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Our company building immersion for Sequoia founders
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For over 50 years, we have partnered with founders at the earliest stages to build category-defining companies. From navigating PMF pivots to unlocking an unparalleled network of talent, customers and advisors - we've helped founders successfully traverse the early days of company formation.
We share these hard-earned lessons in Arc, a company building program designed to help Sequoia's pre-seed and seed-stage founders build businesses that endure.
Applications for our Arc Spring ’25 cohort are closed. Sign up below to get notified when we open up new programs in the Americas and Europe.
Thank you! We will notify you when applications open.
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Any questions? Email us at arc@sequoiacap.com
Elevate
your Game
Technical leaders from GitHub, Notion and DeepMind. Former executives at HubSpot, Resy and Tinder. Alumni from OpenAI, Stripe, Ramp, Revolut, Zipline, and more.
Join Sequoia’s outlier community of pre-seed and seed-stage founders. Lean on, learn from, and connect with peers on a similar journey.
Join Sequoia’s outlier community of pre-seed and seed-stage founders. Lean on, learn from, and connect with peers on a similar journey.
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Renate Nyborg
Founder and CEO of Meeno
Founder and CEO of Meeno
Former CEO of Tinder. Now helping combat the loneliness epidemic.
“While my career provided the insights to build Meeno, Arc helped me uncover my personal motivation to solve the loneliness problem, which gave rise to a more holistic approach to product development and storytelling. The program also helped us gauge new benchmarks for product-market fit in a post-generative AI world, thanks to introducing a community of founders who I can trust to be open with.”
Abdel Mahmoud
Co-founder and CEO of Anterior
Co-founder and CEO of Anterior
A doctor reshaping healthcare with AI.
“Arc stands out for its exceptional community, bringing together high-caliber founders and mentors curated by Sequoia. The founder's journey can be lonely, but Arc fills this gap by fostering connections with peers who truly understand the challenges, creating a supportive network invaluable for growth.”
Samuel Colvin
Founder and CEO of Pydantic
Founder and CEO of Pydantic
Creator of the Pydantic open source project, which is downloaded millions of times a day by thousands of developers all over the world.
“Participating in Arc was a transformative experience that perfectly aligned with our process of exploring what to build. We leveraged the weekly learnings to iterate faster, and we discovered how to be practical about finding product-market fit—removing the emotion and celebrating learning from failures to quickly move on.”
Ellen DaSilva
Co-Founder and CEO of Summer Health
Co-Founder and CEO of Summer Health
Ex-Hims & Hers and Twitter. Now radically simplifying access to healthcare.
“What you learn in Arc is applicable from day 1 and is grounded in pragmatism. Sequoia partners and operators helped us navigate the product-market fit journey and provided frameworks that we continue to revisit as we scale. The Arc community is also unparalleled.”
Accelerate your
Journey
Unlock the full Sequoia advantage at seed with an immersion into the networks, platform services and company building foundations that will increase your odds of success.
1
FOUNDER STORY WORKSHOP
What makes an outlier?
Understand the shared qualities of outlier founders and companies. Uncover your own motivations and the scale of your ambition.
3 days in-person, April 21st - April 23th
2
CUSTOMER STORY WORKSHOP
Who are you building for?
Identify your customer, crisply articulate the problem to be solved and validate that it is a problem worth solving.
2.5 hours remote, April 30th
3
PRODUCT STORY WORKSHOP
What are you building?
Set a strong product mission and establish the right metric, strategy and tactics to build winning products with speed.
2.5 hours remote, May 7th
4
GTM STORY WORKSHOP
How are you different, not merely better?
Learn the fundamentals of brand, sales and marketing to better position your company in the market.
2.5 hours remote, May 14th
5
Business Story WORKSHOP
How will you create value?
Understand what it means to build a business, not just a product. Align all the strategic elements to drive your company forward.
