Alfred Lin Explained

Alfred Lin
Birth Place:Taiwan[1]
Spouse:Rebecca
Children:Atticus Lin (Son)
Occupation:Partner at Sequoia Capital
Education:Harvard University (BA)
Stanford University (MS)

Alfred Lin is an American venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.[2] [3] [4] Lin was the COO, CFO, and Chairman of Zappos.com until 2010.[5] [6]

Early life and career

Lin was born in Taiwan. At the age of six or seven, his parents immigrated to the New York area.[7] Lin attended the Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He holds a B.A. in applied mathematics from Harvard and a M.S. in statistics from Stanford. While at Harvard, Lin met Tony Hsieh, the future CEO of Zappos.[7] Hsieh first recognized Lin's business acumen while running a student-owned pizza parlor at Harvard. Lin, his best customer, was buying whole pizzas, splitting them into slices, and selling them for a profit.[7] In 1996, Lin dropped out of a Ph.D. program at Stanford to join Hsieh, Sanjay Mandan, and Ali Partovi at LinkExchange as CFO.[2] 18 months later LinkExchange sold to Microsoft for $265 million.[8] Later, before joining Zappos, Lin was the VP of Finance and Business Development of Tellme Networks (MSFT). With Tony Hsieh he also co-founded Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm.[9] Venture Frogs invested in a variety of tech and Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, OpenTable, Tellme Networks, and Zappos.[10]

From 2005 to 2010, Lin was chairman, COO, and CFO. At Zappos, Lin was responsible for all financial, administrative, and warehouse operations.[11] He was also responsible for company growth and scaling, bringing the company to its first profitable year in 2006 and to Amazon.com's acquisition of the company in 2009 for $1.2 billion.[3] [12] [13] [14] According to TechCrunch, "Hsieh made at least $214 million; Lin made at least $18 million, with the Venture Frogs shares netting an additional $163 million."[15]

Lin left Zappos in 2010 to join the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as a partner.[16]

Sequoia Capital and investments

TechCrunch has stated that Alfred has the "Midas touch", since "every company he's worked for has been acquired, and the smallest deal was $265 million."[2] Lin later helped Tellme Networks which was sold to Microsoft for $800 million.[17] After that, Lin helped form Zappos to later be acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion. Lin has invested in Airbnb, Achievers, Stella & Dot, Houzz, Humble Bundle, Kiwi, Romotive, Moovit, Styleseat, Uber, and Cardpool (acquired by Blackhawk Networks), AppBistro / MMTG Labs (acquired by InMobi), and SalesCrunch (acquired by ClearSlide).[18] [19] [20] He specializes in consumer internet, enterprise and mobile companies.[21]

Lin was an early investor in Zipline, a medicine drone delivery company with operations in Rwanda.[22] He also invested in the Palo Alto-based security company Cobalt Robotics, and sits on its board of directors.[23] In 2021, Lin made a failed investment on FTX and represented Sequoia on its Advisory Board.[24] [25] [26]

