Sequoia associate spreads debunked Brown capturing idea, testing new management

Sequoia Capital associate Shaun Maguire is as soon as once more drawing undesirable consideration to the distinguished enterprise agency after falsely accusing a Palestinian pupil of being behind the December 13 Brown College mass capturing and the subsequent homicide of an MIT professor.

In since-deleted posts on X, Maguire speculated that “it appears very probably” the pupil was the perpetrator, pointing to Brown “actively scrubbing his on-line presence.” In actuality, authorities recognized the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese nationwide who was later discovered lifeless in a New Hampshire storage facility. Brown officers mentioned they eliminated the pupil’s digital footprint as a protecting measure in opposition to harmful hypothesis.

Quick Firm republished Maguire’s deleted posts on Friday (he has beforehand left inflammatory content material on-line). The incident follows months of controversial posts focusing on Muslims and pro-Palestine activists, together with calling New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “Islamist” in July. That submit led to a swift on-line backlash, with almost 1,200 founders and tech business professionals signing an open letter urging Sequoia to take motion. An open letter later surfaced supporting Maguire.

The latest episode raises questions on whether or not Sequoia’s new management — managing companions Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who took over final month — can or will rein in Maguire’s social media exercise. Chief working officer Sumaiya Balbale left the firm in August over Sequoia’s inaction on Maguire’s anti-Muslim feedback, in accordance to earlier reporting by the Monetary Instances. Former managing associate Roelof Botha, who stepped down in November, defended Maguire’s conduct during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt in October, calling Sequoia a believer in its companions’ proper to “free speech.”

“Internally, we have a good time variety of opinions, and we’d like ‘spiky’ individuals inside Sequoia,” Botha mentioned, referring to Maguire. He supplied that Maguire had a “particular profile” that appeals to sure founders. Maguire has led investments in quite a few protection tech and AI startups, and reportedly has deep connections with Elon Musk’s firms, managing Sequoia’s investments in Neuralink, SpaceX, The Boring Firm, X, and xAI.

Nevertheless, Botha acknowledged trade-offs to Maguire’s outspokenness. “Does it include trade-offs? Sure, it does,” he mentioned.

Lin and Grady have not publicly addressed Maguire’s conduct since taking up management.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has known as for Maguire’s firing, telling Quick Firm that his accusations are “deeply irresponsible and extremely harmful.”

TechCrunch has reached out to Sequoia for remark.