Sequoia Capital
    Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital.

    As the new year begins, we asked several venture capital investors to reflect on the past year and give us their outlook for 2013. Continuing our series is Alfred Lin, a partner at Sequoia Capital.

    Lin speaks about how there’s always room for businesses with strong fundamentals, although low starting costs for startups mean that competition emerges quickly, and how a VC’s job is to help founders reach “escape velocity.”

    Looking back, how would you characterize 2012?

    Depending on the day or your favorite news outlet, it was the best of times or it was the worst of times. Ignore the noise because there’s always room for businesses with strong fundamentals, as we saw with growth companies like Kayak, Meraki, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Workday and Yammer. The mainstream success of companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, Square, Uber and Zulily also reminded us that the most interesting businesses are highly disruptive.


    It’s harder than ever to build an enduring company. As soon as a product strikes a nerve with customers, competitors emerge globally because the costs to start are so low. Our jobs are to help special founders rise above this vicious cycle and reach escape velocity. Don’t lament the “Series A crunch” as it will get us back to the basics of building special companies with exceptional products and positive margins.


    Tough question. The biggest investment opportunities are wonderful surprises.  Who knew you could create an enduring business by being the fifth entrant in search (Google), rewriting CRM software (Salesforce) or selling shoes online (Zappos). Embracing the unknown is what makes our job exciting.

    What is your New Year’s wish for the industry in 2013?

    As an immigrant, my wish is that we fix immigration. At Sequoia, we’ve backed a number of exceptional founders that were born abroad but started their careers in the Valley. They’ve created immense value, but more importantly, massive numbers of jobs locally, nationally and globally. We should make it easier for them to stay and apply their extraordinary talents in America.
