its portfolio companies warning that the global economy could be restrained by the coronavirus, and urging these companies to “question every assumption about your business."

In July 2021, Sequoia published a piece about "the Latin American startup opportunity" that signaled it would increase its focus there. The firm previously invested in regional unicorns Nubank and Rappi.

In October 2021, Sequoia announced The Sequoia Fund, a new fund structure for its U.S. and European business. The Sequoia Fund is an open-ended capital vehicle for all future Sequoia sub-funds. This new structure enables Sequoia to remain involved with and invested in companies after their public market debuts. Sequoia also announced it was registering as an investment advisor, providing flexibility for the firm to invest in more crypto assets and secondary stock. A quarter of Sequoia’s new investments in 2021 were crypto-related.

Also in October 2021, Sequoia Capital China participated in a US$65 million funding round in Animoca. In November 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sequoia Capital’s China unit is a major investor in Chinese semiconductor firms, raising U.S. national security concerns.

To recap my last request: I have a financial conflict of interest as I am an employee of Sequoia. Please note that I have retained the first two sentences about Michael Moritz addressing Sequoia's lack of women investing partners, and the sentences about China that were recently added, though I have edited the latter to correct that the entity that made those investments is Sequoia Capital's China unit.

Again, I am hoping editors can review my draft above and implement it if they feel it's an improvement. Please let me know how I can assist. VS for Sequoia Capital (talk) 23:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry, it is better but still not suitable. Overly detailed and again a long list of investments. My verdict is again NO. The Banner  talk 00:21, 22 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your prompt response. I’m happy to work on another revised draft, though if you could provide more specific feedback about which details you think need to be trimmed, that would help ensure I'm on the right track. As a venture capital firm, investments are an important part of Sequoia’s history. It would be difficult to discuss nearly fifty years of operations without mentioning them. In the latest revision, I removed references to companies that don't have their own Wikipedia articles. The companies that remain (Apple, Alibaba, Oracle, Zoom, etc.) seem very notable, and many are already identified as Sequoia investments in the current article. VS for Sequoia Capital (talk) 20:01, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Why don't you try to halve your proposed text. This is an encyclopedia, full of dry, sourced information. The Banner  talk 20:54, 23 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you again for your feedback, User:The Banner. Below I've posted another edited version that pares back the investment details. Please do note that I have provided citations from reliable outlets for each and every claim, as I'm also aiming for dry and sourced information! VS for Sequoia Capital (talk) 22:34, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

=Version 3=

This is another updated request for the History section based on additional feedback from The Banner. I have pared back investment details considerably. If you look in my user space (where I've posted my ideas for the whole article), you'll see that information about investments is now contained in the Investments section. For now, though, I'd just like to focus on the History section.