Stories of those who dare to defy the odds ///// Storytelling arm of sequel - digital family office of the word's best athletes, artists & founders.
Miami & London
Joined March 2022
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- Following5
- Followers779
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sequel retweeted
How can a $100m+ exit leave you lonely, depressed and confused?
The typical unicorn founder is not a 20s college-drop out.
Founders who start in their 30s have a 14% higher chance of starting a unicorn than the average founder.
Which begs the question - how can you be a great founder and a great parent?
@AnasKoroleva has started and exited 4 companies, including her first $100m+ exit 13 years ago...
What should be a crowning moment in anyone's life, right?
No.
It cost her her marriage, friendships and millions. She found herself depressed, confused and lonely.
Since then she's sought wisdom and therapy through speaking to hundreds of exited founders.
Through this she built a solid foundation for her life, including for her children (who are all becoming very successful in their own right).
One of the secrets she discovered to being a successful mother & founder: creating artificial constraints.
'I raised my kids to be unemployable.'
How do you build “big” without your family paying the price?
@AnasKoroleva is a four-time exited founder and the host of The Exit Paradox podcast. She has an unrivalled knowledge of Post-Exit pitfalls.
She is also the mother to 3 fascinating children, and in this episode she shares the techniques and processes on how she raised them.
From how she thinks about motivation to the boundaries that protect family time, this is a conversation about building success that doesn’t cost you what matters most.
Here's what we spoke about:
2:07 - Turning problem-spotting into a competitive advantage
6:34 - Hiring how people sell themselves
11:05 - Work + parenting pressure
11:19 - How to not fail the kids while also not failing the businesses
17:26 - Incentives as a tool for shaping behaviour
21:36 - Cheap dopamine and how it shapes attention and habits
27:52 - Sunk-cost loop, throwing good money after bad and getting stuck
35:41 - Angel investing vs cashflow businesses
40:07 - Raising your children to be unemployable
43:18 - Brain chemistry as a major driver of sustained change
sequel retweeted
Talent is upstream of both sales and fundraising.
The very best founders prioritise hiring, developing and retaining talent ahead of all other processes.
If you want to learn more about @NStoronsky 's hiring and performance playbooks - he actually publishes them on the Quantum Light website (his investment vehicle): quantumlightcapital.com/play…
sequel retweeted
Attracting and selecting talent is the highest leverage skill anyone can develop in their career.
I first met @_georgerobson when he was 22 years old running the launch of Revolut's metal product - they wanted a concierge product and were considering a partnership with Velocity Black.
He was a good negotiator. He thought we were too expensive. I thought there was no way they could launch a good service at their desired price point. We were both right...
While the partnership didn't happen, I was extremely impressed with George, and I'm glad he stayed in touch.
Since he joined @sequoia he's always been generous with me with his time and thoughts on startup investing.
Thank you George
'If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right.'
From the early days inside Revolut’s rise to becoming one of the youngest partners in @sequoia history, @_georgerobson has spent his career operating in the highest-performance environments.
He’s developed a rare eye for spotting winners, and understanding what it takes to build successful companies.
George opens up about his leap into Revolut, the lessons that defined his career, and the founder signals he looks for today.
Here's what we spoke about:
3:02 - Why Sequoia cares more about who you were before 21
4:14 - The difference between being driven and being ambitious
5:26 - Discovering the highest talent density of his career
5:40 - “We care more about slope than intercept”
7:44 - The founder question that matters more than the pitch
8:26 - Why hiring impressive CVs is usually a mistake
9:11 - Culture as a social contract
9:31 - “If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not doing it right”
11:55 - How Revolut taught him radical clarity and conflict
16:29 - Long-term thinking as a muscle most people never train
20:16 - What success really means
sequel retweeted
'Get out of my office you f***ing French c***'
Lessons on leadership from working with one of the greatest managers of all time - Sir Alex Ferguson
Really enjoyed this chat with Patrice @Evra - he has had a very rich life after football.
'Was I happy? No. I was a monster. That was part of my winning mindset.'
From sleeping on the streets of Paris to lifting the Champions League trophy. Sequel member Patrice @Evra 's story is proof that greatness isn’t given, it’s earned.
A five-time Premier League winner.
Manchester United legend.
Captain for France.
We sat down with Patrice Evra to talk about life after football. Finding identity beyond the game, fighting racism, surviving abuse, and redefining what purpose really means.
An honest conversation about greatness, discipline, and what it takes to succeed.
Here's what we spoke about:
3:04 - Finding his identity after football
5:48 - How storytelling changed his life
6:26 - Surviving childhood abuse
6:47 - “I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor"
9:29 - Discipline born from survival
13:01 - Buying his mum a house at 24
17:50 - His brutal Premier League “welcome”
19:57 - The moment that changed everything
23:28 - His mum’s strength and resilience
26:50 - Why he has zero regrets
29:13 - Losing £10 million and laughing
31:55 - Believing in himself from day one
36:09 - What success really means: sacrifice
sequel retweeted
Retention > Attention
Brand-building > Rage-bait
Authenticity > Acting
Evergreen > Ephemeral
Connection > Broadcast
The core tenets of our investor value-add ‘storytelling as a service.’
sequel retweeted
Humanity's Propulsion System: Storytelling
Investors and founders often talk about the power of storytelling from a capital raising perspective.
While this is a skill required to accumulate resources - this is a crude simplification of the importance of storytelling to mankind.
Stories are not simply vulgar tools for short-term gain.
Stories are not relics.
They’re not dusty records of what once happened or flat instruction sheets for what might be...
Stories are engines.
Sparks that detonate in the minds of the next generation and push humanity forward.
Every breakthrough begins as a story believed before the world is ready for it:
- Heroes heard tales of courage long before they ever stood in danger.
- Innovators imagined new worlds because someone else once sketched the outline.
Stories shape identity, sharpen ambition, and plant the ‘dangerous’ idea that the impossible is simply the unattempted…
Civilizations advance through this cycle:
a story inspires a mind -> that mind creates a leap -> the leap becomes a new story for those who follow.
Storytelling isn’t just entertainment.
It’s the mechanism of progress. Humanity’s propulsion system.
It’s how we move forward.