E750: LAUNCH Angel Summit: Alfred Lin Sequoia on mission-driven founders, seed stage strategies, AI

Filmed live on stage at the 2017 LAUNCH Angel Summit in Napa Valley, Jason interviews industry veteran Alfred Lin. In this intimate fireside chat, Alfred shares insights into the stepping stones of his journey from Venture Frogs, to Zappos, to Sequoia Capital, where he is currently writing checks to some of the most influential startups in Silicon Valley. Alfred spends a large portion of the talk explaining why he focuses on founders who are on a “mission”. He backs his argument with examples of the types of founders and CEOs who make millions, if not billions, of dollars and still choose to continue working because they are on a mission, and that mission goes beyond just making lots and lots of money. Investment strategies from Seed to Series D, the future of venture capital, and the importance of unanimity among partners are all topics covered in detail in this special episode of TWiST.

[@HalloCasa]

One of the best episodes lately

[@chukchee]

I remember him from high school...

[@thetruth4865]

"as usual, jayson" a.l. us the boss !

[@thetruth4865]

good looking guy

[@christopherarmstrong2710]

12:15 Missionary > Mercenary founders. FU money doesn't effect missionary founders, since their motivations are deeper and they'll stick with it no matter what. These are the type of people who start working when they have billon of dollars - *they're on a mission.*
23:40 Know that the world is competitive. There are people that are going to be your competitors one day, and your co-investors another day. It's co-opetition.
40:50 Cult of Jeff Bezos, samurai/gladiator culture at Amazon. He's really smart, he's on a mission, and he's committed. His capacity to look through a problem and get to the root cause or the first order issue at hand is lightning. None of these people with billions and billions of dollars like Jeff don't have to work - yet they all work extremely hard.