YC Milestone: Major Congrats to SamA and YC

We’re delighted to add our voices to the growing choir shouting words of admiration and congratulations to Sam Altman on his new role as president of YC.

We were fortunate to have gotten to know Sam when he founded Loopt, where we became an early business partner and investor. He was still underage when we proposed going out for celebratory drinks after signing the term sheet. Even from the beginning, it was clear to us that Sam is whip smart and possesses a keen understanding of how technology will change our lives. That’s why we weren’t at all surprised when years later, after Greendot acquired Loopt, it added Sam to its board.

There is no doubt that Sam is an operator who knows how to scale businesses and navigate his way around Silicon Valley. These qualities, in addition to his experience as a founder, makes him a uniquely great choice to lead and scale YC and continue to disrupt the way interesting companies are built in the future. To say YC has had a transformative effect on the venture industry would be an understatement. We have been enormously fortunate to be business partners with YC since the beginning. The program’s alums who have chosen Sequoia to be their business building partners such as Drew and Arash at Dropbox, Patrick and John at Stripe, and Brian, Joe, and Nate at Airbnb all rave about how YC prepared them to build enduring businesses.

We also want to thank Paul for his incredible contributions to the startup ecosystem. His office hours are legendary and we’re thrilled that he will now have a chance to spend even more time with top-notch entrepreneurs and put fingers to keyboard to record all of his business building advice.

Paul started a phenomenon and we’re sure that YC will continue to grow its impact and gain stature under Sam’s guidance. We look forward to working with Sam, Paul, and Jessica and hope to be in business with more great YC founders in the years ahead.