""The thing about holding things in tension, in extreme tension, is that the right answer is almost definitely somewhere in the middle," Lin told me in an interview in 2024 about how he thinks about founders. "If you start in the middle and radiate out from there, you think 'Oh, this is obvious, it makes sense.' Then you limit the number of solutions you look at."
"Lin-famed as the thoughtful backer of companies like DoorDash, Airbnb, and Citadel Securities-said something I've thought about many times since: That it's important to be able to hold ideas in "extreme tension," because that's, in effect, the only path to truth, to knowing what your options truly are. "The thing about holding things in tension, in extreme tension, is that the right answer is almost definitely somewhere in the middle,""
Holding ideas in extreme tension helps uncover truth and expands the set of solutions by traversing extremes toward the center. Starting from extremes and moving inward exposes many possibilities, whereas starting in the middle constrains the search and limits solutions. Sequoia announced that Roelof Botha will step down and that Lin and Pat Grady will serve as co-stewards. Botha, 52, led the firm nearly a decade and had been sole steward since 2022. Lin has led early-stage investing since 2017, and Grady has led growth-stage investing since 2015 with stakes in Snowflake, Zoom, ServiceNow, Harvey, and OpenEvidence. Sequoia has completed five generational transfers over 53 years and has often employed co-stewards.
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