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Alfred Lin

Alfred Lin

Alfred Lin is a Taiwanese-American venture capitalist, partner at Sequoia Capital, co-founder of Venture Frogs, and former COO/CFO and chairman of Zappos.

OverviewStructured DataIssuesContributors

Contents

sequoiacap.com/people/alfred-lin/
Is a
Person
Person
Investor
Investor

Person attributes

Email Address
early-al@sequoiacap.com
Founder of
‌
Venture Frogs
Birthdate
August 15, 1990
Birthplace
Taiwan
Taiwan
Location
San Francisco
San Francisco
Educated at
Harvard University
Harvard University
Stanford University
Stanford University
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School
Awards Received
‌
The Forbes Midas list 2022
Occupation
‌
Chief financial officer
Investor
Investor
‌
Chief operating officer
Invested in
Dolls Kill
Dolls Kill
Jelli
Jelli
CardPool
CardPool
Appstores
Appstores
Uber
Uber
DoorDash
DoorDash
Instacart
Instacart
Airbnb
Airbnb
...
Wellfound ID
alfred_lin

Other attributes

AngelList URL
angel.co/p/alfred_lin
Child
‌
Atticus Lin
Country
United States
United States
Public/Private
Public
Wikidata ID
Q4723073

Alfred Lin is an entrepreneur, investor, venture capitalist, and Partner at Sequoia Capital, based in San Francisco.

Lin was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States at the age of six. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University and a master's degree in statistics from Stanford University. Lin dropped out of a PhD program at Stanford to join LinkExchange in 1996; he served as vice president of finance and acting CFO until 1998, when it was acquired by Microsoft. In 1999, Lin co-founded the incubator and seed fund Venture Frogs with LinkExchange founder Tony Hsieh, and served as general manager until 2014. Venture Frogs invested in tech and internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, OpenTable, Tellme Networks, and Zappos. From 2001 to 2005, Lin served as vice president of finance & business development at TellMe, which was later acquired by Microsoft. From 2005 to 2010, Lin served as the COO, CFO, and chairman of Zappos, which was acquired by Amazon in 2009. Lin joined venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as a partner in 2010.

Alfred Lin has served as a member of the board of directors for Airbnb, DoorDash, Dolls Kill, Truework, Cobalt, Dia&Co, Moovit, Zipline, Houzz, Achievers (acquired by Blackhawk Network), FutureAdvisor (acquired by Blackhawk Network), Kiwi, Inc., Shopular (acquired by Ebates), Humble Bundle, Stella & Dot, and NEXT Trucking.

Alfred Lin has made partner investments through Sequoia Capital in DoorDash, Instacart, Faire, FTX , Found, Reddit, Dolls Kill, and Truework. Lin has personally invested in StyleSeat, Uber, Crunched, Appbistro, Appstores.com, Schematic Labs, Flipboard, Jelli, and Cardpool. His notable exits include Uber, Schematic Labs, Jelli, Crunched, Cardpool, Appstores.com, and Appbistro.

In 2009, TechCrunch named Alfred Lin as having a "Midas Touch," since every company he had worked with had been acquired, with the smallest deal being worth $265 million. In 2013, he was named on Forbes' "30 Most Influential People in Tech." In 2021, Forbes ranked Alfred Lin as #1 on the "Midas List: Top Tech Investors 2021."

Timeline

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Current Employer

Patents

Further Resources

Title
Author
Link
Type
Date

Below the Line with James Beshara: #63 -- Alfred Lin -- Investing In Greatness on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/63-alfred-lin-investing-in-greatness/id1457400066?i=1000476503975

Web

June 2, 2020

Fireside Chat with Alfred Lin (Partner, Sequoia Capital)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbksDmp4k9M

Web

September 30, 2020

Innovate with Intention - Joe Gebbia + Alfred Lin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywqe_Ip-biw

Web

March 5, 2019

Lecture 10 - Culture (Brian Chesky, Alfred Lin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWgVWGEuGE

Web

October 24, 2014

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch: 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20vc-the-memo-sequoias-alfred-lin-on-why-chasing-gmv/id958230465?i=1000506730979

Web

January 27, 2021

References

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