Podcasts for Young Innovators #1: Doug Leone for Sequoia

This forced quarantine makes us hungry for two things: vision and energy. In one word:inspiration! From today onwards, we are about to deliver it to you weekly by (digitally) opening up our doors and inviting you to enjoy SEI’s carefully chosen tech bites. These come in the form of interviews, online courses and podcasts (with the odd movie sprinkled in!) All of these resources will help to keep your brain fit and ready throughout this lockdown.

Get yourself a warm cup of coffee (or tea!) and get comfy. So, shall we start?

Why 

Here’s our first choice! An unmissable podcast for anyone interested/based in today’s tech, startup and venture ecosystems. It is all about the storytelling behind Sequoia Capital: from winning Google and missing Facebook, to the enormous (and enormously successful) bet on the decentralized expansion in China and India, to the firm’s “proudest moment” at the depth of the dot com bust. And beyond. You’re welcome!

What

Sequoia Capital is a Menlo Park-based venture capital company with a focus on the tech industry. Launched in 1972, it has funded companies that have become high-tech US icons. Ever heard of Apple, Cisco, PayPal, and YouTube? Well, there’s more. This podcast tells the story of how the fund has been growing from a $150m early-stage fund focused on Northern California to the multi-billion dollar global powerhouse it is today. Or better, it’s the story of the man who has been making all this possible since 1996: Doug Leone. 

Who

In this podcast, Doug tells his story: from being the son of an Italian family who moved to New York in 1968 by ship, to becoming the Global Managing Partner of Sequoia, there’s been a whole lot in between. We’ll give you a hint: his Italian name is Mauro,he was bullied at highschool, his first year at Cornell was a disaster and his first jobs were in the sales department of some big IT companies. 

This podcast is for you, if you wish to discover how Sequoia went from a $150m early-stage fund to the multi-billion dollar global powerhouse it is today. 

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