Michelle Fradin

I was raised by a former Buddhist monk and a banker—hopefully, I’m a good mix. My father was a monk in Thailand, then went to college in the U.S. and became a filmmaker, author and composer. My mother was raised by Midwestern, Irish Catholic parents, mostly put herself through college, and worked her way up in a career in finance. She was a capital partner to companies for 30 years and a founder herself. My father taught me to dream and my mother taught me a relentless work ethic to achieve them. I loved learning from a young age. As a kid, I used to “play” the digital encyclopedia Microsoft Encarta as a video game, traveling from the arctic to Zimbabwe, bouncing from chemistry to capoeira.

Starting my career at McKinsey, I got to see great leaders and organizations up close. I wanted to learn how world-class technology was built, so I went to Google as a Team Lead in the Creative Lab. We worked on products related to e-commerce, payments, AI/ML, and more, but in the end I learned the most about storytelling. I scouted some early stage investments for Google, but I wanted to better learn what made a great business, so I went to Hellman & Friedman, a private equity firm known for intellectual rigor and good values. After cutting my teeth there, I got a call from Sequoia. It was a dream team and opportunity, combining what I loved about investing, serving others and always learning.

Great founders building great businesses. I work with companies across enterprise applications, infrastructure, consumer and crypto.

Get in touch with Michelle