Sequoia Venture Capital is by far the largest and most successful venture capital company. Its successful investment companies account for more than one tenth of the market value of the whole Nasdaq listed companies, including IT giants and well-known companies such as Apple, Google, Cisco, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Yahoo, Netscape and YouTube. It has about 50 partners in the United States, China, India and Israel, including its founder Valentine and michael moritz, who is known as the king of venture capital because of his successful investment in Google.
Sequoia Venture Capital invests in unlisted companies at all stages of development, from the earliest to the upcoming listed companies. Sequoia Venture Capital internally divides these companies into three categories:
Seed stage. This kind of company usually has only a few founders and some inventions, and the things to be done have not yet been made. Sometimes the company has not yet been established and is in the investment stage of angel investors. When Sequoia Venture Capital invested in Cisco, Cisco was at this stage, and the product had not yet been made;
Early stage. Such companies have usually proved their ideas and technologies and made products, but they are not successful in business. When it invested in Google, Google was at this stage. At that time, Google.com already had a lot of traffic, but it didn't make money yet;
Growth stage. At this time, the company has already made a turnover and even made a profit, but in order to develop, it needs more funds. The investment at this stage is icing on the cake, not a timely help.
The investment of Sequoia Venture Capital in each stage is an order of magnitude, which is 1000 to 1000, 1000 to 1000, and1000 to 50 million respectively.
Compared with other venture capitalists, Sequoia Venture Capital prefers to invest in fast-growing companies (rather than fast-profitable companies), even if there are risks. Apple, Google, Yahoo and other companies have this function. So how to judge whether a company has development potential? According to my understanding of Sequoia Venture Capital, it has roughly two standards:
First, the technology of the invested company should have a leap (Sequoia Venture Capital's own words are called mutation), which is what I often call qualitative change or revolution. Of course, how to judge whether a technology is truly revolutionary progress or just a general innovation needs the help of professionals. Because Sequoia Venture Capital is famous and has a wide network of contacts, it is easy to find good experts.
Second, it is best for the invested company to be in an industry that others have not tried, that is, the first person to eat crabs. For example, before Apple, the microcomputer industry was blank. Before Yahoo, there were no portals on the Internet. This kind of investment is risky, because no one can prove that the new field has commercial potential before, and of course the return is high. This kind of investment requires the general partner to have a good eye. Relatively speaking, the partners of Sequoia Venture Capital have experienced many things and have a good eye.
Sequoia Venture Capital has some basic requirements for startups looking for investment.
1. The company's business should be clear in a few words. The investor of Sequoia Venture Capital will give you a business card to see if you can write it clearly on the back of the famous brand. Obviously, a business that the founder can't explain clearly can't be sold to others in the future.
As I said before, if the company's business is not a billion-dollar business, there is no need to come to you.
3. The benefits of the company's projects (inventions, products) to customers must be clear at a glance.
You don't have to say much if you want to have a unique skill.
A company's business can be a big business with less money. For example, I invested in Cisco because it doesn't need to hire a few people to design routers. Let Sequoia Venture Capital invest in a steel plant, and it will never do it.