Douglas Leone
Douglas Leone
Douglas M. Leoneis an American venture capitalist and a partner at Sequoia Capital. He joined Sequoia in 1988 and has been a Managing Partner since 1996. His focus is on internet, software and communication investments. He has been ranked in the top 10 investors in the United States by Forbes Magazine multiple times. Doug also led Sequoia's international expansion into China and India...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
clearly companies either invested moderate number
There's a number of companies clearly that we wish we had invested in either at the early or at the moderate stage.
large trick
The trick is, a market has to be nonexistent when you start. If the market is large early on, you will have too many competitors. You have to make it large.
selfish equity selfish-acts
Be incredibly, ruthlessly selfish with your equity.
communication keys strategy
In a downturn, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.
summer jobs teenager
I was working on boats as a teenager, sweating like a pig during a summer job.
venture industry
The venture industry is both quite vibrant and quite competitive.
guy dozen sides
Guys like me on the investor side are a dime a dozen.
giving entrepreneur gusto
Give me an entrepreneur with a lot of courage, gusto and who iterates rapidly, and I will back that person day in and day out.
thinking looks fancy
Crystal-clear thinking is one of the things we look for - not a fancy slide pitch, but crystal-clear thinking.
chiefs chief-executives great-company
A tremendous chief executive in a small market will never be great. All great companies start with great markets.
choose compete market
If you choose a market that already exists, say, networking equipment, you have to compete with an established company like Cisco. Even if your product is marginally better, Cisco can fudge it and outsell you.
business continue india maintain necessary offices run trips
I routinely make trips to China and India where we have offices to continue to maintain the linkages that are necessary to run a successful business.
both ceo founder ideas meet product quickly strategic talk
You meet with a CEO or founder. You talk about sales, engineering, product management and give some ideas or suggestions. And the founder quickly understands that you really can help them both operationally and from a strategic standpoint.
clear coming india number
We look at the number of engineers coming out of India; we look at the growth of the economy, and it's clear that India is a place we want to be.