To Be Successful in Business, You Have to Be Contrarian and Right

To Be Successful in Business, You Have to Be Contrarian and Right

Evan Nisselson first met Roelof Botha, Managing Partner and Steward of Sequoia Capital, while fundraising for his startup in 2005. Roelof said, “I think back to that meeting we had, and you had a vision for the future and the impact of visual, just imagery on consumer experiences was completely spot on.

At our 10th Annual LDV Vision Summit, Roelof joined Evan for a fireside chat to discuss trends and early-stage investment opportunities in businesses leveraging visual technologies and AI. They spoke about Roelof’s insights from the ups and downs of the PayPal days, marshmallow tests, personality traits and much more!

Read More

Roelof Botha of Sequoia Says 'To Be Successful in This Business, You Have to Be Contrarian and Right'

Roelof Botha of Sequoia Says 'To Be Successful in This Business, You Have to Be Contrarian and Right'

Join our 10th Annual LDV Vision Summit on March 21 and witness the fireside chat between LDV Capital’s Evan Nisselson and Roelof Botha, Managing Partner and Steward of Sequoia Capital. Roelof has spent over 20 years building companies in Silicon Valley. He began within the walls of nascent PayPal and led the company through both its IPO in early 2002 and the subsequent acquisition by eBay. Roelof joined Sequoia in 2003 to help founders build enduring businesses. In 2017, he assumed leadership of Sequoia Capital's US/Europe business and became a Steward of the Sequoia Partnership. Roelof is a Director of 23andMe, Block, Ethos, Inside.com, Landis, mmhmm, MongoDB, Natera, Pendulum Therapeutics, and Unity Technologies, and recently led Sequoia's investment in Meeno. Previously, he was a Director of companies that include YouTube, Tumblr, Xoom, Eventbrite, and Evernote. He also led Sequoia's investment in Instagram.

Roelof and Evan will discuss trends and early-stage investment opportunities in businesses leveraging visual technologies and AI.

Read More

Insights from Ty Ahmad-Taylor’s 32 years working at NYTimes, @Home Network, Samsung, Meta, and Snap

Insights from Ty Ahmad-Taylor’s 32 years working at NYTimes, @Home Network, Samsung, Meta, and Snap

Meet Ty Ahmad-Taylor, VP of Monetization at Snap. Ty’s background: 32 years in information design, 26 years in consumer-facing software and product development leadership, and 25 years in interactive television services development. He has worked at four startups (one went public, and the other three were acquired), and at large social, media, and consumer electronic companies.

In the fireside chat with LDV’s Evan Nisselson, he shared his views on three things that every CEO should do, inclusive teams, systems thinking, and an exclusion filter that could make our experience of using social media so much better! Evan and Ty also touched on ideas ripe for AI automation, machine learning algorithms that make TikTok successful, and the mixed reality environment that’s coming soon.

Read More

Can AI Generate Visual Content for Social Media?

Can AI Generate Visual Content for Social Media?

Can AI create visual metaphors for creative ads? Can it understand the contextual meaning behind them? Is it the future of content creation?

We are honored to have Dr. Lydia Chilton, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, in our Women Leading Visual Tech series. Lydia leads the research about the creative design process from a computational standpoint. She builds AI tools that enhance people’s productivity.

Read More