Just three years after taking the reins as Sequoia Capital’s top leader, Roelof Botha is stepping down as a senior manager at the storied VC firm. The firm announced Tuesday that partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will succeed him as co-partners.
Lin joined the storied firm in 2010, where he led significant investments in category-defining companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash and Kalshi. Meanwhile, Pat Grady has been a partner for nearly 19 years and has led Sequoia’s growth-stage investments since 2015, backing flagship companies such as ServiceNow, OpenAI, and legal AI platform Harvey.
Since taking the helm of Sequoia’s US and European operations in 2017, Botha has overseen the distribution of $50 billion to the firm’s limited partners. He assumed the top leadership role at the company in mid-2022 and immediately oversaw a period of turmoil. He took the helm just as the recession decimated the public markets, severely reducing the valuations of many companies across Sequoia’s portfolio. The company also wrote off $200 million when its investment in cryptocurrency exchange FTX blew up — a small loss in the grand scheme of things for Sequoia but a financial hit nonetheless. Additionally, in 2023, amid rising political tensions between the US and China and regulatory pressure from both sides, Sequoia spun off its India and China operations into separate independent companies.
This year, Sequoia was embroiled in a controversy over comments made by partner Shaun Maguire attacking New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling the politician an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.” Although Maguire later retracted some of these remarks, they led to quite a bit of online backlash and discussion. In August, Sequoia CEO Sumaiya Balbale, a practicing Muslim, resigned over the company’s decision not to discipline Maguire following his comments, first reported by the Financial Times and discussed last week during sitting on stage with Botha during TechCrunch Disrupt.
Asked about Balbale, Botha said that as a matter of routine, Sequoia does not comment on personnel matters and that he appreciated all that Balbale had contributed to the company. Asked about Maguire, Botha said: “Internally, we celebrate a diversity of opinions and we need sharp people within Sequoia.”
Botha continued, “We have some of our partners who are very active in charity or some [other] private dealings, and just aren’t as vocal as Shaun on social media. And we have always respected the right to free speech of each of our individual partners.”
During the same interview, Botha argued that his role as a senior manager is not absolute control, stressing that other partners have almost as much power to steer the company’s direction. “My title is administrator for a reason – it’s just one rung above ‘caller’ in the dictionary,” he said. Then, in a comment that drew laughter from those present, he added: “It’s mainly because the Supreme World Leader was not available.”
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When TechCrunch editor Connie Loizos asked Botha who might succeed him as the company’s leader, given its historical emphasis on ensuring smooth handovers — Botha was promoted several times on his way to the top of the company — Botha said Lin. Grady? Luciana Lixandru, who leads Sequoia’s European investments; and Andrew Reed, a partner whose investments in Figma and Klarna went public this year, “have incredible depth and work as a team.”
Botha also pointed out that every investor in Sequoia votes on investment decisions. “We want the triumph of ideas, not the triumph of antiquity,” he said.
The transition news, however, suggests that the manager position carries real weight. While Sequoia has continued to win significant investment during Botha’s tenure, the leadership change comes as the company seeks to transition from a difficult period into its next phase.
Indeed, Sequoia, one of the world’s most prominent venture capital firms, recently renovated its office, installing a wall where each investor handwrote the following reminder: “We’re only as good as our next investment.”
Last week, the company announced a $750 million early-stage fund aimed at Series A startups, as well as a $200 million seed fund.
