“Look, like, i don’t know if this company is going to be around in three to six months. But what i can tell you is it’s going to be the most memorable three to six months of your life”: Sequoia’s Roelof Botha with YouTube’s Steve Chen

I tend to advise folks that “anyone says you need to sacrifice *everything* for a startup is dangerous, but anyone who says you don’t need to sacrifice *anything* for a startup is naive.” And the early story of YouTube is about an amazing small team, coming together and throwing themselves into an incredible opportunity. Racking servers at midnight, working through complex negotiations with the music labels, trying to keep the site up as traffic spiked….

In this conversation YouTube’s early investor, Sequoia’s Roelof Botha speaks with YouTube’s cofounder Steve Chen (as well as some other early team members). There’s the overall arc about how the company started and ultimately sold to Google, but I especially loved Steve’s pitch to early employees: “Look like i don’t know if this company is going to be around in three to six months.but what i can tell you is it’s going to be the most memorable three to six months of your life”

Having gone to grad school with Roelof and then worked alongside Steve post-acquisition, I can attest their enthusiasm, care, and appreciation are all genuine. Congrats to Steve, Chad and the YouTube team. You changed the world.

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