Don Valentine
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Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders
Julien Bek, Don Valentine, Doug Leone, Alfred Lin, Harry Stebbings
Sequoia Capital partners operate as active deal hunters who leverage a conviction-based voting system to pursue high-conviction outliers like SpaceX and Airbnb while prioritizing deep co-founder intensity across a curated portfolio of roughly twenty companies. Their assessment framework combines vulnerability-based founder screening with specialized analytical models from partners like Doug Leone and Alfred Lin to distinguish genuine entrepreneurial intensity from merely strong resumes. Currently, the firm is positioning itself at the convergence of agent-driven markets and hardware AI, betting on software that masquerades as high-margin service businesses and "end-of-one" founders capable of executing unique architectural shifts.
Will Quist: Why 95% of Venture Capital is Not Really “Venture Capital” | 20VC #924
Will Quist, Harry Stebbings, Don Valentine
Will, a sixth-generation Bay Area native, launched SLO after a decade at Industry Ventures to challenge an industry he argues has abandoned true venture for consensus-driven growth capital. Operating with a "Special Forces" approach for early bets, the firm applies Charlie Munger's five enterprise value levers to identify founders and markets capable of converting hypotheses into first-party data. SLO remains a focused classic venture firm committed to avoiding multi-stage dilution while educating the market on which business models genuinely require venture funding.