In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on Monday, Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha defended fellow Sequoia partner Sean Maguire over Maguire's controversial comments earlier this year, saying the firm believes in its partners' right to “free speech.”
In a July 4 post on X, Maguire attacked New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani, calling him an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.” His comments sparked considerable backlash online and sparked a debate about the reputational risk for the VC firm, which has backed companies such as Airbnb, Google, Nvidia and Stripe.
Immediately after the event, over 1,000 founders and technology industry professionals signed an open letter calling on Sequoia to take action and make clear that “silence against hate has consequences.”
Last week, the Financial Times reported that Sequoia's chief operating officer, Sumaiya Barbare, who is Muslim, resigned over the company's decision not to discipline Mr Maguire following his comments.
On stage, Mr. Botha declined to comment on the COO's resignation, saying only that he appreciated all that Mr. Barbare had contributed to the company.
But Botha maintained that Sequoia has always supported diverse opinions when it comes to Maguire. Botha pointed out, for example, that Sequoia venture capitalist Michael Moritz was an outspoken opponent of Trump, while former managing partner Doug Leone was a vocal supporter of the president.
“We value diversity of opinion within our company, and we need 'edgy' people within Sequoia,” Botha told TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos, referring to Maguire on stage.
The reaction was surprisingly candid, considering the high profile of the statement and the possibility that some founders might be dissuaded from working with Sequoia.
“In fact, there is a very wide range of views in our partnership and we welcome that some may choose to express it in a different way,” Botha continued.
“Some of our partners are very active in their philanthropy and personal dealings, but they just haven't been as vocal as Sean is on social media. And we've always respected each partner's right to free speech,” Botha said.
He also claimed that Maguire has a “particular profile” that appeals to certain founders. For example, Maguire has deep ties to Elon Musk's companies and manages Sequoia's investments in Neuralink, SpaceX, The Boring Company, X, and xAI. In addition to AI, Botha said defense technology, one of the hotter industries these days, is also attracting founders. For example, he supports Mach Industries, a rising star in autonomous weapons.
“He's a physics Ph.D. who dropped out of high school,” Botha said, noting that Maguire was “very technical.”
But Botha admitted Maguire's outspokenness was not completely immune to influence. “So does that come with tradeoffs? Yes, there are tradeoffs,” he said.