Two Sequoia Capital bigwigs once hung out at a coffee shop dressed as 'Toy Story' characters to impress a candidate with a job offer

Jess Lee

Jess Lee, a partner at legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, recounted her experience receiving an offer from the firm in a Bloomberg interview Monday.
Lee said that partners Jim Goetz and Roelof Botha met her at a cafe dressed in Toy Story cosplay when they offered her a job.
In the Bloomberg interview, Lee, an avid cosplay enthusiast, said the gesture made her feel like she could bring her "whole self" to work.
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To set itself above the rest, Sequoia Capital apparently goes to infinity and beyond.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Jess Lee, now a partner at the legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm, recounted exactly how she received her offer.

Lee told Bloomberg that Sequoia partners Jim Goetz and Roelof Botha offered to meet her at a cafe in Mountain View. When she showed up, she noticed two cafe patrons were in full Toy Story cosplay as characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Turns out they were Goetz and Botha, who took off their headpieces to reveal themselves and extend the offer to Lee, an avid devotee of cosplay.

The theatrics are apparently part of Sequoia's schtick to stand out in a competitive market.

Once, Sequoia built a LEGO-model of the Golden Gate Bridge to woo a Lego-loving founder it wanted to invest in, according to a 2018 Forbes story.

For Lee, the tactic worked. She told Bloomberg that the gesture "meant I could bring my whole self" to work.