David Karp first visited Sequoia in October 2010, when Tumblr was a 12-person blogging startup. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures described David as an inspiration and told us we had to meet him.

What followed was one of the fastest decisions in our firm’s history.

David sat down with a few of us at 11 a.m. It was clear he had identified a problem that he knew about firsthand and he knew how to solve it.

His first objective was creating an easy-to-use, aesthetically-beautiful place for people to express themselves, and to build a network around it to allow people to follow and share what they love.

His presentation said: “Total freedom of expression. An identity you’re truly proud of. A network of people sharing and following the things they love.”

Beyond that, though, it was his passion and sincerity that hooked us.