The American Sequoia "Godfather" Returns

After officially stepping down three years ago, this investor, who made the Forbes Global Top Venture Capitalists list, has returned to a top Silicon Valley venture firm, taking on the role of partner and leading investments.

Sequoia Capital’s Doug Leone. Photo source: GETTY

Original title: “Billionaire Venture Capital Legend Doug Leone Returns to Sequoia Capital in the U.S. as Chairman to Resume Investment Operations”

In 2022, Doug Leone announced his resignation from the legendary venture firm Sequoia Capital in the United States, marking the end of an era. Since founder Don Valentine stepped back in 1996, this billionaire venture titan has co-managed Sequoia with Mike Moritz.

On March 31, Sequoia announced that after four years, Leone would return to the firm as the newly established Chairman, re-engaging in investment deals.

Before Leone’s return, Sequoia experienced a turbulent period. At that time, he handed over management to his successor Roelof Botha, despite still being a year away from the mandatory retirement age of 65. However, Botha faced scrutiny from U.S. political circles over Sequoia China’s business, leading to public pressure. In 2023, Botha led the split of Sequoia China’s operations and its Southeast Asia investments into Sequoia India.

Last November, Botha suddenly resigned from his role as Senior Managing Partner. Alfred Lin and Pat Grady jointly took over leadership responsibilities.

Grady announced on social platform X: “Doug handed over the baton years ago but never truly left. He remains in the office, serves on multiple boards, and advises the new generation of management. We realized that Doug is still energetic and resourceful, so we invited him back to be a frontline investor at Sequoia.”

Leone was born in Italy. Before stepping down, he invested in companies like ServiceNow, NuBank, and Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, and led Sequoia’s global expansion. Even after stepping down, he continued to serve on the boards of many invested companies. Recently, he achieved his most significant career milestone: Wiz was acquired by Google for $32 billion, setting an Israeli exit record.

Leone is also an Italian immigrant, nicknamed “Pasta” in high school. He initially worked cleaning toilets and repairing boats, but eventually led one of the most prestigious venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road. Despite an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, he remains deeply influenced by his early hardships, which also shape his investment philosophy.

“We want people from humble backgrounds who are eager to succeed,” he said in a 2014 Forbes interview. Leone also emphasized that Sequoia’s office space reflects the company’s philosophy. Partners do not have luxurious offices (nor do they have fancy art). Instead, all investors share an open-plan workspace with standing desks. Leone places great importance on language. He never uses the word “deal” to refer to portfolio companies.

Below is an excerpt from a Forbes interview with Leone from ten years ago:

Forbes: How is the venture capital industry developing today?

The venture capital industry is both vibrant and competitive. When we called Fred Luddy, then CEO of ServiceNow, almost all VC firms had contacted him. So we had to work extra hard to convince him that we were different and could help build a successful company. Four years later, ServiceNow’s valuation reached $4.5 billion. Everyone in VC talks the same talk, but only a few firms truly deliver on their promises.

Forbes: How do you pitch your philosophy to entrepreneurs?

It’s not strictly sales, but a deep understanding of business operations. You meet with CEOs or founders, discuss sales, engineering, product management, and offer ideas or advice. Founders quickly realize that you can genuinely help at operational and strategic levels. Through these conversations, you build trust. It’s not just about telling founders how great they or their companies are, but about honest dialogue that fosters trust. This way, they start to truly believe you can help. That’s why they choose you as a long-term investor and business partner.

Forbes: Last year, Michael Moritz announced he would step down from Sequoia’s management. How did that change things?

Actually, not much changed. We’ve always focused on building Sequoia with a long-term view, which is a key trait we look for in partners. When Sequoia was founded 40 years ago, it wasn’t called Valentine Ventures, and even had no name at first. We’ve worked hard to ensure there are no single points of failure. Over the past 15 or 16 years, Mike and I have been the two managing partners.

So when Mike decided to reduce his investments and spend more time with startups for health reasons, we were already prepared with backup plans. Nothing major changed. He remains very active in the firm. The only things he doesn’t do are paperwork and management of operations in India, China, and Israel. Basically, he’s not responsible for much administrative work. I handle those.

Forbes: How do you work with entrepreneurs?

We take building each company very seriously. We work closely with founders and management teams. We don’t adopt a “scattershot” approach, investing in 30 or 40 companies, making many promises we can’t keep, and only focusing on four or five with real potential. Instead, we genuinely invest in every company we partner with, whether seed rounds or other stages. We dedicate a lot of time.

