When Doug Leone first made partner at Sequoia, he slept in his car
When he first made partner after a divorce at 30, he had no money and lived on a $400-a-month car allowance.
David Senra · Doug Leone on Sequoia, Fear, Great Founders & Starting Over at 69Each night for about a week, Doug Leone parked his car a little farther from the office and slept in it.
Each morning, he walked into 3000 Sand Hill Road and showered there. He had just been made a partner at Sequoia, with the title and none of the comfort that is supposed to go with it.
He was a new partner with a big future and no money in his first month, and he still jokes about that week.
Sequoia back then would buy a car for a new partner, so he had a car. What he did not have was a place to live.
Leone, who made partner decades ago, said he had never told this story publicly. He had gone through a divorce at age 30 and gave his ex-wife everything. He was living on his $400-a-month car allowance.
For about a month, he had no home. For about a week, he slept in the car and showered at the office. Then another associate let him stay with him for a few weeks, until he had enough money to rent an apartment.
He chuckled about it for a week, he said. "I was the only homeless partner that Sequoia's ever had."
He does not put that week next to real homelessness. He said he was healthy, and that someone who is sick with a disease is worse off. And as a Sequoia partner, he figured his future earnings would be strong, so the stretch felt like a brief inconvenience he could laugh at.
Being without a home for a lifetime, he said, would not have been funny at all.
Questions people ask
What is Sequoia?
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm based on Sand Hill Road in California. Founded in 1972, it provided early funding to Apple, Cisco, Google, and WhatsApp, among others, and is known for taking large, long term stakes in startups.
What is 3000 Sand Hill Road?
It is the address of Sequoia's headquarters. Sand Hill Road is the street where many top venture capital firms have their offices, so the address is shorthand for the center of Silicon Valley investing.
Does Leone compare his week in the car to being truly homeless?
No. He stresses that he stayed healthy, held a partnership with large future earnings, and was without a home for about a month. Real homelessness, which can mean illness and no clear way out, is longer and harder and not funny, in his words.