Sequoia Capital partner Sean Maguire is once again drawing unwanted attention to the high-profile venture firm after he falsely accused a Palestinian student of being behind the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University and the subsequent killing of an MIT professor.
In since-deleted posts on X, Maguire speculated that it “seems very likely” that the student was the culprit, noting that Brown was “actively scanning his online presence.” In fact, authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Nieves Valiente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who was later found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility. Brown officials said they removed the student’s digital fingerprint as a precaution against dangerous speculation.
Fast company Republished Two of Maguire’s posts were deleted on Friday (he previously left inflammatory content online and did not delete it comments It has been suggested that the MIT professor was targeted for being Jewish.) The incident comes after months of controversial posts targeting Muslims and pro-Palestine activists, including calling New York City Mayor-elect Zahran Mamdani an “Islamist” in July. The post led to rapid backlash online, with nearly 1,200 founders and tech industry professionals signing an agreement… Open letter He urged Sequoia to take action. An open letter later appeared to support Maguire.
The latest episode raises questions about whether Sequoia’s new leadership — managing partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who took over last month — can or will rein in Maguire’s social media activity. Chief Operating Officer Somaya Balbali He left the company in August over Sequoia’s inaction over Maguire’s anti-Muslim comments, according to previous Financial Times reporting. Former managing partner Roelof Botha, who resigned in November, defended Maguire’s behavior during an interview on TechCrunch Disrupt in October, describing Sequoia as a believer in its partners’ right to “freedom of expression.”
“Internally, we celebrate diversity of opinions, and we need ‘spiky’ people inside Sequoia,” Botha said, referring to Maguire. He stated that Maguire has a “specific profile” that attracts some founders. Maguire has led investments in several defense technology and AI startups, and is said to have deep relationships with Elon Musk’s companies, managing Sequoia’s investments in Neuralink, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and X and xAI.
However, Botha acknowledged the trade-offs for Maguire’s candor. “Does it come with trade-offs? Yes, it does,” he said.
Lane and Grady have not publicly addressed Maguire’s behavior since taking over.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for Maguire’s ouster, telling Fast Company that his accusations are “deeply irresponsible and incredibly dangerous.”
TechCrunch has reached out to Sequoia for comment.
