Overview
- Roelof Botha said he is stepping down as senior steward and will advise the partnership while continuing to represent Sequoia on portfolio company boards.
- Alfred Lin and Pat Grady were named co-stewards, pairing Lin’s early-stage track record at companies such as Airbnb and DoorDash with Grady’s growth investing in firms including Snowflake, Zoom, and OpenAI.
- The leadership handoff follows months of internal discord tied to partner Shaun Maguire’s social-media comments and the subsequent resignation of COO Sumaiya Balbale, which drew public criticism from founders and scrutiny from some institutional investors.
- Sequoia remains financially strong with roughly $56 billion under management and last week introduced a $200 million seed fund and a $750 million venture fund.
- Recent history framing the transition includes Sequoia’s 2023 separation of its China and India units and a write-off related to its FTX investment, as the firm reassesses governance and reputational risk.