3 days in-person, May 19th - May 21st
PMF Workshop and Check-Ins
Product-Market-Fit
Learn the Arc Product-Market Fit Framework. Demystify PMF and focus on it during weekly check-ins.
Sessions throughout the 5 weeks and after
GUEST SPEAKERS
A sampling of past and current teachers and speakers
JESS LEE
PARTNER AT SEQUOIA
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton
Founder of ZIPLINE
Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Founder and CEO of KLARNA
Mike Krieger
CPO at Anthropic
IVAN ZHAO
Founder and CEO of NOTION
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ROELOF BOTHA
PARTNER AT SEQUOIA
Gaurav Misra
Co-Founder and CEO of CAPTIONS
Alfred LIN
PARTNER AT SEQUOIA
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SUMAIYA BALBALE
COO, Partner AT SEQUOIA
Ilkka Paananen
CEO of Supercell
Miki Kuusi
CEO of Wolt and Head of DoorDash International
BRIAN HALLIGAN
Co-founder of hubspot
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
- 01/What is Arc?Arc is Sequoia's company building program for the pre-seed and seed founders we partner with each year. Over 5 weeks you'll work closely with the Sequoia team to accelerate your journey to PMF and establish strong foundations that endure. You’ll also become part of Sequoia’s community of outliers, whom you can lean on and learn from along the way.
- 02/Who should apply to Arc?Sequoia founders span a wide range of backgrounds: from college dropouts and first-time founders to seasoned entrepreneurs and experienced executives. What unites them is unbridled ambition and a deep desire to leave their mark on the world.
If this sounds like you, apply to Arc. You can come to us with an idea and no lines of code, or an MVP with early customer traction. - 03/What dates will Arc take place this year?Arc Spring ‘25 will run Monday, April 21st - Wednesday, May 21st. Arc Fall ‘25 will kick off in October.
- 04/Can companies from both the Americas and Europe apply?Yes. Arc is open to companies headquartered in the Americas and Europe.
- 05/Is Arc in person?The first and last week of the program will be in person. The remaining weeks will be held remotely via Zoom.
- 06/Is travel required?Yes. For each Arc cohort, expect to spend 3 days in New York City and 3 days in the Bay Area.
- 07/What is the schedule?Arc is a hybrid in-person/virtual experience with workshops that take place over a month. The first and last week of the program will be in person. The remaining weeks will be held remotely via Zoom.
- 08/How many companies are in the program?Sequoia partners with a small number of exceptional companies each year. As a result, the Arc cohorts are also small with ~10 companies. This allows us to dedicate 1:1 time with the Sequoia team and for founders to build deep relationships that last beyond the program.
- 09/What are the terms?Every new pre-seed or seed stage partnership with Sequoia is unique. As such any terms are company specific.
WHAT DO I RECEIVE
AS PART OF ARC
In addition to the funding you will receive as a Sequoia company, you will also get access to:
- 01/The Power of Team SequoiaFrom the weekly workshops to 1:1s with our partners and operators, you’ll have the full support of our team. You’ll also become part of our community of outliers, connecting with peers in your cohort and the broader Sequoia portfolio.
- 02/AmpersandOur digital hub for founders with self-serve company building resources, content and Sequoia’s network rolodex, including access to our Builder community.
- 03/Marketplace CreditsSequoia founders are eligible for 200+ exclusive benefits, including:
NVIDIA - up to $500k in savings
Microsoft Azure - up to $350k in credits
Cloudflare - up to $250k in credits
Datadog - up to $100k in credits
PostHog - up to $75k in savings
Replicate - $25k in credits
GitHub - up to $25k in savings
Modal - $25k in credits
Anthropic - $10k in credits
Fireworks AI - $10k in credits
Linear - up to $9k in savings
Render - $5k in credits
Pilot - $3k in savings
Vercel - $1,200 in credits…And 200+ more including AWS, OpenAI, Google Cloud, ElevenLabs, and more.