Influence

In 2013, Forbes named Lin as one of the "30 Most Influential People in Tech".[27] Lin and his work have been profiled in national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Fortune, as well as CNBC.[4] [28] [29] [30]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alfred Lin, Zappos Chairman and COO . 4 December 2008 . meet innovators . 1 August 2014.
  2. Arrington, Michael "Alfred Lin Has The Midas Touch: The Man With $2 Billion In Acquisitions Under His Belt", TechCrunch, July 28, 2009.
  3. News: Alfred Lin To Leave Zappos, Join Sequoia Capital . Arrington, Michael . TechCrunch . April 9, 2010.
  4. News: Why Is This Man Smiling? . Rich, Motoko . New York Times . April 8, 2011.
  5. News: These boots are made for walking: No. 2 executive leaves Zappos . Manninen, JP . VentureBeat . April 9, 2010.
  6. Web site: Alfred Lin Zappos Profile . Zappos.com.
  7. Web site: I Am CNBC Tony Hsieh Transcript . CNBC . August 15, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110612154433/http://www.cnbc.com/id/20279372/I_Am_CNBC_Tony_Hsieh_Transcript . June 12, 2011 .
  8. Web site: Ritchie. Josh. 10 Questions with Zappos COO/CFO, Alfred Lin. BuySight. 2013-12-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20101014061356/http://www.buysight.com/blog/2009/10/29/10-questions-with-zappos-coocfo-alfred-lin/. 2010-10-14. dead.
  9. Lee, Tom.Venture Frogs Internet Restaurant Logs on to the San Francisco Scene . Asian Week. August 17, 2000.
  10. Nelson, Erik. Venture Frogs in a Cyber-Marsh . Profit Magazine. January 2000.
  11. Web site: FOWLER. NINA. VIDEO: Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin on Zappos, Zalando and solving hard problems. Venture Village. 2013-12-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20131214012735/http://venturevillage.eu/video-alfred-lin-zappos-sequoia. 2013-12-14. dead.
  12. News: Amazon's Expanding With Deal for Zappos . Stone, Brad . July 22, 2009 . The New York Times.
  13. News: Amazon Opens Wallet, Buys Zappos . Wingfield, Nick . Wall Street Journal . July 23, 2009.
  14. Web site: Rimm-Kaufman. Alan. Alfred Lin: Zappos At Break-even Through 2005, Profitable in '06 and '07. RKG.
  15. News: What Everyone Made from the Zappos Sale . Lacy, Sarah . TechCrunch . July 27, 2009.
  16. News: Zappos COO Alfred Lin to leave for Sequoia Capital in early 2011 . Cook, John . Puget Sound Business Journal . April 9, 2010.
  17. Web site: Malik. Om. Tellme Price – $800 Million, or More. Gigaom. 2014-01-01. 2014-01-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20140102200956/http://gigaom.com/2007/03/12/tellme-price-800-million-or-more/. dead.
  18. Web site: InMobi Acquires MMTG Labs, The Startup Behind AppBistro And AppGalleries. 2020-08-28. TechCrunch. 12 July 2012 . en-US.
  19. News: UberCab raises $1.25M to end your futile search for taxis . Ha, Anthony . VentureBeat . October 15, 2010.
  20. Web site: SalesCrunch Gathers $1.4M From First Round, Accel And Angels . DowJones.com . January 12, 2011 . December 11, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131213191225/http://pevc.dowjones.com/article?pid=32&an=DJFVW00020110111e71c0018j&ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fpevc.dowjones.com%2farticle%3fpid%3d32%26an%3dDJFVW00020110111e71c0018j . December 13, 2013 . dead . mdy-all .
  21. http://www.sequoiacap.com/us/alfred-lin "Bio: Alfred Lin"
  22. News: Drone startup backed by Allen, Yang to deliver medical supplies in Rwanda . 2016.
  23. News: Cobalt Robotics Receives $13 Million Series A. 2018-04-02. Wall Street Journal. 2020-04-28. en-US. 0099-9660.
  24. Web site: Alfred Lin . Forbes.
  25. Web site: Kokalitcheva . Kia . 2023-01-13 . Sequoia Capital partner says firm was "misled" by FTX . Axios.
  26. Web site: Sequoia Capital's Alfred Lin in his first public interview since the implosion of FTX (video) . 2023-01-13 . Connie . Loizos . www.yahoo.com.
  27. The 30 Most Influential People in Tech . Prive, Tanya . Forbes . January 7, 2013.
  28. News: Chapman. Lizette. VC in 2013: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Not Lamenting the 'Series A Crunch'. Wall Street Journal.
  29. Web site: Greene. Rebecca. Zappos Chairman Alfred Lin Asks HBS MBAs to Think Big, Follow Their Passion, and Pay Attention to Details. 6 March 2012 . Harvard Business School.
  30. Profile: Alfred Lin. Forbes.

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