The Power Law

Plus: Robinhood, Credit Rating Agencies, Foreign Travel

“When people write about the venture business, they’re always writing about the startups we back. They never write about the most important investment that we make, which is in the business." – Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital

A few weeks ago, Citadel Securities, a leading global market maker, announced a fundraising backed by two venture capital firms, Sequoia and Paradigm. The announcement came as a surprise because Citadel Securities is well established in its industry and had never before taken external capital to fund its growth. Less newsworthy, but perhaps more surprising, was this nugget, buried towards the bottom of the press release:

In aggregate, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 25% of NASDAQ’s total value.

That’s quite a statement. The aggregate value of all NASDAQ-listed companies is around $25 trillion, so if a single investor has been involved in creating a quarter of that, it’s a big deal. Sure enough, Sequoia’s fingerprints can be found on Apple (which it ba…