Pat Grady

My high school jobs were in construction. Compared to making $9 an hour putting down T-Lock shingles in 110-degree heat, studying for midterms was paradise. After college, I went into inside sales—50 dials a day yielded 200 conversations a month. At any point, you could hit a button and see how your metrics ranked. I almost killed myself making sure I was on top every day.

At Sequoia, we get to work for some of the best causes on the planet. That may sound like BS, but it’s something we really care about. The vast majority of the money we invest comes from universities, foundations and other nonprofits. I didn’t know it at the time, but my tuition at Boston College was funded in part by proceeds from Sequoia investments. Our returns make a real impact, which is a privilege and a tremendous responsibility—if we screw up, people lose out on scholarships and cancer research. Now that’s motivation.

Sequoia partners and the founders we back are the same in one important regard: we have a desperate need to win.

Culture and vision are the two essential roles of a founder. You can hire for any other aspect of a business, but those can’t come from outside. They determine who you are and why you exist. I used to think culture was a fluffy thing people talked about when they didn’t have anything better to say. Boy, was I wrong. Culture is everything. It’s the most scalable system you have.

People at Sequoia have very different backgrounds and views of the world, but we work well together because we all want to help founders make a dent in the universe. We believe in the power of storytelling, and in the stories we tell the founders are the heroes. Every founder deserves a tremendous amount of respect for having the courage and vulnerability to start something—to ignore reason in pursuit of a dream. I’ve never had the guts to do that. Supporting founders on the epic journey of a startup is an honor, and a responsibility we don’t take lightly.