Alfred Lin
Alfred Lin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1972 Taiwan |
| Occupation(s) | Venture capitalist, former COO and CFO |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Known for | Partner at Sequoia Capital, former COO and CFO of Zappos.com |
Alfred Lin (; born 1972) is a Taiwanese-American venture capitalist currently affiliated with Sequoia Capital. Prior to 2010, he held the roles of COO, CFO, and chairman at Zappos.com.
Early life
Originally from Taiwan, Lin moved to New York during his childhood and attended Stuyvesant High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University and later completed a master's degree in statistics at Stanford University.
Career
While studying at Harvard, Lin met Tony Hsieh, who would later become CEO of Zappos. Hsieh identified Lin’s entrepreneurial talent early on when Lin made profits by reselling pizza slices on campus. In 1996, Lin left a Ph.D. program at Stanford to join Hsieh, Sanjay Mandan, and Ali Partovi as CFO at LinkExchange, which was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million just 18 months later. Before joining Zappos, Lin served as Vice President of Finance and Business Development at Tellme Networks (a Microsoft subsidiary). Together with Hsieh, he co-founded Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm that supported startups such as Ask Jeeves, OpenTable, Tellme Networks, and Zappos.
From 2005 until 2010, Lin was chairman, COO, and CFO of Zappos. He oversaw financial management, administrative functions, and warehouse operations, playing a key role in expanding the company’s scale. Under his stewardship, Zappos became profitable in 2006 and was purchased by Amazon.com in 2009 for $1.2 billion. According to TechCrunch, while Hsieh earned at least $214 million from the deal, Lin received no less than $18 million plus an additional $163 million through his shares in Venture Frogs. Lin left Zappos in 2010 to join Sequoia Capital as a partner.
Sequoia Capital and investments
TechCrunch has highlighted Alfred Lin's consistent "Midas touch," noting that every company he has been involved with has been acquired for significant sums—the smallest being $265 million. His contributions include Tellme Networks’ sale to Microsoft for $800 million and Zappos’ acquisition by Amazon for $1.2 billion. His portfolio features investments in companies such as Airbnb, Achievers, Stella & Dot, Houzz, Humble Bundle, Kiwi, Romotive, Moovit, Styleseat, Uber, and Cardpool (which was acquired by Blackhawk Networks), AppBistro / MMTG Labs (purchased by InMobi), and SalesCrunch (acquired by ClearSlide). His investment focus spans consumer internet services, enterprise solutions, and mobile technology firms.
Lin was an early backer of Zipline, a medical drone delivery service operating in Rwanda. He also invested in Palo Alto-based security startup Cobalt Robotics and currently serves on its board of directors. In 2021, Lin made an unsuccessful investment in FTX and acted as Sequoia’s representative on its advisory board.
Influence
In 2013, Forbes recognized Lin as one of the "30 Most Influential People in Tech." His professional achievements have been covered extensively by major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and CNBC.