Alfred Lin on Airbnb, DoorDash, OpenAI & Citadel Securities
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Alfred Lin on Airbnb, DoorDash, OpenAI & Citadel Securities

44:28 Oct 30, 2025
About this episode
Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia Capital and three-time #1 Midas List investor, has backed some of the most transformative companies of the past two decades. His portfolio spans early bets on Airbnb, DoorDash, Uber, Zipline, Kalshi, and Commure to growth-stage partnerships with OpenAI and Citadel Securities, consistently identifying founders and businesses that redefine entire markets.He continues this track record today with next-generation category creators like Profound, which is building AI-powered brand visibility, Nominal, which is powering mission-critical engineering with a unified data stack, and Clay, which evolved into a go-to-market engine by relentlessly adapting to innovation.In this conversation, Alfred shares his philosophy on founder-market fit, resilience, and backing visionaries who create new categories. He reflects on Airbnb’s near-collapse during COVID, DoorDash’s rise, and Sequoia’s landmark investment in Citadel Securities, while breaking down how he evaluates IPOs, valuations in the AI era, and why the next decade will be defined by reimagined consumer experiences.Alfred Lin: https://x.com/Alfred_LinMolly O’Shea: ?https://x.com/MollySOShea?Sourcery: ?https://x.com/sourceryvc?????????Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery?Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery?Carta—Carta connects founders, investors, and limited partners through software purpose-built for private capital. Trusted by 65,000+ companies in 160+ countries, Carta’s platfo
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