Doug Leone is the Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital Global.
According to multiple industry sources, some of America's most successful venture capital firms have been having difficulty recruiting people to lead their European outposts.
In the last 12 months, several U.S. VC powerhouses have opened new European offices or started significant expansions.
Hussein Kanji, co- founder of U.K. venture capital firm Hoxton, told CNBC that it is hard to find the right people in Europe for big U.S. venture capital firms.
He said that there were few trained general partners in Europe. U.S. VCs tend to focus on growth while European VCs tend to prioritize reducing or removing risk.
SoftBank's Vision Fund is based in London and the U.S. VCs are competing with it. In London, hedge funds like Tiger Global and Coatue are expanding.
U.S. VC firms don't like hiring strangers, and they want to hire tech investors that they've worked with before on start-up boards.
A venture capitalist who asked not to be identified told CNBC that the profile of the U.S. funds is less common in Europe.
The pool of candidates that are being targeted is more narrow than the talent pool.
The source said top investors don't just tick the box and spend two years at a start-up after the pre-MBA program at McKinsey or Goldman before getting their MBA at Harvard and becoming a VC.
Luciana Lixandru was hired by Sequoia as its first partner in Europe. Several companies in the portfolio of Sequoia have been backed by Accel.
Ophelia Brown said that there aren't many VCs in Europe with a "growth-oriented mindset."
It is not easy to find talent in Europe. That is what the U.S. funds are realizing.
Lightspeed hired Paul Murphy from Northzone to lead its European outpost. Northzone invested in Hopin, a virtual event start-up that was valued at $8.25 billion despite being less than two years old.
The only two notable hires in Europe by U.S. VC firms are Lixandru and Murphy.
U.S. VCs are willing to pay big premiums when the right candidate comes along. A CNBC source said that a tech investor at a U.S. VC firm with a London outpost is likely to be on around 1.5 million dollars a year.
The scene of venture capital in the US has evolved since the early days of the internet, whereas in Europe it is relatively new.
Europe's VC industry has grown in recent years. Ten years ago, there were only a few venture capital funds in Europe. There are thousands of VC professionals in Europe but a lot of them have only been in the business for a few years.
The European VC scene was very small 10 years ago, so there are relatively few VCs with more than five years of experience, according to Harry Briggs.
Thanks to successes such as Adyen, Just Eat and Revolut, there are now more operators who have experience scaling businesses to thousands of people.
Jambu Palaniappan is a managing partner at Omers and he was the former CEO of the international food delivery service.
Many U.S. VC firms will be looking for people who can be instantly successful, and people who come from operating roles will need some training.
