Sequoia appoints Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as new co-supervisors while Roelof Botha steps down

Just over three years after taking the reins as top leader of Sequoia Capital, Roelof Botha is stepping down as chief supervisor of the prestigious venture capital firm. Partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will succeed him as co-supervisors, the company announced Tuesday.

Lin joined the renowned 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 growth-stage investing at Sequoia since 2015, backing iconic companies like ServiceNow, OpenAI, and legal AI platform Harvey.

Botha held the highest leadership position in Mid-2022 He immediately presided over a period of turmoil. He took the helm at a time when the economic downturn was devastating public markets, severely lowering the valuations of many companies across the Sequoia portfolio. The company too $200 million write-off When her investment in cryptocurrency exchange FTX exploded — a small loss in the bigger scheme of things for Sequoia but a financial hit nonetheless. Moreover, in 2023, amid rising political tensions between the US and China and regulatory pressures on both sides, Sequoia will separate its operations in India and China into sporadic Independent companies.

This year, Sequoia became embroiled in controversy over partner Sean Maguire’s comments attacking New York City mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani, calling the politician an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.” Although Maguire later retracted some of these statements, they led to A.J Backlash and major online debate. In August, Sequoia’s chief operating officer, Soumya Balbal, a devout Muslim, resigned over the company’s decision not to punish Maguire after his comments, as first reported by the Financial Times and discussed last week during a news conference. Sitting on stage With Bota while TechCrunch is disabled.

When asked about Balbale, Botha said that as a matter of routine, Sequoia does not comment on personnel matters and that he appreciates everything Balbale has contributed to the company. When asked about Maguire, Botha said: “Internally, we celebrate diversity of opinions, and we need prickly people within Sequoia.”

“We have some of our partners who are very active in philanthropy or some (other) private dealings, and they are not as vocal as Sean on social media. We have always respected the right to freedom of expression of each of our individual partners,” Botha continued.

During that same interview, Botha emphasized that his role as senior supervisor is not one of absolute leadership, emphasizing that the other partners have roughly the same amount of authority to direct the direction of the company. “My title is Steward for a reason, it’s just a notch higher than ‘presenter’ in the dictionary,” he said. Then he added in a comment that caused laughter from the audience: “The reason is mostly because there is no global supreme leader.”

When TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos asked Botta who might succeed him as the company’s leader given its historical emphasis on ensuring smooth delivery — Botta himself was promoted several times on his way to the top of the company — Botta responded that Lin, Grady, Luciana Lexandro, who leads Sequoia’s European investments, and Andrew Reid, a partner whose investments in Figma and Klarna were announced this year, “have incredible depth and work as a team.”

Botha also noted that every Sequoia investor votes on investment decisions. He said: “We want the victory of ideas, not the victory of seniority.”

However, news of the shift suggests the Steward’s position carries real weight. While Sequoia has continued to achieve significant investment gains during Botha’s tenure, the leadership change comes as the company seeks to navigate a challenging period into its next phase.

In fact, Sequoia, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, recently renovated its office, installing a wall where each investor hand-wrote this reminder: “We are only as good as our next investment.”

Last week the company Announce A $750 million early-stage fund targeting Series A startups, in addition to a $200 million seed fund.