Alfred Lin
- Seed/Early
Dream about the dent you will put in the universe. Stay grounded in your reality. Build a plan that connects these two worlds.
Backstory
Emigrating from Taiwan at the age of six, my parents moved me and my brother every few years to better school districts. I was always fascinated by businesses, how they operated and how to invest in them. In junior high, I tried to scale my lawn-mowing service—It didn’t even last a whole summer. In college, I bought whole pizzas and sold them by the slice, but I swear, it wasn’t predatory.
Academically, I had honored my parents’ wishes to be a good student, especially in math and science. I even entered a Ph.D. program in statistics, but I found reading business cases more interesting. When Sequoia invested, I joined my college friend Tony Hsieh at his startup, LinkExchange. After we sold LinkExchange to Microsoft (and made Sequoia 17x in 17 months), we started Venture Frogs, which was both an incubator and a seed fund. Out of that came Tellme Networks, which I joined in 2001, and Zappos, which I joined in 2005.
Michael Moritz had been our Sequoia partner at LinkExchange and we chose to work with him again at Zappos. He was a mentor to me and the rest of the management team. He always showed up, having poured through the board materials and listening intensely to every word. He would focus our attention on the first order issues, sharpen our thinking and push us to be even more ambitious. I learned from him that a partner’s most important value-add comes when the chips are down.
On the lookout for
All investors essentially look for the same things: (1) outlier founders, (2) a delightful product or service, (3) a path to a massive market, and (4) a disruptive business model. This leads to a large universe of investable opportunities, which is far greater than our capacity to serve on boards and really partner with founders. To have an edge, you have to play the game differently.
I am much more focused on the founders’ special characteristics, their novel and unique insights, the eureka moment of their founding story, and their lived experiences that creates empathy for the customer they will serve. Basically, I am on the lookout for founder-market fit.
After you strip through all that, there is only one criteria for me: would I love to work for the founders and help them reach their and their company’s full potential? It is our job as partners, not just investors—to work for the founders.
Get in touch with AlfredPersonal Side
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Press & Media
Companies
Current Companies
| Company Name | Short Description | Current Stage | Founders | First Partnered | collapse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catch | Catch helps merchants and their customers save by cutting out the credit card companies. | Early |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
| Citadel Securities | Citadel Securities uses its market expertise and technology to empower its clients to access liquidity in new and effective ways. | Growth |
| Growth (2022) | Collapse |
| Clay | Clay makes creative tools that help businesses grow by improving their customer research to scale personalized outreach. | Growth |
| Early (2019) | Collapse |
| Cobot | Cobot is redefining the future of human-robot interaction. | Growth |
| Early (2023) | Collapse |
| Commure | Commure (FKA Athelas) is an AI-powered operating system for healthcare providers. | Growth |
| Early (2016) | Collapse |
| Dolls Kill | Dolls Kill is a global fashion brand that supports self-expression for the next generation. | Growth |
| Growth (2019) | Collapse |
| Faire | Faire is the leading wholesale marketplace, connecting independent retailers and brands all over the world. | Growth |
| Early (2017) | Collapse |
| Filecoin | Filecoin is a decentralized storage network designed to store people's most important information. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2017) | Collapse |
| Fireworks AI | Fireworks AI is a high-performance inference platform for developers and enterprises. | Growth |
| Early (2022) | Collapse |
| Formation Bio | Formation Bio is a tech and AI-native pharma company differentiated by radically more efficient drug development. | Growth |
| Early (2017) | Collapse |
| Found | Found is an all-in-one business banking, bookkeeping and tax solution for self-employed businesses. | Growth |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
| Houzz | Houzz is a visual remodeling platform that helps consumers and design professionals collaborate. | Growth |
| Early (2011) | Collapse |
| Kalshi | Kalshi is the first federally regulated exchange that allows people to trade on world events. | Early |
| Early (2020) | Collapse |
| OpenAI | OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. | Growth |
| Growth (2021) | Collapse |
| Otter | Otter matches parents who need childcare with stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids. | Early |
| Early (2021) | Collapse |
| Physical Intelligence | Physical Intelligence is building a foundation model for robotics, bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2024) | Collapse |
| Summer Health | Summer Health is making board-certified pediatricians available to parents via text message. | Early |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
| Tourlane | Tourlane is an online booking platform for custom multiday trips. | Growth |
| Early (2018) | Collapse |
| Truework | Truework is an API platform for employment verification. | Growth |
| Early (2018) | Collapse |
| Turnkey | Turnkey offers simple APIs to securely manage your crypto private keys. | Pre-Seed/Seed |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2022) | Collapse |
| Zipline | Zipline delivers vital shipments via the most reliable drone delivery service in the world. | Growth |
| Early (2012) | Collapse |
Enduring Companies
| Company Name | Short Description | Current Stage | Founders | First Partnered | collapse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbnb | Airbnb connects people around the world with unique homes and unforgettable experiences. | IPO |
| Pre-Seed/Seed (2009) | Collapse |
| DoorDash | DoorDash is an on-demand delivery service. | IPO |
| Early (2014) | Collapse |
| Instacart | Instacart facilitates instant grocery delivery from local stores. | IPO |
| Early (2013) | Collapse |
| Moovit | Moovit, now part of Intel, is a leading Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions provider and creator of the popular urban mobility app. | Acquired |
| Growth (2013) | Collapse |
| Reddit is the internet’s leading source of interest-based content. | IPO |
| Growth (2014) | Collapse | |
| Zappos | Zappos, now part of Amazon, is an online shoe retailer driven by customer service. | Acquired |
| Growth (2004) | Collapse |