红杉资本周三上午在X上发布了一份题为《明日红杉》的备忘录，内容充满意外。该公司表示，已募集约100亿美元的新基金。它还将关闭伦敦办公室，关停Arc加速器和Scouts项目，将早期投资团队与成长投资团队合并，扁平化合伙人结构，并取消周一的合伙人会议。
Sequoia Capital posted a memo to X on Wednesday morning titled “The Sequoia of Tomorrow” that’s full of surprises. The firm has raised roughly $10 billion in new funds, it says. It is also closing its London office, shutting down its Arc accelerator and its Scouts program, merging its early-stage and growth teams into one, flattening its partnership, and killing the Monday partner meeting.
这份备忘录的框架是面向未来的，但传递的信息却非常像是在回退到早期那个团队规模更小、更专注于硅谷的时代。
The framing is forward-looking, but the messaging is very much about rewinding to an earlier time when the team was smaller and focused more narrowly on Silicon Valley.
红杉自己也是这么说的。该公司称，它正走出一段约20年的扩张期，在此期间它在多个地区建立了多项业务，并表示一个意想不到的副作用是层级化。这里被撤销的几乎所有东西都是在那段时期建立的，先后由道格·莱昂内、吉姆·戈茨和罗洛夫·博塔等几任管理者主导。
Sequoia says as much itself. The firm describes coming out of a roughly 20-year expansionary phase during which it built multiple businesses in multiple geographies and says an unintended side effect was hierarchy. Nearly everything being undone here was built during that stretch, under a succession of stewards running from Doug Leone to Jim Goetz to Roelof Botha.
其中最令人意外的进展之一是，该公司将关停两个让红杉与年轻创始人距离最近的项目。Scouts大约于2009年推出，据坊间说法，此后行业内有一半的机构都以某种形式效仿了它。该项目向创始人和运营者提供小额支票，让他们代表公司进行投资；这是一种通过比任何合伙人都更接近有趣新创始人的人来接触交易的方式。
One of the most surprising developments here is that the firm is killing two programs that put Sequoia closest to young founders. Scouts, which Sequoia launched around 2009 and, anecdotally, half the industry has since copied in some form, gave small checks to founders and operators to invest on the firm’s behalf; it was a way to see deals through people closer to interesting new founders than any partner could be.
杰森·卡拉卡尼斯曾通过该项目让红杉注意到了优步，此事广为人知。萨姆·奥尔特曼也曾以Scouts身份把Stripe带给红杉。其他早期Scouts还包括Airbnb首席执行官布莱恩·切斯基以及Dropbox创始人阿拉什·费尔多西和德鲁·休斯顿。
Jason Calacanis famously pointed Sequoia to Uber through the program. Sam Altman brought Stripe to Sequoia as a scout, too. Other early scouts included Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Dropbox founders Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston.
Arc于2022年3月推出，是红杉对Y Combinator的回应：一个面向预种子轮和种子轮创始人的批次加速器，每年运行数期，每期七周，入选公司可预先获得50万至100万美元。
Arc, launched in March 2022, was Sequoia’s answer to Y Combinator: a batch accelerator for pre-seed and seed founders, running several cohorts a year for seven weeks, with admitted companies getting $500,000 to $1 million up front.
两者都是对“更早进入”和“无处不在”的押注。现在红杉表示，它希望把更多精力放在更少的人和事上。
Both were bets on being early and being everywhere. Now Sequoia says it wants to put more energy behind fewer people and things.
红杉的伦敦办公室也已关闭，该办公室于2020年开设。数人将因此离开公司。备忘录写道：“我们根本看不到在当地设立机构的必要”，并补充说欧洲将继续产生“非典型创始人”，而红杉可以从湾区为他们提供支持。（如果创始人此前还未感到搬到湾区或在当地开设办公室的压力，现在他们会感受到了。）卢恰娜·利克桑德鲁于2020年从Accel被聘用，成为红杉在欧洲的第一位合伙人，她说有人向她提出搬到旧金山，她拒绝了。
（她在X上写道：“欧洲是我的家人所在的地方，也是我想建立事业的地方。”）她说自己仍是合伙人，并将保留董事会席位，同时以个人身份投资欧洲创始人。
Also gone is the firm’s London office, which Sequoia opened in 2020. Several people will leave the firm as result. “We simply don’t see the need for a local presence,” the memo says, adding that Europe will keep producing “outlier founders” and that Sequoia can support them from the Bay Area. (If founders didn’t already feel pressured to move to the Bay Area or open an office in the region, they will now.) Luciana Lixandru, hired from Accel in 2020 as Sequoia’s first partner in Europe, says she was offered a move to San Francisco and declined. (“Europe is where my family is, and where I want to build,” she wrote on X.) She says she remains a partner and will keep her board seats while investing personally in European founders.
