Facebook’s acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp will see venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, the lone investor in the company, walk away with a reported $3.5 billion. The WhatsApp exit is the latest in a string of successful punts taken by the Menlo Park, California-based marquee venture capital firm and follows two blockbuster years, during which it consistently earned outsized returns for its investors.
He’s become a successful CEO and a generous person, but ten years ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used to have something of an attitude. For example, he used to carry a business card that read, “I’m CEO…Bitch.” Once, back then, Zuckerberg played a pretty nasty prank on top venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. It was 2004, and Zuckerberg still wasn’t convinced that he wanted to run Facebook forever. He thought maybe another startup idea of his, called Wirehog, would be a bigger success. So he was out talking to venture capitalists about raising money. Sequoia Capital reached out to him.
