Doug Leone
speaker
164 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Feb 2025
Doug Leone’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I have zero carry in new funds. If I make an investment, I'll get some carry. It's in the hands of this generation who are extremely motivated because they're the owners. They think creatively. They can move. It is their partnership. I have no management, no ownership in a management company, zero. And I ran Sequoia, co-ran it with Mike since 1996, and I ran it since 2012 on my own.
And I have zero ownership in a management company. I'm a partner in 28 funds. That's plenty. And the pride, at least in my case, of knowing that the next generation, young, they want it the same way I wanted it. They can make money the same way I made money and have a right to greatness. If they execute, it's the biggest thrill for me.
We disagreed a lot. Keep in mind, Mike is a very introspective Brit, strategic. And I am a gregarious Italian. And I am more, let's take the hill. When Mike and I were in business, while we were peers, it was effective CEO and I was effective COO. And Mike might point the hills and I'd go execute. Now, China and India were my ideas too, so it wasn't black and white.
And I would tell you honestly that 70% of the time we did what Mike did. But there were 20, 30% of the time that I said no freaking way. And Mike might say, with retrospect, Doug held me back. And with retrospect, I'd say I kept Mike out of trouble for some things. And I think the truth is somewhere in between. But we were very different cats, and we survived, and we excelled.
We made it up as we went along. We had guts the like of which you've never seen. We were killers. I want to make sure you know that. We were killers. Not killers to make the most money, killers to get the job done with one another from 96 to 2012. And so it worked. Mike and I are friendly, but we're not friends. I don't go to have dinner with Mike.
If I see Mike, you know, hey, Mike, what's going on? We'll have a drink together kind of thing. But we're not buds. We're just two different characters. And that's just the honest assessment. I respect them a great deal. How do you suss out the killer gene in somebody? You look what they've done. Have they taken risks in life early on? Have they put their guts on the line?
I tell candidates or children that it's okay if you choose a parallel track life, i.e. you want to become a banker or a consultant, and it's okay if you want to take risks. What's not okay is do one and always spend your life thinking you did the other. And the killer gene for me is stay away from the parallel tracks. Just put yourself out there with no net.
And usually people that are a little desperate in life, that only have one way to go and that's up or forward, they tend to have the killer gene. And I've also come to learn that I call American competitors. I'm an immigrant. I didn't know about this athletic, go to college. Schools in Europe don't work like that.
But these American kids that have this inbred competitiveness, sometimes brought to sports, sometimes brought by family reasons, that I never knew existed with my Italian brain, but I've certainly learned to appreciate with my American brain.
I'm on record. It was abusive. Keep in mind that I didn't go to high school. Oh, don't use that word. It was the high school that it would not be unusual for someone to pick you up in lunch and throw you upside down into a garbage can. And you certainly didn't go complaining to a teacher. And I happened to have to high school that had knives and guns. We were ahead of our time.
And that really teach you to survive. It teaches you respect. It teaches you what you shouldn't. It teaches you street smarts because you are surviving every day in high school. It was that kind of experience. But it was formative. It was formative. It was, you know, oh, oh, mommy, some guy did that. There was none of that. You just went back the very next day.
and survive than hope and zig than zag.
No chance. Not a chance. In fact, I worry about my grandkids. I do worry about my grandkids. I hate to say it, but there's too much comfort. There's the semi-year birthday party. It's a half birthday. I want to shoot myself. And my kids know that. My kids know I want to shoot myself on that. In fact, I refuse to attend those things. I actually refuse. I fight my own battles. I love my kids.
I love my grandkids. They're doing a fabulous job as parents. I want to make sure I'm on record to say they're terrific parents with terrific children. But all the soft things, it takes hard times to make strong people. Strong people don't make it from easy times.
I think you expect a lot and you don't let the kids, you know, kids are smart. They start blackmailing you at the age of six months. Just understand that loving them sometimes means not catering, letting them struggle. I told my kids, how do you inject some love misery. Because it's not about the kids. Yeah, if you want, quote, very happy kids, that's fine.
But I'm not sure you want very happy kids. I think you want kids that are happy and that want to do something. I think doing something, achieving something in life is a key to later happiness. Those are the conversations we have. To expect a lot, give jobs, give reward, a lot of love, but know that something has to be delivered. And tell them the truth.
Oh, nice try when he shoots a basket and you're four feet from the rim. One of the things I never did, I never bullshitted my kids. I always told them, that was a crap shot. Try it again. I remember my son playing basketball. I told him, I will never let you win and I will never be happier than the day that you beat me. because you'll have earned it. And he's beaten me. And he knows I meant it.
The other thing you should know, there are many ways to heaven. There's not just one way to heaven. I'm quoting my partner, Sharlendra, in India that tends to be a philosophical man. There are many ways to heaven. There are many ways to do it right. I don't think catering and making things easy all the time is one of them.
The careers and investors at stake, the founders has no idea of that. And they do certain things that are contrary to the founder's best interest. they're wonderful analysts, but can't seem to make an investment. They get enthralled by the technology, never asking, where's the beef? Where's the business? Who's the buyer? It has to be a simple solution. It's so wonderful, I can't really explain it.
Then you run the other way. It comes down to a human being issuing a purchase order for something that he or she understands, to which they have to convince their managers and their peers to go buy with single use. Oh, that is really cool. Cool is the enemy of reality. Those are the failure modes. Fibbing, lack of business sense.
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