The investment fund organized a meeting yesterday, where he invited entrepreneurs and chief executives of companies in its investment portfolio. Attendees were greeted by a beautiful image of a gravestone with an inscription that read “RIP: Good Times” (RIP = Rest In Peace, or rest in peace), as mentioned in Gigaom. The image shown on the right is taken from Gigaom and is a dramatization of the picture you saw those attending the meeting.
The meeting was addressed by at least four speakers, including a brief introduction by Mike Moritiz. Another speaker was Doug Leone. Still no details on who the other two speakers. A person who deals with public market investments Sequoia said that he had talked to the startups. The message delivered to attendees is that things could be much worse than people think, and a recession will be longer than many analysts had predicted. To give a historical perspective, Sequoia made a similar meeting before the last of the dotcom bubble, which seriously affects the sector.
They want the companies to reduce their costs (euphemism used to fire staff) and focus on determining how to survive and emerge at the other end of the decline of the market, which could last years. The speakers were through each functional area of the company and told the company representatives who participated in the meeting, how to reduce their costs. By holding this special meeting, Sequoia is telling companies that their strategies for survival as they should prioritize their spending and find ways to survive the current problems facing the market.