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Roelof Botha

👤 Speaker
284 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

I listened to one of the shows you guys had recently, and I think there's a huge problem with the venture industry that there's too much money.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

You guys have talked about this before.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

Venture industry as a whole invests right now between $150 to $200 billion a year.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

It was the last number as I saw.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

If you think about reasonable assumptions for returns, let's just say 12% per annum net, which isn't great.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

Might as well invest in an index fund.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

The math basically implies that you need 3.5 to 4x funds to make that math work over a reasonable time frame.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

So if you're investing, let's just say, $200 billion a year, the industry needs to give back $700-800 billion a year.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

VCs don't own 100% of the company, last time I checked.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

So that means that the aggregate exit value is north of a trillion a year.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

So Figma went public recently.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

They're worth $25, $26 billion.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

You need 40 Figmas a year for the industry to make the returns work, which means that they don't.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

So in my opinion, investing in venture is a return-free risk.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

You shouldn't.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

They're basically only about 20 companies.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

You said return.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

Return-free risk.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

Exactly.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: Why Venture Capital is Broken & How Great Companies Are Built

If you look at every single decade, there are only about 20 companies that end up getting exit values north of a billion dollars.