Career advice from Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia
Expand your time horizon
Roelof Botha leads Sequoia, a prominent Venture Capital firm. He gave a talk at Stanford. Below are the highlights.
Textbook knowledge is useful
Roelof reminds students about the value of what they learn in class. As with most of his answers, he mentions some specific examples1 of classes that helped him on his job at Paypal.
Tough times create tough men
Roelof lists some challenges he faced as an international student at Stanford.
Roelof had borrowed money from his mentor and girlfriend while at Stanford.
None of the finance companies that he applied to offered him a job.
His first company in the US was Paypal which had 7 months of runway at some point. Paypal went through 3 near-death situations during his time.
Roelof and Huifen, his wife, set up the innovation program at Stanford because he recognized the need to make money during summer break—easy for him to emphasize given his personal experiences.
Expand the time horizon when career planning
Take risks in your career, and you will have an interesting career. Even if you take a risky job that does not work out, as long as you have worked with great people, you can land on your feet. Roelof raised his hand to be a CFO at PayPal when he was not the first choice. He recounts three pivotal career decisions.
He took a 50% pay cut to join McKinsey instead of becoming an actuary in South Africa
He joined Paypal after having to pay off McKinsey since McKinsey had covered his tuition fees at Stanford
He joined Sequia foregoing close to 20 million in payoff had he stayed at Ebay post-Paypal acquisition.
In all these cases, he took the short-term hit for the long-term gain. He encourages to bet on yourselves because ‘nobody is an authority on your potential but you’.
Founder characteristics
Roelof values Founder-Problem fit. Meaning, does the founder have a burning desire to solve a problem? They are strong-willed individuals who are information sponges.
Overcome fear of failure
To be exceptional, you have to push yourselves to operate on the ‘edge of competence’. And be okay to fail.
Resume virtues & Eulogy virtues
Resume virtues
Resume virtues focus on accomplishments2.
Eulogy virtues
Eulogy virtues are about your impact on other’s life and figuring out your purpose of life. Roelof lists his as
Being Wise, kind, and fair to your team
Being a good, loyal friend
Being kind, generous, and supportive to the family
Being a good husband and father
Quotable quotes
“Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate”
Embrace Freudenfreude - take pleasure in others’ success
“Nobody is an authority on your potential but you”
Roelof gives examples for all his comments.
a: His wife is his thought partner - Helped him decide to join Paypal, Helped him think through an M&A;
b: When asked about failures - He gave the specific example of 15 of his investments returning $0
Think LinkedIn!