Valleywag: roelof botha

Meebo didn't get Sequoia's memo

Owen Thomas — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Was Seth Sternberg, the CEO of Meebo, not in attendance at Sequoia Capital's recent summit for all of the venture capital firm's startups? In its now-famous "R.I.P. Good Times" presentation, Sequoia's partners scolded the entrepreneurs the firm has funded to cut all unnecessary costs. The online-chat startup's apparent response: Listing all of the free food and drink it buys employees. The one concession to frugality: They don't buy chocolate milk, because it's too expensive. (Chocolate soy milk, on the other hand, is deemed an affordable luxury.) Any bets on how long it will take for Sequoia's Roelof Botha, the lead partner on its Meebo investment, to tell Sternberg to stop paying the grocery bills? (Photo by ifindkarma)

B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big

Owen Thomas — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:40:00 PDT

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

One day left to commission portrait of "Fellowship of the VCs"

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:22:18 PST

"Are you a leader in Silicon Valley who has been unfairly left out of this work of art?" asks a project proposal on Strayform."Much like patronages offered by the leaders depicted in historical works, your patronage can earn you the recognition you deserve."

So far, the people deemed worthy of such recognition include Intel Capital's Eghosa Omoigui, Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington and angel investor Ron Conway. Each is depicted in the group portrait on the left. But people, forget Silicon Valley leaders. It's the rest of us who deserve to see this project through to its completion.

The painting, tentatively titled "Fellowship of the VCs," will draw its artistic inspiration from a timeless, classic source: Lord of the Rings movie posters. How is that not the most wonderful thing you've ever heard? There's only one day left to make your pledge. Make it now, or be forgotten by history, people.

At Meebo party, everyone's measuring themselves

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:36:55 PDT

For two years running, Meebo has allowed you to skip the software download and log onto instant messenger using your Web browser. Never mind that you can already do this! The startup celebrated its second anniversary of AIMlessness at Pier 38 last night with a cake, open bar and a giant game of Guitar Hero. (Pictured above, tech consultant gadabout Dave Matthews — no, really, that's his name — jams on the imaginary Fender.) And really, though no one at Meebo will quite say it this way, they've figured out they need more of a purpose in life. That's supposedly coming from the new Meebo platform, which will allow third-party developers to create applications for integration into Meebo's service.

For an example of Silicon Valley incest, look no further than the guest list. Meebo founder Elaine Wherry is engaged to Plaxo cofounder Todd Masonis. The other Plaxo cofounder, Cam Ring, is dating Sandy Jen, another Meebo cofounder. Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg was an intern at Plaxo during business school. RockYou cofounder Jia Shen's brother, Jian, works as an engineer at Meebo. Members of all three companies have played on the same Ultimate Frisbee team since before their companies were launched. Oh, and they're all funded by Sequoia Capital.

Which would explain the presence of Sequoia's newest golden-boy partner, Roelof Botha, at the event. He stood out in his suit jacket and had an aura around him as green as a dollar. He walked around the room and every startup founder tensed, worrying that they would somehow screw up in his presence.

When they weren't worrying if they measured up for Botha, people were talking about how Meebo's platform measured up to Facebook's. The answer? Not really. The other source of conversation was the upcoming Google platform announcement, which TechCrunch revealed would be pushed back from its original date of November 5, but we now hear is set to be on time, if not early.

I should say Google's platform wasn't really a topic of conversation as it was a conversation killer. When stuck with a boorish biz devver from a widget maker, the easiest way to make my escape was to bring it up. When asked about that platform, the responses ranged from "I can't talk about that" to wild, blinking, stares. According to one anonymous founder type, at least one company "got in trouble" for revealing details. When asked for details, he backed off the subject, fearful of the long arm of Google.

A rare view inside Sequoia Capital

Owen Thomas — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:15:24 PDT

Say what you like about Jason Calacanis: At least the bulldog-like entrepreneur isn't afraid to bite the hand that feeds him. Lightly. Without teeth. Calacanis accuses venture capitalist Roelof Botha and his colleagues of not being telegenic, a fact captured by AllThingsD.com's Kara Swisher in her video we linked to yesterday. But telegenic or not, Sequoia is the hot venture capital firm of the moment, which is why entrepreneurs should study, intently, the brief glimpse of Sequoia's inner sanctum Swisher filmed. Why? So that when you go to pitch your startup, you can walk in acting like you've seen it all before. Because you have. Required viewing, after the jump.

Kara Swisher talks to VC Roelof "Rudy" Botha, ...

Megan McCarthy — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:35:48 PDT

Kara Swisher talks to VC Roelof "Rudy" Botha, sneaks in her camera for a quick tour of the Sequoia Capital lobby. [All Things D]

Youtube cash flood lifts all boats

Chris Mohney — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:20:42 PST

Once you've had fun with the marquee moneymakers selling off their Youtube-bought Google stock, it's a diverting pastime to poke around in the guts of the SEC filing to see who else plans to make book. For example, Keith "Hope You Die of AIDS" Rabois could toddle off with $4.2 million. Rabois was the first person to see Youtube, as ~~founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen~~ co-founder Jawed Karim approached him first via their mutual Paypal connection. Rabois liked the idea and passed it to Roelof Botha at Sequoia. Something of a puzzler, as why didn't Rabois instead send them to his patron Peter Thiel, who has a somewhat tense relationship with Sequoia's Mike Moritz? Anyway, for your sifting pleasure, find a complete list of the stock-sellin' folk, after the jump. If you can parse anything amusing out of the names and amounts, then tell us all about it.

UPDATE: OK, never mind, just review the list on the SEC site. Too much table-text to run here, apparently.