{"id":25450,"date":"2024-05-29T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=25450"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:45:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:45:41","slug":"don-valentine-sequoia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital, father of Silicon Valley Venture Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Reminder\" >Reminder:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Who_is_Don_Valentine\" >Who is Don Valentine?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Godfather_of_semiconductor_investment\" >Godfather of semiconductor investment<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Valentines_investment_philosophy\" >Valentine\u2019s investment philosophy<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Application_of_his_investment_philosophy\" >Application of his investment philosophy<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Recognizes_a_hero_before_anyone\" >Recognizes a hero before anyone<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Reminder\"><\/span>Reminder:<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I strongly recommend that you read my two previous posts before reading below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/06\/24\/traitorous-eight\/\">Traitorous Eight, the origin of the semiconductor and venture capital industries<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/08\/09\/the-power-law\/\">The Power Law<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_is_Don_Valentine\"><\/span>Who is Don Valentine?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Don_Valentine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Don Valentine<\/a> passed away in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is his profile:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Founder of Sequoia Capital, founded Sequoia Capital in 1972.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The father of Silicon Valley Capital industry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He has served as sales director at Fairchild Semiconductor (ticker: ON) and National Semiconductor (ticker: TXN).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He has invested in many technology companies, including Apple (ticker: AAPL), Yahoo, Atari, C-Cube (ticker: CUBE), Cisco (ticker: CSCO), Electronic Arts (ticker: EA) ), Linear Technology (ticker: ADI), LSI Logic (ticker: LSI), Microchip (ticker: MCHP), NetApp (ticker: NTAP), Oracle ( ticker: ORCL), PMC-Sierra (ticker: PMCS), etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Just looking at these experience. He sould be highly respected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Godfather_of_semiconductor_investment\"><\/span>Godfather of semiconductor investment<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the early 1970s, the Santa Clara Valley was home to many semiconductor companies and the early computer companies that powered their chips. In this regard, the keen Valentine made an interesting point: Semiconductors are the core. He believes that this industry is the basic business of the digital revolution. According to Valentine&#8217;s estimate in 2004, Sequoia has provided services to about 600 different companies. companies have provided financing, about 40 of which are semiconductor companies. Semiconductors have become an important factor in his investment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Valentines_investment_philosophy\"><\/span>Valentine\u2019s investment philosophy<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Valentine has a famous saying that is regarded as a guideline by the venture capital industry: &#8220;It is better to invest in a company with huge market demand than to invest in a company that needs to create market demand.&#8221; That is to say, bet on the track, not the players in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Valentin said: &#8220;It is better to invest in a company that has a huge demand market than to invest in a company that has to create demand.&#8221; Although Valentine&#8217;s statement may seem obvious at first, he believes that large new markets are not Rather than being created organically by startups, startups ride on market waves. It is the job of venture capital firms to identify the best startups to ride this wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Valentine&#8217;s method can be called &#8220;Sequential Market Recognition Pattern&#8221;. In this model, Valentine leverages proprietary domain knowledge to identify the first large new market. He then uses practical logic related to the impact of the first market to identify the large markets that will subsequently develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In essence, Valentine systematically identifies the resulting markets whose growth will be driven by the initial market, either in the form of supply inputs required by the initial market or in the form of new demand driven by the initial market. Valentine then identifies the companies best positioned to capitalize on these shifts and invests in them first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Application_of_his_investment_philosophy\"><\/span>Application of his investment philosophy<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A typical application of Valentine&#8217;s investment philosophy model is to determine the computer memory and storage market. Based on the understanding of the demand for personal computers, Valentine realized that the computer&#8217;s ability to store data is still limited, and also understood that computers need more memory. and storage space to meet user needs, so he started looking for storage companies everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was clear that Apple needed a different storage system,&#8221; Valentine said. &#8220;Sequoia funded Jugi Tandon to work on small 5-inch disk drives, and personal computers at the time needed a smaller drive.&#8221; Tape is a faster, more reliable, denser solution, so we funded Tandon. It&#8217;s a fantastic investment.&#8221; Subsequent developments proved his judgment correct, and Tandon became a pioneer in the personal computer disk drive industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethernet and Internet infrastructure (especially routers) are another successful application of the sequential market recognition pattern. By the late 1980s, through successful investments in the personal computer industry, Valentine discovered the potential of the Internet and the resulting need for Internet infrastructure to enable computers to communicate and exploit the full potential of the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Valentine&#8217;s leadership, Sequoia began exploring network infrastructure investments in switching, routers and Ethernet technologies. This exploration led to investments in 3Com and Cisco. 3Com was eventually acquired by Hewlett-Packard (ticker: HPQ) in 2009 for $2.7 billion. Cisco also grew into one of the most valuable technology companies in history, and today Its market value has reached approximately US$200 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Recognizes_a_hero_before_anyone\"><\/span>Recognizes a hero before anyone<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>He has read countless people and once said that he has only met two entrepreneurs with superhuman insights in his life&#8211;Robert Noyce of Intel and Steve Jobs of Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilfred Corrigan, who was the CEO of LSI Logic at the time, once introduced Valentine to a young man who had worked at LSI. He said to Valentine: &#8220;I&#8217;m going to send a child to you.&#8221; There, he&#8217;s one of my best employees and I don&#8217;t know what he&#8217;s going to do, but give him the money.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The young man who had just turned 30 was not good at marketing at the time, but in Corrigan&#8217;s favor, Valentine still invested a sum of money in him and said viciously: &#8220;If you lose my money, If you don\u2019t, I\u2019ll kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The young man\u2019s name is Nvidia(ticker: NVDA)&#8217;s Jensen Huang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"90\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/Don_Valentine_in_2009-Custom.jpg\" alt=\"Don Valentine\" class=\"wp-image-25453\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: wiki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Related articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/07\/06\/the-thinking-machine\/\">A must-read for Nvidia investors\uff02The Thinking Machine\uff02<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2026\/04\/07\/%EF%BC%82the-innovators\/\">\uff02The Innovators&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/29\/don-valentine-sequoia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital, father of Silicon Valley Venture Capital<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/06\/08\/secrets-of-sand-hill-road\/\">a16z&#8217;s &#8220;Secrets of sand hill road&#8221; to investors and entrepreneurs<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/04\/29\/y-combinator\/\">How is Y Combinator different from other venture capital firms?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/11\/11\/blitzscaling\/\">&#8220;Blitzscaling&#8221; expansion speed decide if startup success eventually<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/26\/startup-issues-people-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Startup issues that most people care about<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/10\/24\/angel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Angel is an excellent venture capital  book for ordinary people<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/06\/08\/essays-by-marc-anderson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Two famous essays by Marc Anderson on software and artificial intelligence<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/06\/zero-to-one\/\">Zero to One<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/10\/16\/venture-capital-unicorns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Venture capital and unicorns introduction<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/02\/17\/venture-capital-and-unicorn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Venture Capital and Unicorn Report<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/06\/24\/traitorous-eight\/\">Traitorous Eight, the origin of the semiconductor and venture capital industries<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/10\/16\/venture-capital-unicorns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Venture capital and unicorns introduction<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/02\/17\/venture-capital-and-unicorn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Venture Capital and Unicorn Report<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/08\/09\/the-power-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Power Law<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don Valentine is the founder of Sequoia Capital. He founded Sequoia Capital in 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,420,110,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-venture-capital","category-founders","category-semiconductor","category-startup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25450"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41645,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25450\/revisions\/41645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}