{"id":32154,"date":"2025-07-19T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=32154"},"modified":"2025-07-19T09:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:30:19","slug":"how-a-sequoia-capital-partners-mamdani-posts-dragged-the-firm-into-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=32154","title":{"rendered":"How a Sequoia Capital Partner\u2019s Mamdani Posts Dragged the Firm Into Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Sequoia Capital, which backed Nvidia, Google and Apple when they were start-ups, has long stayed above the fray. But one partner\u2019s post about Zohran Mamdani set off a chain reaction.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Roelof Botha arrived last week at the annual Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, to meet and mingle with tech and media moguls. A controversy brewing back home followed him to the exclusive retreat.<\/p>\n

Mr. Botha, the managing partner of Sequoia Capital, a storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm, was repeatedly asked at the event about a colleague, Shaun Maguire, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Maguire \u2014 perhaps Sequoia\u2019s most outspoken partner \u2014 had posted<\/a> on X on July 4 that Zohran Mamdani, the progressive Democrat running for New York City mayor, came from a \u201cculture that lies about everything\u201d and was lying to advance \u201chis Islamist agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Maguire\u2019s post was immediately condemned across social media as Islamophobic. More than 1,000 technologists signed an open letter<\/a> calling for him to be disciplined. Investors, founders and technologists have sent messages to the firm\u2019s partners about Mr. Maguire\u2019s behavior. His critics have continued pressuring Sequoia to deal with what they see as hate speech and other invective, while his supporters have said Mr. Maguire has the right to free speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

In Sun Valley, Mr. Botha listened, but remained neutral, the people with knowledge of the matter said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Roelof Botha, the managing partner at Sequoia Capital, arriving at the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where people repeatedly asked him about Mr. Maguire. <\/span>Brendan Mcdermid\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

For half a century, Sequoia has tried to maintain that neutrality, even as rival venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund started taking political stances<\/a>. But as Mr. Maguire has increasingly made inflammatory comments, including saying that diversity, equity and inclusion \u201ckills people,\u201d Sequoia is now in a place that its leaders never wanted to be: smack in the middle of the culture wars.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sequoia Capital, which backed Nvidia, Google and Apple when they were start-ups, has long stayed above the fray. But one partner\u2019s post about Zohran Mamdani set off a chain reaction.Roelof Botha arrived last week at the annual Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, to meet and mingle with tech and media moguls. A controversy brewing back home followed him to the exclusive retreat.Mr. Botha, the managing partner of Sequoia Capital, a storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm, was repeatedly asked at the event about a colleague, Shaun Maguire, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Maguire \u2014 perhaps Sequoia\u2019s most outspoken partner \u2014 had posted on X on July 4 that Zohran Mamdani, the progressive Democrat running for New York City mayor, came from a \u201cculture that lies about everything\u201d and was lying to advance \u201chis Islamist agenda.\u201dMr. Maguire\u2019s post was immediately condemned across social media as Islamophobic. More than 1,000 technologists signed an open letter calling for him to be disciplined. Investors, founders and technologists have sent messages to the firm\u2019s partners about Mr. Maguire\u2019s behavior. His critics have continued pressuring Sequoia to deal with what they see as hate speech and other invective, while his supporters have said Mr. Maguire has the right to free speech.In Sun Valley, Mr. Botha listened, but remained neutral, the people with knowledge of the matter said.Roelof Botha, the managing partner at Sequoia Capital, arriving at the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where people repeatedly asked him about Mr. Maguire. Brendan Mcdermid\/ReutersFor half a century, Sequoia has tried to maintain that neutrality, even as rival venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund started taking political stances. But as Mr. Maguire has increasingly made inflammatory comments, including saying that diversity, equity and inclusion \u201ckills people,\u201d Sequoia is now in a place that its leaders never wanted to be: smack in the middle of the culture wars.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32156,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32157,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32154\/revisions\/32157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}