Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Sequoia Capital
The Menlo Park partnership that turned Don Valentine's "back the market, not just the founder" discipline into the most consistently successful franchise in venture capital (Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp, Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash) and then, after 2021, tried to reinvent the venture fund itself as a permanent evergreen holding vehicle while shedding its China and India/SEA arms.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1972, Menlo Park, California (first fund raised 1974)
- Founders
- Don Valentine (ex-Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor sales and marketing executive)
- Headquarters
- 2800 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park; offices in San Francisco and London
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership owned by its partners. Since the 2023–24 separation, "Sequoia Capital" refers only to the US/Europe business; the former China arm is HongShan and the former India/SEA arm is Peak XV Partners, both fully independent
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-stewards Alfred Lin (early stage) and Pat Grady (growth) since November 2025; Roelof Botha (steward 2017/2022–2025) now an adviser and board member; Doug Leone reported as chairman (2026, verify)
- AUM / capital raised
- Reported at ~$56bn for the US/Europe firm (2026, verify); pre-split global figure was reported at ~$85bn (2022)
- Stage focus
- Seed through growth and public holdings: Arc (pre-seed/seed program), seed and venture funds, growth funds, all feeding the evergreen Sequoia Capital Fund
- Signature investments
- Atari, Apple, Oracle, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Yahoo, Google, PayPal, Nvidia, YouTube, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, WhatsApp, Airbnb, Stripe, Square, Klarna, ServiceNow, Zoom, Snowflake, Unity, DoorDash, OpenAI. Misses/failures: Webvan (2001 bankruptcy), passing on Facebook (2005), FTX (~$214m written to zero, 2022)
10 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1978
Apple
Early Venture Round
1987
Cisco
Venture Round
1999
Google
Series A
2005
YouTube
Series A
2009
Airbnb
Seed
2010
Klarna
Venture Round
2010
Stripe
Seed and Series A
2011
WhatsApp
Series A
2014
DoorDash
Series A
2021
FTX
Series B Growth