Jess Lee

Who they are

Jess Lee is Early Stage Partner and CPO at Sequoia Capital — co-founded Polyvore, a fashion social-commerce platform eventually acquired by Yahoo, and co-founded All Raise, a nonprofit to improve representation of women founders and funders in tech.

Person

Jess grew up in Hong Kong, attended Hong Kong International School, then took a B.S. in Computer Science at Stanford in 2004 — she originally wanted to be a graphic novelist, which says something about how she approaches product. Out of Stanford she went to Google as an Associate Product Manager on Google Maps, then left to co-found Polyvore in 2008: a fashion-focused social commerce platform where users built shareable style collages. She ran it as CEO until Yahoo acquired it, after which she served as VP Product at Yahoo Lifestyle. She joined Sequoia in November 2016 as its first female investing partner in the U.S., when the firm was already an established top-tier firm but still expanding its early-stage programs — she now holds a dual role as Early Stage Partner and Chief Product Officer. Alongside her investing career she co-founded All Raise in 2017, a nonprofit dedicated to improving representation of women founders and funders in tech. She posts on LinkedIn on AI, consumer tech, the creator economy, and startup building, and has spoken at TechCrunch Early Stage on landing your first investor. The through-line is product intuition applied at every layer — building companies, then building the investors who fund them.

Company

Sequoia entered 2026 under new leadership: Alfred Lin and Pat Grady became co-stewards in November 2025 after Roelof Botha stepped down, and Doug Leone was named chairman in April 2026. The firm's first major capital call under that new structure was a ~$7 billion late-stage expansion fund — nearly double its 2022 vehicle — focused on AI and late-stage investments in the US and Europe. Sequoia also launched $950 million in new early-stage funds in October 2025, split between a $750 million Series A fund and a $200 million seed fund. On the portfolio side, 2026 has been eventful: Sequoia backed Anthropic's round at a $350 billion valuation while already holding positions in OpenAI and xAI, breaking the conventional VC taboo on backing rivals. The firm also saw a major exit when cybersecurity firm Wiz was sold to Alphabet for $32 billion in 2026.

Market

Sequoia operates at the top of the global venture capital market, managing over $85 billion in assets under management in 2026, with roughly 60% of new capital deployed into AI applications and infrastructure. Its main rivals include Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and Founders Fund. Geopolitical pressure has already reshaped Sequoia's footprint — it split into three entities in 2023 (Sequoia US/Europe, HongShan in China, Peak XV in India/Southeast Asia) — and ongoing regulatory scrutiny around AI in the US, EU, and China continues to complicate its investment calculus.

Network

No direct edges are available in the claims, but Jess sits on or observes a wide range of boards: Maven Clinic, Ironclad, Wonolo, Mos, Captions, Freed, Flagship, Squint, Otter, and Pendulum Therapeutics are all named. She is also co-captain of All Raise's Female Founder Office Hours initiative alongside that organization's broader network.

Alfred Lin· Co-Steward / Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital
Pat Grady· Co-Steward / Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital
Doug Leone· Chairman, Sequoia Capital

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Sequoia (joined November 2016, still there in 2026) → thinks in multi-year founder relationships, not transactional deal cycles.
Hybrid role_type (Early Stage Partner + CPO) → operates across investing and internal product simultaneously; likely comfortable holding two modes at once.
Built Polyvore from scratch and ran it as CEO before entering VC → will stress-test product and operational specifics, not just narrative.
Co-founded All Raise as a nonprofit while holding a full-time partner role → high agency, runs parallel tracks; unlikely to treat meetings as passive listening exercises.
Public writing is occasional (LinkedIn, not a dedicated blog) but covers AI, consumer tech, creator economy, and women in tech → writes when she has a specific point of view, not for volume.
Originally trained as a product manager at Google Maps, then CEO of a consumer startup → the lens is always user experience and distribution, not just financial engineering.

Conversation tips

→ Come in with a specific product or consumer behavior thesis — she's a product person first and will engage harder with 'here's what I think is changing for the user' than with market-size slides.
→ If you have a view on AI in consumer or creator economy, lead with it — those are live themes she writes about and will push back on constructively.
→ Reference All Raise specifically if diversity in tech is relevant to your context — it's not a side project, it's a co-founded institution she still runs.
→ Avoid vague appeals to 'the Sequoia brand' — she's been there nearly a decade and evaluates on substance; she'll notice if you're leaning on the name rather than the idea.
→ If you've seen her TechCrunch Early Stage talk on landing your first investor, say so and ask what's changed in early-stage fundraising since 2022 — it signals preparation and opens a current conversation.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on All Raise — she co-founded it in 2017 as a nonprofit to improve representation of women founders and funders, and is still co-captain of its Female Founder Office Hours. It's not a side cause; it's a built institution, and asking how it's evolved is a genuine opener.
Reference Polyvore's origin story — she joined as a user before joining as CEO, which is a specific founding arc worth asking about. It's a clean way into her views on consumer product instinct versus professional product management.
Mention Sequoia's 2025 early-stage fund launch ($750M Series A + $200M seed) — as Early Stage Partner and CPO she sits directly at that intersection, and asking what the fund thesis looks like in practice is a direct line into her current work.

Discovery questions

You joined Sequoia as its first female investing partner in the U.S. — nearly a decade later, how has the early-stage program changed in what it looks for, especially now that AI is reshaping what 'product-market fit' even means?
Polyvore was a consumer social-commerce product that ran on user-generated style collages — looking at what's happening now with AI-generated content and the creator economy, what do you think Polyvore got right that most consumer social products still miss?
All Raise has been running since 2017 — what's the delta between what you thought needed fixing when you co-founded it and what actually moved the needle?

Avoid

Don't lead with generic 'what does Sequoia look for in a founder' questions — she's been asked that on stage dozens of times and it signals you haven't done the specific work to engage with her actual background.

Make it yours