Regardless of whether you’re mischievous or you’re obedient, you gotta think for yourself
Alfred Lin lost $150M for Sequoia on FTX.
The part that crushed him came later, when he realized his read on Sam Bankman-Fried had been wrong.
Who is he?
The co-head of Sequoia Capital with Pat Grady, and one of the few investors to top the Midas List more than once. Before Sequoia he was CFO of LinkExchange, then COO of Zappos, where he and Tony Hsieh built the company Amazon bought for $1.2B.
He sat down with Ali Partovi, his friend of 30 years and his LinkExchange co-founder, for an hour on the mistakes he rarely talks about:
Suspended from kindergarten for sliding down a slide on a chair
Pitched Uber and Airbnb by Travis Kalanick at Obama's inauguration
A $20B miss from being what Sequoia calls a "wimpy sponsor"
Three rounds of layoffs at Tellme where one would have done the job
📚 In this newsletter, I break down what Alfred Lin said about his biggest losses and misses, from his childhood in Taiwan to FTX and Uber, with clips from the interview.
High-signal analysis on markets, capital and the companies shaping the next decade
Inside you will find:
Suspended From Kindergarten, Detention for Coding a Game
See how the most mischievous kid in class learned the lesson he still uses as a leader.Why He Asked His Parents for His College Fund to Start a Company
Find out about the family fight he has told very few people about, and his parents’ career ladder.The Highest Bid Plus $1: How Tony Hsieh Won the Quincy House Grill
Learn how Hsieh won an auction without doing the math, and how Lin made money on pizza by accident.Why He Quit a Stanford PhD to Join LinkExchange
See how he told his mother, who cried for two months, and why the worst case wasn’t that bad.Slope Over Intercept: How the Part-Time Accountant Became CFO
Hear Ali Partovi’s own confession: he spent six months fighting against making Lin CFO.Why a $265M Exit to Microsoft Felt Like a Failure
Find out why the founders didn’t recognize their company 18 months later, and the order Lin wrote for Sequoia.Why Three Rounds of Layoffs Are Worse Than One
Learn what Tellme got wrong when it moved from consumer to enterprise.Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground: The Team That Sold Zappos for $1.2B
See the Feynman quote behind how he and Tony Hsieh split the roles.How He Lost $150M on FTX
Find out what Sequoia asked Sam Bankman-Fried, the CFO he never hired, and the part that hurt more than the money.The $20B Uber Miss: Why Conviction Without Courage Fails
See how Travis Kalanick pitched him Uber in the cold of Washington, and why Sequoia passed.
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