Sequoia's Leaked Investment Memo on YouTube 💫 In 2005, Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia, proposed a $1M seed investment in YouTube, followed by a $4M Series A. A year later, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65B, netting Sequoia $500M—a 57x return. During the 2010 Viacom vs. YouTube (Google) court case, Botha had to disclose his investment memorandum as part of his testimony. YouTube's pitch deck is also included in the last few slides. Credit to Marie Schildt for finding this! Check my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dCpgAYjt
Deal memos are a brain download of the VC partners and associates working on deals and a treasure trove of insights.
Curious why the term sheet for that crypto company wasn't leaked? Just be snarky. Sounds like a victory lap but a well deserved on
It's really interesting to see projected CPM on monetized videos as high as $20 back in 2015! Almost a decade later than this I had a monetized YouTube channel and we were still only getting $2. Not a bad margin, and makes sense where YouTube's whopping value came from
Wow, what a fascinating insight! It's amazing to see the power of early-stage investments unfold.
20 years later: In March 2024, analyst Michael Nathanson estimated that YouTube could be worth as much as $400 billion as a stand-alone company, which would be more than Disney and Comcast combined.
Intersting. Thank you for sharing. Surely gonna read it out.
no conflict - no interest. It's a beautiful thing.
CEO | Empact Technologies
4wDavid Weinfeld Keith Cole Mason Jones any of this seem familiar?