Tag: Sequoia

It’s not every day that investors get to buy a winning lottery ticket. But, that’s exactly what happened when Sequoia Capital invested in WhatsApp in 2011 at a $8M valuation. WhatsApp turned out to be one of the largest VC-backed M&A in history (it was acquired by Facebook at a $19 billion valuation). That’s a HUGE return for investors and it turns out that Sequoia happens to be pretty good at investing in startups in general. Check out the following chart that shows the VC firm’s top 10 M&A and IPO exits (just since 2009!) by valuation at time of exit. So, it’s clear that Sequoia is pretty adept at investing. If you’re an individual investor reading this, you’re probably asking yourself: how do I invest in the next WhatsApp? The answer lies with Sequoia. If you want to invest in the next WhatsApp, you’ve got to understand how Sequoia has created an assembly line of multi-billion dollar investments. 1) Understand the risk in each of your startup investments In what appears to be a rare public domain investment memo,...