The inaugural Venture Trailblazers event took place on Wednesday November 2nd, and featured a Fireside Chat with Roelof Botha (Managing Partner at Sequoia Capital).

Keynote Speaker: Roelof Botha (Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital)

Roelof Botha has spent over 20 years building companies in Silicon Valley. He began within the walls of nascent PayPal, where he joined in March 2000 while completing his MBA at Stanford. He became CFO in 2001 and led the company through both its IPO in early 2002 and the subsequent acquisition by eBay.

Roelof joined Sequoia Capital in 2003 to help founders build enduring businesses. He leads the US/Europe business as Managing Partner and serves as Senior Steward of the global Sequoia Partnership. Roelof is a Director of 23andMe, Bird, Ethos, Evernote, Inside.com, Landis, mmhmm, MongoDB, Natera, Pendulum Therapeutics, Square, and Unity Technologies. Previously, he was a Director of companies that include YouTube, Tumblr, Xoom, AssureX, and Eventbrite. He also led Sequoia's investment in Instagram.

On the event, Roelof and Adeo Ressi (Chairman of Founder Institute and CEO of VC Lab) discussed the history of Sequoia Capital, Roelof's career from a technology executive and operator to one of the world's leading Venture Capitalists, how VCs evaluate founders at the earliest stages of startup development, the state of VC today amidst historic macroeconomic shifts currently taking place, advice for entrepreneurs and new fund managers, and much more.

Watch the video replay of the event below:

Venture Trailblazers is an exclusive, invite-only event series that connects leading investors, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the globe to discuss the latest trends in startups and venture capital.

The goal of Venture Trailblazers is to educate and connect the founders, leaders, mentors, and investors across the global Founder Institute, VC Lab, and FI Venture Networks.