Alex McDonald
3 Mar 2026Wayve’s $1 5B, Perplexity Redemption, Revolut Eye’s $100B, Decagon Founder Joins
Alex McDonald: Sequel, the Founder Portal & Storytelling
Dialing in from the West Coast at 6am, Alex describes Sequel as a digital family office for elite athletes, artists and entrepreneurs backing founders 'advancing humanity,' and explains that after a conversation with George at Sequoia they moved founders to the top of the stakeholder list — 90% of headcount now serves the portfolio. He walks through the new founder portal shipped to 37 portfolio companies and the 'Fiction Is the Future' campaign. On why quality extends down to the buckles on Sequel caps, he credits creative director Julia and Matt, then details the in-house video team that films documentaries, launch videos and testimonials for portfolio companies for free, building long-term brand equity that clients with 300M+ followers help amplify.
VC Value-Add, Angel Rules & the $45M ElevenLabs Miss
Alex cites Vinod Khosla's view that 70–80% of investors add negative value and argues no investor can make you successful but they can break you — at best they accelerate talent and resources. He lays out beginner angel rules from his 50+ investments: diversify into roughly 50 companies over five years, temporally diversify, keep check sizes equal, and invest alongside experienced VCs and super angels. His object lesson is a tiny pre-seed check in ElevenLabs during the Velocity Black sale that cost him roughly $45M versus his average check, while top funds like Hummingbird and Thrive win by breaking those rules with concentrated portfolios.