对欧洲创业者来说，这一信息将尤其难以消化，尤其是在它紧随安德森·霍洛维茨去年关闭其伦敦办公室、Coatue于2024年关闭自己的办公室之后。红杉并未表示不会资助欧洲人，但它在这里明确强化了一点：重心再次回到了湾区。
For European entrepreneurs, the message is going to be particularly difficult to digest, especially as it follows Andreessen Horowitz shuttering its London office last year and Coatue closing its own in 2024. Sequoia didn’t say it won’t fund Europeans, but it’s definitely reinforcing here that the center of gravity is once again in the Bay Area.
这种回摆也延伸到人员层面。备忘录指出，前Workday首席执行官卡尔·埃申巴赫已大幅回归（他于3月作为全职合伙人回归）。备忘录还称，团队已“重振了GOAT”道格·莱昂内。
The rewind extends to people, too. The memo notes that Carl Eschenbach, the former Workday CEO, is very much back in the fold (he returned as a full-time partner in March). It also says the team has “reinvigorated the GOAT,” Doug Leone.
尽管风投公司的称谓五花八门——红杉也不例外——但备忘录明确表示，现在有七位普通合伙人主要拥有和运营红杉：阿尔弗雷德·林和帕特·格雷迪——他们是公司的共同管理者——以及安德鲁·里德、肖恩·马奎尔、康斯坦丁·布勒、索尼娅·黄和大卫·卡恩，后者于2023年加入公司。
Though the nomenclature at venture firms is all over the place — including Sequoia — the memo makes clear there are now seven general partners who primarily own and operate Sequoia: Alfred Lin and Pat Grady — who are the firm’s co-stewards — along with Andrew Reed, Shaun Maguire, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang, and David Cahn, who joined the firm in 2023.
因此还发生了其他变动。公司首位女性合伙人、早期投资人 Jess Lee 曾负责 Arc 计划，她不再出现在红杉的投资人页面上，而是以首席产品官的身份作为运营合伙人呈现。与此同时，2015 年加入红杉的投资人 Stephanie Zhan 已完全离开公司，她上个月宣布将创立自己的新公司。
There are other changes as a result. Jess Lee, the firm’s first female partner and an early-stage investor who oversaw its Arc program, is no longer shown on Sequoia’s investor page but rather as an operator in the role of its chief product officer. Stephanie Zhan, an investor who had joined Sequoia in 2015, has meanwhile left the firm entirely, announcing last month that she is launching her own new firm.
红杉极少让任何人彻底离开。创始人 Don Valentine 在移交公司后，大约十年间仍坚持出席合伙人会议。2017 年卸下管理职责的 Goetz 依然出现在公司网站上。Botha 是个例外。去年秋天，他在接受本刊编辑采访几天内，意外被投票罢免高级管事一职 —— 公司将其表述为向 Lin 和 Grady 的交接 —— 今年夏天，在他加入 SpaceX 董事会前后，他与红杉彻底断绝了关系。
Sequoia rarely lets anyone go entirely. Founder Don Valentine famously kept turning up at partner meetings for roughly a decade after handing over the firm. Goetz, who stepped back from his management responsibilities in 2017, is still featured on the firm’s site. Botha is the exception. He was voted out as senior steward last fall in a surprise shake-up days after sitting down with this editor — the firm framed it as a handoff to Lin and Grady — and he completely cut ties with Sequoia this summer, around the time he joined SpaceX’s board.
