Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, books, ebay, facebook, gina bianchini, google, jason calacanis, jim breyer...

B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big

Few people outside Silicon Valley have heard of Roelof Botha. But the former CFO of PayPal is famous here. His two claims to fame: negotiating that company's $1.5 billion sale to eBay, and later, as a partner at Sequoia Capital, investing in YouTube and quickly flipping the startup to Google for $1.65 billion. Is it a coincidence that that figure is 10 percent higher than his PayPal score? Few insiders think so. Botha gets four pages in Sarah Lacy's Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good — more than Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Other figures who appear on the second page of her Web 2.0 book's index: John Battelle, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, Facebook board member Jim Breyer, blog blowhard Jason Calacanis, and YouTube cofounder Steve Chen, whom Botha made quite wealthy.

Previously:

A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg

3:40 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,263 views
16 comments

Comments

Ted Dziuba at 03:51 PM on 05/08/08
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The more you talk about this shitty book, the less I want to buy it.
SandHillSnobbery at 03:55 PM on 05/08/08
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Botha is a F&*$#@* condescending snob.
TehWillis at 03:59 PM on 05/08/08
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@Ted Dziuba: Ain't that the damned truth. I'm so ready for this to finally pop so the circle jerk that is the web 2.0 community will finally end.
scalawag at 03:59 PM on 05/08/08
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@Ted Dziuba: I would be shocked if you bought it!

@SandHillSnobbery: Shorter version: "Botha is a VC"
sggrf at 04:19 PM on 05/08/08
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I'm amazed that Calacanis keeps popping up simply because he sold a tiny blog network to AOL. It's baffling.
dula at 04:20 PM on 05/08/08
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botha is useless.
matto at 04:24 PM on 05/08/08
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Hurry up and post the T's
michaellamb at 04:49 PM on 05/08/08
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Ning CEO Gina Bianchini - seriously? the token female?
bgj at 05:10 PM on 05/08/08
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@SandHillSnobbery: Is he really? I have never met him, but I've heard he is a class act, upstanding guy... not true?
Longitude at 05:24 PM on 05/08/08
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@bjg: What you've heard is right. He is a class act -- extremely bright and a good guy.
BobDope at 07:02 PM on 05/08/08
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But P.W. Botha gets a BIG GAS FACE blblblblblblblblbbbbb!1!
Zoo at 07:23 PM on 05/08/08
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@BobDope: Huh?

He's pretty witty and has a synical sense of humor, he's not a bad guy.
TechMerkin at 08:03 PM on 05/08/08
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Funny I was fully expecting to see this in the index:

Ass, not knowing your head from
TechMerkin at 08:11 PM on 05/08/08
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Nevermind, I see it was filed under Calacanis.
Dweezil at 09:46 PM on 05/08/08
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I was looking for aspergers.

I am displeased.
SandHillSnobbery at 08:23 AM on 05/09/08
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I said he was a snob. That doesn't preclude him from being a stand-up guy. I just think he's a "holier than thou" guy who takes himself very seriously.