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Symetra Sells Certainty in a Business Built on Careful Guessing
Founded in 1957 as a Safeco side project and now owned by one of Japan's oldest life insurers, the Bellevue company underwrites 2.5 million Americans' retirement income, benefit claims and life policies - then sponsors their hockey team.
Roelof Botha
Roelof Frederik Botha is a South African-American venture capitalist and former Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital, one of the world's most storied VC firms. Grandson of South African foreign minister Pik Botha, he rose from PayPal CFO at age 28 - overseeing the company's IPO and $1.5B sale to eBay - to become one of Silicon Valley's most celebrated investors. He wrote the original investment memo for YouTube when the company had 3 employees and a valuation of $11.5M; Google bought it 14 months later for $1.65B. Over two decades at Sequoia, he backed YouTube, Instagram, Block (Square), MongoDB, Unity, Natera, and dozens more, generating over $50 billion in returns for limited partners. He stepped down as Sequoia's Senior Steward in November 2025.