这些变动必将引起轰动。尽管如此，它们都不完全超出红杉的惯常风格。红杉习惯不断迭代，有时这意味着倒退调整。最引人注目的是，2023 年它与中国及印度/东南亚分支分道扬镳，后者分别更名为红杉中国（HongShan）和 Peak XV，结束了红杉作为单一品牌全球特许经营长达二十年的历程。
The changes are sure to make waves. Still, none of them are completely out of character. Sequoia iterates routinely, and sometimes that has meant shifting in reverse. Most notably, in 2023, it separated from its China and India/Southeast Asia arms, which became HongShan and Peak XV, ending a two-decade run as a global franchise under one name.
备忘录的其余部分涉及架构调整。文中称，团队决定取消“早期”和“成长”团队的划分，合并为一个整体运作。文中还指出，周一合伙人会议——红杉及几乎所有风投机构的惯例——已告结束，理由是创始人全天候运作，投资人也应如此。（这种做法或许正在更普遍地消失。至少在上个月 Disrupt 大会上接受 TechCrunch 采访时，Benchmark 全体团队表示，现在主要利用周一会议进行社交。）红杉承认这些举措伴随代价。
The rest of the memo is structural. It says the team has decided to dispense with its “early” and “growth” team approaches and operate as one. It also notes the Monday partner meeting — a ritual at Sequoia and at nearly every firm — is finished on the theory that founders operate around the clock and their investors should, too. (These may be going away more generally. At least, in a sit-down with TechCrunch at Disrupt last month, the entire Benchmark team suggested it now mostly uses Monday meetings to socialize.) Sequoia acknowledges the moves come at some cost.
“打破一个已经运行良好的体系令人恐惧，”备忘录写道，与优秀同事告别也很痛苦。尽管如此，还需要一段时间才能知道这些决定是否正确。以下是红杉全文发布内容：我们身处一个加速变化的世界。最优秀的创始人不断重塑自我。我们也必须如此。
“It is scary to break something that’s already working just fine,” the memo says, and painful to say goodbye to good people. Still, it’ll be a while before anyone knows if these were the right calls. Here is Sequoia’s post in full: We live in a world of accelerating change. The best founders reinvent themselves over and over again. We must do the same.
距离我们的代际传承已过去一年。我们一直忙碌不已！我们不再是在演进昨天的红杉；我们正在构建明天的红杉。以下是我们做出的一些变革，以及它们对创始人的意义。
It’s been a year since our generational transition. We’ve been busy! We’re no longer evolving the Sequoia of yesterday; we are now building the Sequoia of tomorrow. Here are a few of the changes we’ve made, and what they mean for founders.
聚焦 我们最擅长高信念、高度选择性的风险投资。这是我们的聚焦点。我们移除了红杉资本基金相关的大量复杂性，终止了批次加速器项目（Arc）和 Scouts 计划，并精简了运营团队和投资团队。将更多精力集中在更少的人和事上，意味着能为我们支持的创始人提供更好的支持。
Focus We are best at high-conviction, highly selective venture capital investing. This is our focus. We have removed much of the complexity associated with the Sequoia Capital Fund, sunset our batch accelerator (Arc) and Scouts programs, and streamlined both operating and investing teams. Putting more energy behind fewer people and things means better support for the founders we back.
一体化团队 不再有“早期与成长”之分。只有红杉。我们是一个团队，在一个共同使命下运作。随着创业公司从一个阶段进入下一个阶段，这应当让一切更加顺畅。
One Team There is no more “Early & Growth”. There is only Sequoia. We are one team, operating under one shared mission. This should make things more seamless for founders as they go from stage to stage.
伦敦 我们将关闭伦敦办公室，这意味着有几个人将离开红杉。这与团队无关——他们非常优秀。我们只是认为没有必要在当地设立机构。我们相信欧洲将继续产生非凡的创始人和公司，我们也相信我们可以继续从湾区的大本营为他们提供世界级的支持。
London We are closing our London office, which means several people will be leaving Sequoia. This is not about the team – they are excellent. We simply don’t see the need for a local presence. We believe that Europe will continue to produce outlier founders and companies, and that we can continue to provide world class support from our home base in the Bay Area.
