Sequoia Scout program

Extracted Attributes

• Purpose

  Widen net for startup discovery, source pivotal early-stage investments, leverage founder networks

• Mechanism

  Sequoia encourages portfolio founders to invest in other founders' companies, sharing later rewards

• Management

  Dedicated team at Sequoia, overseen by partner Mike Vernal

• Launch Date

  2009

• Program Type

  Venture Capital Scout Program

• Significance

  Credited with inventing the VC scout program model, widely copied, testament to decentralization and diversification

• Current Scope

  Hundreds of scouts globally, covering tech, healthcare, climate science

• Parent Organization

  Sequoia Capital

• Roelof Botha's View

  Strategic innovation in a 'broken' VC industry

• Investment Stage Focus

  Seed stage

• Typical Scout Investment Size

  25,000-50,000 USD per check

Timeline

• The Sequoia Scout program was launched, aiming to widen the firm's net for startup discovery and leveraging founder networks. (Source: web_search_results, sequoiacap.com, allvuesystems.com)

  2009

• The Sequoia Scout program celebrated its 10th anniversary, having become a widely copied model in the venture capital industry. (Source: web_search_results)

  2019-06-07

Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC (commonly known simply as Sequoia) is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of January 2025, the firm had approximately $56 billion USD in assets under management. Sequoia is an umbrella brand for three regionally focused venture entities: Sequoia Capital Operations on Europe and United States, Peak XV Partners on India and Southeast Asia, and HongShan on China. Notable successful investments made by the firm include Apple, ByteDance, and Cisco.

Web Search Results

• Sequoia Capital Scout Program: Transforming the Venture Capital ...

  ## The Sequoia Scout Program Today Fast forward to today, the Scout Program is a pivotal part of Sequoia's operations. Boasting hundreds of scouts globally, it covers an extensive range of sectors, from tech to healthcare to climate science. Managed by a dedicated team at Sequoia, the program is well-structured and efficient, proving its worth time and again through its consistent track record of successful investments. ## Becoming a Sequoia Scout [...] Launched in 2009, the Sequoia Scout Program aimed to widen the firm's net for startup discovery. It was conceived in response to the recognition that great ideas often spring from unexpected places. Initial challenges revolved around selecting the right scouts, establishing efficient communication channels, and refining a compensation system that balanced incentives with fairness. Despite these teething issues, the program quickly established its value, leading to a sustained increase in the [...] The Sequoia Scout Program is more than a strategic move by one of the world's most successful venture capital firms - it's a testament to the power of decentralization and diversification in the quest for innovation. It reflects a visionary understanding that great ideas aren't the exclusive domain of established tech hubs and traditional networks. They can, and do, emerge from the most unexpected places.

• Venture Capital Scout Programs: FAQs | by Ben Casnocha - Medium

  Some scout programs are run by venture funds that for the most part focus on Series A or later investing. For example, Sequoia Capital is commonly credited with inventing the scout program. Sequoia invests the vast majority of its capital via its full-time GPs at Series A stage through IPO. Some of their investments at seed stage happen through independent scouts who write $25k-$50k checks. It’s an active program but in the grand scheme it’s minor part of Sequoia’s reported $8 billion global [...] Sign up Sign in Sign up Sign in ## Village Global Village Global Village Global is a network-driven, early-stage venture capital firm backed by some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. # Venture Capital Scout Programs: FAQs Ben Casnocha -- Listen Share The Sequoia scouts program recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. The founding of that program kickstarted a trend in the venture capital industry. As Jason Lemkin once asked: “Anyone not a scout these days?” [...] When you invest in or advise startups as a CEO, you learn. You learn how other CEOs make decisions, especially around fundraising. You grow your network of fellow CEOs and of VCs. You intertwine yourself with a community of people who will likely be more loyal to you, or at least have no choice but to stay in touch with you as you’re on their cap table for life! Among other reasons, this is why Sequoia Capital encourages many of its founders to be scouts.

• A peek inside Sequoia Capital's low-flying, wide-reaching scout ...

  To learn more on the tenth anniversary of Sequoia’s “scouts” initiative — which has since been widely copied by other venture firms — we reached out to Sequoia’s Mike Vernal, the partner who today oversees the seed-stage program, as well as four scouts whose names you will recognize. What we learned in the process is that their experiences, while fairly different, have had an outsize impact on the way they lead as well, as well as on the founders whose paths have crossed with their own. [...] Skip to content # A peek inside Sequoia Capital’s low-flying, wide-reaching scout program Connie Loizos Ten years ago, Sequoia Capital began quietly encouraging founders of its portfolio companies to consider which of their founder friends they might like to get behind financially. Sequoia would let them write checks to those companies, and it would share with them any later rewards. [...] The program began working almost immediately, too. Among those first scouts — one of now hundreds to work with Sequoia — was Jason Calacanis, a serial entrepreneur whose then startup, a search engine called Mahalo, quickly raised $20 million from Sequoia and others after its 2007 founding. Ready, set . . .

• The Role of VC Scouts in Startup Success | Allvue Systems

  TechCrunch. A peek inside Sequoia Capital’s low-flying, wide-reaching scout program. TechCrunch. Nex Cubed partners with HBCUvc to launch scout program. WSJ Pro. How to Manage $745 Million in Venture Capital Solo. ### More About The Author #### Megann Freston ##### Director of Product Marketing ### Most Popular [...] In a retrospective look at VC scouting’s origins, TechCrunch illustrated how Sequoia Capital debuted the approach on a whim around 2009. What started as VC fund leaders informally encouraging founders to back their peers and other startups they were excited about has grown into one of the main engines in the startup ecosystem in the US and increasingly across the EU.

• The Sequoia Capital Fund: Patient Capital for Building Enduring ...

  Over the years, we’ve reinvented ourselves in our quest to discover outlier founders. We followed technology innovation around the world as we expanded from Silicon Valley into China, India, South-East Asia and Europe. We developed the industry’s first Scouts program over a decade ago. And we’ve launched initiatives to help founders succeed, from recruiting and customer roundtables to company design and community programs.