On why Sequoia is sitting out the Indian e-commerce gold rush (for the most part):
It is clear that online retail is a large topline market; it is yet to
be proven if it is going to be a profitable bottom-line market. We have
chosen not to participate because we understood that it is going to play
out this way. I heard Bezos was here writing a $2 billion cheque. We
like companies that can get big and powerful on $50 million or less and
not two, three, four or five billion. Times may change, we may like to
participate. We are investors in Alibaba, but we don’t want to go at a
time when we know that after us billions of dollars (more) have to be
raised.
On being a VC:
We like founders that are very determined, people whom conventional
wisdom will (term) as: “They’re tough to work with, they’re difficult.”
Those are terrific traits. (Apple founder) Steve Jobs was not an easy
guy to get along with. We like people with a desire to win, to change
the world. These are very clear thinkers, because if you do not
articulate things clearly, you probably are not a clear thinker. So we
listen very carefully. Investment is a listening business. It’s not
about making money, it’s about changing the world.
The latest bubble in Silicon Valley:
Nervously exuberant. I think Silicon Valley is little bit confused now.
Three months ago, it was “go” at all costs, now a few people have come
up and are saying why are these companies spending this much? These are
unstable times. Should a company grow if they are losing money? Even
public market analysts are confused about that. I think the 2015 version
of 1999 is not going to be companies without a business model, it is
going to be companies where investors valued it worth X and they are
going to be worth a subset of that X. And the burn rates have to
drastically come down if they have to survive.
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