合伙人 我们正走出一个约20年的扩张阶段，在此期间我们在多个地区建立了多项业务。一个意想不到的副作用是层级化；它需要真正的管理层来运营我们业务的运营端，而这一点逐渐渗透到了投资团队中。我们已经做出了几项内部调整，其效果是使合伙人关系更加扁平化。这让每位合伙人都能蓬勃发展，也让每位创始人都能充分受益于红杉团队——无论你的主导合伙人恰好是谁。
Partners We are coming out of a ~20 year expansionary phase, during which we built multiple businesses in multiple geos. One unintended side effect was hierarchy; it required real management to run the operating side of our business, and this crept over into the investing team. We’ve made several internal changes that have the effect of flattening the partnership. This allows every partner to flourish, and every founder to receive the full benefit of Team Sequoia – regardless of who your lead partner happens to be.
火力 我们迎来了两位冉冉升起的新星（利亚姆和索纳利）以及一位才华超凡的创始人和运营者（德夫）。我们与一位传奇领袖（卡尔）重聚，并让史上最伟大者（道格）重焕活力。我们提拔并赋能了顶尖运营者：赫姆、娜塔莉、里希、斯泰西和特蕾莎。我们募集了约100亿美元的新基金。人才和资本是打造传奇公司的两个关键要素。我们的人才密度和资本基础比以往任何时候都更强大。
Firepower We’ve welcomed two rising stars (Liam and Sonali) and one transcendentally talented founder & operator (Dev). We’ve reunited with a legendary leader (Carl) and reinvigorated the GOAT (Doug). We’ve elevated and empowered killer operators: Hem, Natalie, Rishi, Stacey, and Theresa. We’ve raised ~$10Bn in new funds. Talent and capital are two of the key ingredients in building legendary companies. Our talent density and capital base are stronger than ever.
全天候 不再有周一合伙人会议的周期。创始人全天候运转，我们也是如此。创始人不应该必须遵循我们的流程——我们将尽力遵循你们的流程。
24/7 There is no more Monday partner meeting cycle. Founders operate 24/7, and so do we. Founders shouldn’t have to adhere to our process – we will do our best to adhere to yours.
重塑自我 其中一些变化是显而易见的。另一些则不那么明显。许多变化是艰难的。打破已经运转良好的东西是令人恐惧的，与优秀的人告别是痛苦的。我们要求创始人在困难时也做正确的事，我们也致力于这样做。
Reinventing Ourselves Some of these changes were obvious. Others less so. Many were hard. It is scary to break something that’s already working just fine, and it is painful to say goodbye to great people. We ask founders to do the right thing even when it is hard, and we are committed to doing the same.
有些事情始终不变。我们的使命是帮助勇敢者创建传奇公司，从创意到IPO乃至更远。我们的目标函数不是规模，而是质量：为有限合伙人带来尽可能最佳的回报，并成为创始人尽可能最佳的合作伙伴。
Some things remain unchanged. Our mission is to help the daring build legendary companies, from idea to IPO and beyond. Our objective function is not scale, but quality: delivering the best possible returns to LPs, and being the best possible partner to founders.
明日红杉的卓越是一个不断移动的靶心，因此我们将始终在改变。但就目前而言，这就是红杉。
The Sequoia of Tomorrow Excellence is a moving target, so we will always be changing. But for now, this is Sequoia.
我们有七位普通合伙人拥有并运营我们的组织，我们正处于进攻态势：建设我们的业务，以便我们能够支持你建设你的业务。我们是真正的信徒，随着我们进入多个构造性转变并行发生的黄金时代（人工智能、太空、生物学、再工业化，或许还有更多），我们对未来充满激情。让我们一起打造传奇！
We have seven General Partners who own and operate our organization, and we are on offense: building our business so that we can support you in building yours. We are true believers, and as we enter a golden age of multiple tectonic shifts in parallel (AI, space, biology, reindustrialization, and perhaps more), we are so fired up for what’s to come. Let’s build something legendary together!
——阿尔弗雷德、安德鲁、大卫、康斯坦丁、帕特、肖恩和索尼娅，代表红杉团队
— Alfred, Andrew, David, Konstantine, Pat, Shaun, and Sonya, on behalf of Team Sequoia