I’ve only been in the same room as Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha twice, but each time he’s struck me as very upright, and even proper. The sort of person I can’t imagine being harried, frantic, or disheveled.
So, it’s hard for me to imagine what Botha—who became Sequoia’s senior steward in 2022—must have been like playing rugby in his twenties. Then again, in my limited understanding of rugby, it’s a sport notable both for its brutality and the oddly elegant steeliness (and order) it demands. (Oscar Wilde’s famous bit about this: “Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians.”)