For example, with Meraki, we invested in Series A, went through four versions of the business plan, held weekly meetings, and finally agreed on a solid plan. Just a few months ago, we sold Meraki to Cisco for $1.2 billion. We call ourselves “business partners” rather than “investors” because we stay with them throughout their growth.

Forbes: How do you view the recent trend of VC firms heavily using marketing or PR?

Honestly, I find it embarrassing. Our mission is to help founders and CEOs build great companies, not to seek media exposure. I don’t understand why these firms do it. Maybe for vanity, or to attract more investments. But the founders and management teams are the ones who put in 95% of the effort—they should be the focus. Plus, making founders and companies public figures can help them attract customers. So I really don’t get why many VC firms issue press releases within seconds of a deal closing. As I said, I find it embarrassing. Sequoia Capital would never do that.

Forbes: You used to prefer working behind the scenes. Has that changed?

We’ve been low-profile for a long time. Until we learned that some media personalities are repositioning us. Many CEOs approached us, hoping we’d have more say. In some cases, they even said they’re tired of defending us and want us to speak out more. So now, we speak more to let people understand what we do and our philosophy. But it’s not about showing off or taking credit before CEOs and founders.

Forbes: What areas do you think the VC industry still needs to improve?

The VC tech industry has evolved, and we realize some areas need automation or streamlined processes. For example, we could adopt more structured ways to recruit and support our portfolio companies. As for the investment process—requiring diverse talent to make decisions and deploying those resources—I think this part doesn’t need major changes.

Forbes: Has your service offering changed?

I believe we were among the first to establish internal marketing teams and genuinely help companies with recruiting. Our approach is “train the trainers.” We’re happy to help companies hire their first three, four, or five engineers, but we believe recruiting is a core competency they must master. If we help them hire the first 30 or 40 engineers, they’ll never learn how to recruit. Google’s hiring capabilities are excellent and worth emulating. So we focus on helping companies hire their initial engineers and then show their management teams how to recruit the next ten.

Forbes: What do people misunderstand about Sequoia?

I think people don’t realize how much we invest in each company’s success. Our structure is long-term oriented. We strive to recruit partners and young investors who share the founder’s vision. We like talented, accomplished people with a strong desire to win (not just a wish). Many come from humble backgrounds or are immigrants. Many of our founders are immigrants, like Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, Palo Alto Networks’ Nir Zuk, and Aruba Networks’ Keerti Melkote.

Also, we’re not momentum investors. We invest regardless of market conditions. Some of our most successful companies—LinkedIn, Airbnb, Cisco—were founded during downturns when many peers had to lock their checkbooks away.

Forbes: How do you view your company?

We take our work very seriously. That’s why we’re very careful with our words. Words like “coach” imply we’re superior to founders—we would never use that. We also avoid words like “deal” or “investment.” We see ourselves as business partners, helping founders and management teams build great companies for the long term. That’s our philosophy and code of conduct, and we even ensure our language reflects that. I often tell entrepreneurs to listen carefully to what others say. Pay attention to every word—they’ll give you deeper insight into potential partners.

Forbes: How do you arrange your office space?

Our office design reflects our culture and values. We’re a very flat organization, calling everyone “partners.” If we hire a young investor and I, as the senior staff, call him/her “partner,” that’s the mindset. This is also reflected in our open-plan workspace. We organize seats by themes, like mobility, internet, and infrastructure. This open environment and standing desks greatly promote idea exchange and collision, which excites us. The reason is simple: we believe working standing up boosts circulation and makes thinking sharper. We love open spaces and sharing ideas. It all stems from our flat organizational structure.

Forbes: Do you expect all partners at top VC firms to have private offices?

Sequoia doesn’t display fancy art. We only have some memorabilia or posters from our portfolio companies. What we want is a reminder of our successes and failures—because we want to stay honest and learn from the 700-800 investments we’ve made.

Forbes: How does a firm stay ahead in such a competitive industry?

Sequoia has always looked for people like me—those from humble backgrounds. As I said, some of us are immigrants or have experienced setbacks early on, which fuels an incredible drive to succeed. This motivation will stay with me for life. Many of the people we hire, or almost all, seem to share this drive—that’s why I get up at 4:30 every morning to exercise. I just want to keep my body in shape.

This article is translated from:

Author: Iain Martin

Translation: Lemin

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