While my posts will more often than not highlight value stocks and related topics, this one is about Sequoia Capital, the OG Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm, founded in 1972 by Don Valentine, who could “see the future” because of the technology roadmaps he was able to see at Fairchild Semiconductor.
I wanted to learn more about Sequoia because I have been an investor in semiconductor companies at various times in the last decade and I have long been surprised by just how many of these companies are simply merged, consolidated, and improved groups of companies that were all leaders in the 1970s. While plenty has changed, like the move to the outsources fabless/foundry model (ex. memory), it is always remarkable to me how much has not changed in this industry.
In searching for resources on Sequoia, this is what I found:
The Acquired Podcast has done 2 episodes on the history of Sequoia, and I recommend them:
Acquired - Sequoia 1 https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1
Acquired - Sequoia 2 https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-ii-with-doug-leone
These podcasts drew some of their material from the following talk given by Don Valentine in 2010:
These are the other cited sources:
Links:
Silicon Valley’s “Traitorous Eight”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight
Berkeley’s oral history with Don: http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/valentine_donald.pdf
Sources: