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Sequoia COO quit over Shaun Maguire's comments about Mamdani
- bhouston 1y agoThis article should NOT be flagged
- neom 1y agohttps://hn.algolia.com/?q=Shaun+Maguire https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Shaun+Maguire
- PyWoody 1y agohttps://archive.is/hmBAF https://archive.is/hmBAF
- Peacefulz 1y agoThanks. The full page cookie consent with no "essential only" had me turning away from the article. No cookies are persistent in my browser but the lack of perceived choice is still irritating.
- Cornbilly 1y agoFor all of the worship these guys get for being mega geniuses, they sure say a lot of ignorant shit.
- 3327 1y ago[dead]
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y agoOne of the issues with folks like that, is that they often consider themselves to be "Übermensch," and thus, cannot be held to the same standards as others (I won't use the other "-mensch" term, because that would Godwin the discussion). Not just really smart people. Very rich people (usually second-or-beyond-generation rich. First-generation rich folks aren't usually that way -unless they are polymaths). They feel that they can say whatever the hell they want, and no one can hold them to account (and they are frequently correct).
- himeexcelanta 1y agoHow much of this zeitgeist is fueled by Elon’s ketamine dependency issues? Certainly non zero!
- anonymars 1y agoIf we're talking about Sequoia, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find something more entertaining than this fawning puff piece on Sam Bankman-Fried https://web.archive.org/web/20221027181005/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/ https://web.archive.org/web/20221027181005/https://www.sequo... Highlights: https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/101sjn2/imagine_being_the_journalist_who_wrote_these/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/101sjn2/imagine_b...
- doctorpangloss 1y agoThe real problem is that Sequioa is so well regarded, and they control so much money, it is really hard to criticize them. You could say, you have options as an public LP, but you also don’t.
- arcen 1y agoAs much trash as he talks, Maguire isn't entirely wrong.
- nashashmi 1y agoHe is accusing a group of people of deception. An entire group.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- techblueberry 1y agoEntirely wrong about which part?
- chroncueow 1y ago[flagged]
- JohnTHaller 1y agoMaguire said that Mamdani "comes from a culture that lies about everything. It's literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way." Maguire is a MAGA supporter, so the projection of lying is... interesting.
- 762236 1y ago[flagged]
- croes 1y agoSo you think the immigrants are eating pets, the No-Kings demonstrations were Hate America rallied, Antifa is an organization, Portland and Washington are out of control crime cities and that Tylenol caused autism? And that’s only the lies that came to my mind while typing.
- AlexandrB 1y ago> Antifa is an organization This one baffles me. Obviously it is - not a national one, but there are plenty of regional organizations/groups using that name[1][2] who share similar goals/methods. This is akin to saying that "Anonymous" didn't exist back in the day - even though you had people organizing on 4chan to do collective action (mostly against Scientology) under that banner. [1] https://rosecityantifa.org https://rosecityantifa.org [2] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/forming-an-antifa-group https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/forming-an-antifa-gr...
- cholantesh 1y agoThe explicit comparison that started the contemporary discussion about Antifa was to MS-13 and Hezbollah, which is fractally inane.
- croes 1y agoThere are Antifa organizations but not the Antifa organization like Trump and his government claim. Anonymous is a good example, there is no Anonymous organization, people just spontaneously grouped under the label Anonymous. So two actions by Anonymous could actually mean completely different people. Do you think the group in your first link is a terrorist organization? They are not the Antifa, they are just antifascist organization. It’s an adjective not the name of a structured group like Hamas. And if you are contra fascism you are antifa too, so good luck
- philipwhiuk 1y agoEasy to be comfortable disagreeing when it doesn't affect you personally what happens with the positions you espouse.
- crises-luff-6b 1y ago[dead]
- yowlingcat 1y agoI'm not sure this direct departure matters that much to Sequoia. The COO Balbale was an operating partner who was CMO of Sequoia for 2 years and then COO for another 2 years and to my understanding did not write checks. The real elephant in the room question was whether Balbale was in a role getting carry or not. If not, then that effectively isn't different from an incentive level than an associate with a higher salary (but no real skin in the game). If so, then that means that carry was actually given up and it probably means more. In contrast, Maguire (like other partners at Sequoia who are actually writing checks) has skin in the game through the checks he writes and whether they pan out or they don't. In light of that, setting aside his views (which you may agree or disagree with politically), I view his controversy as being most likely a calculated marketing maneuver to improve or maximize the signal to noise in his deal flow. It's hard for me as an outsider to say whether that's working for him or not, but his track record suggests that he's not having problems with his deal flow as a result. That said -- the material comment at the end of the article does make a lot of sense. While this departure may not affect Sequoia that much, Maguire's position may sour many of the Middle East sovereign wealth funds that form some of the largest parts of Sequoia's LP base. If their discontent with Maguire's rhetoric ends up being more important to them than Sequoia's returns, that may well pose a far more material issue to Sequoia and they will be forced to act.
- almostgotcaught 1y ago> I view his controversy as being most likely a calculated marketing maneuver to improve or maximize the signal to noise in his deal flow. It's hard for me as an outsider to say whether that's working for him or not why is it that tech bros will bend over backwards to find "good-faith" interpretations of the most obviously stupid shit. like bro have you literally never heard the phrase "confirmation bias"? you know it's possible he could just be a lucky idiot right? > In an interview with the Caltech Heritage Project, Maguire reported that he earned a 1.8 GPA in high school and failed his Algebra 2 course, and that his admission to Stanford University depended on letters of recommendation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Maguire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Maguire
- yowlingcat 1y ago
- tock 1y agoThese are all symptoms of a larger rot within society. Frankly I am a bit scared.
- whycome 1y ago> Maguire, an outspoken and high-profile investor who is close to Elon Musk, wrote on X in July that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “comes from a culture that lies about everything. It’s literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way.” Balbale complained to other senior partners at the firm, who declined to take action against Maguire, arguing he was just exercising his right to free speech, the people said. She left soon after, feeling her position was untenable. If the same quote replaced 'Islamist' with another faith, would it have also been brushed off as "right to free speech"?
- mrnegrito 1y ago[flagged]
- ta20240528 1y agoI read it as "substitute for shintoism". Go breath into a bag.
- z0ltan 1y ago[dead]
- inshard 1y ago[flagged]
- dpoloncsak 1y agoJesus lies in John 7:8-10 Jesus violently acts out in Matthew 21:12-13 Slavery is encouraged in Exodus 21:2-11 The crusades were done in the name of Christianity, with the consent of the Church. The Catholic Church has been involved in numerous sexual assault of minors over the past 50 years alone. We need to have an honest discussion for those arguing in favor of this faith about their positions on these very segments of their core beliefs.
- teachrdan 1y ago> The Quran contains passages along these lines along with other things like the exploitation of female captives and booty distribution from the spoils of war (including female captives). Let's please not get started about sexism in major religions. The New Testament is rife with sexism, as even a cursory Google search would have revealed to you. Here's just one example: Ephesians 5:22–24: "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church... Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands". Unless you are willing to scrutinize other religions as you would Islam, then you are being intellectually lazy at best, a bigot at worst.
- jeffbee 1y agoI don't see how this is a tolerable situation when all of the cash is coming from islamic petrostates.
- pm90 1y agoApparently he isn’t the one that deals with them (its in the final paragraph).
- energy123 1y agoThey hate Islamism too, why do you think they had Qatar under a blockade. They see it as a threat to their autocracy. This sensitiveness is a Western thing or maybe would be a problem for Turkey or Qatar.
- usrxcghghj 1y agoThis dude really says some things without even analyzing how degressive they are; really tone deaf, pompous and disrespectful to large swaths of people. I mean, at least post this from your anime pfp alt account.
- pm90 1y agoSome people have never heard “no” and it shows.
- nebula8804 1y agoWhen I'm feeling down, I watch this Netflix engineer challenge Elon with a simple question and instantly feel better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJo-ulbIu8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJo-ulbIu8I Still waiting for that "total rewrite" of Twitter.
- cool_man_bob 1y agolol anyone with an anime pfp can likely just be doxxed through a sex offender registry.
- nilamo 1y agoThere's three names in that title, and none of them are explained in the tiny slice of an article that's free. Am I expected to just know who these random people are?
- SoftTalker 1y agoNo, you're expected to subscribe to the publication.
- reactordev 1y agoIt’s New Yorker shit There’s a big fuss over a potential mayor of New York that has the right losing their minds. To the point where people are quitting over other peoples opinions. Truly bizarro world stuff.
- cholantesh 1y ago>It’s New Yorker shit Two of the three principals in this story are based in California and employed by a Californian firm.
- snypher 1y agoPeople should either keep their opinions to themselves or not allow it to be tied to their corporation. If my employer was tied to shitbird comments like Sequoia is now, I'd quit also.
- reactordev 1y agoWholeheartedly agree. It’s foul on both sides. One for a partner to use that platform as a soap box for hate. The other, having to deal with the fallout and just quitting. Ruining their flow and possibly upending their lives. Standing up for what’s right sometimes costs you everything.
- keeda 1y ago> To the point where people are quitting over other peoples opinions. Isn't that rational? If you found that a colleague had views you found personally abhorrent AND you had the luxury of being able to walk away from the job, wouldn't you? The tragedy of modern work life (and the current job market!) is that the vast majority of people do not have that luxury, and hence are stuck in the jobs they hate. But I expect the COO of a large VC probably has several lifetimes' worth of that luxury stashed away.
- bestatsiege_01 1y agoI think Elon is right about the idea of mind viruses. He just hasn't taken the premise far enough. All of us are infected by the algorithms around us, MAGA, Woke, MAHA ect. are all "mind viruses". I doesn't matter how smart, compassionate, empathetic, creative or dynamic you are. As soon as you expose yourself to the algorithms you become infected. The more exposure the deeper the infection.
- noelwelsh 1y agoThe idea that people are affected by their experiences is hardly novel. You don't need to dress it up as "mind viruses" and claim it is an "infection".
- CaptainOfCoit 1y agoYeah, sounds like parent is talking about "opinions" and "beliefs", something humans famously can't agree with one another about for as long as we've existed. The tricky part is figuring out how to still collaborate and live side by side with people you vehemently disagree with.
- nebula8804 1y ago>The tricky part is figuring out how to still collaborate and live side by side with people you vehemently disagree with. Super simple: both sides engage in good faith. If one sides fails to do so...well we are still exploring the proper solution to that.
- rplnt 1y agoIt's not experiences anymore, just engineered content.
- luddit3 1y agoWhat? Enough with the buzzy words. You are talking about ideas. And the more you stray from science and logic to justify your ideas, the more cognitive dissonance you will encounter.
- anthem2025 1y agoMaybe don’t let assholes openly spout racist bigoted rhetoric. They should have tossed him. They didn’t and now the way get to deal with the fallout of tacitly endorsing his positions.
- DevX101 1y agoIf I had to classify the current era we're in, it'd be the "Age of the Edgelords".
- bhouston 1y agoAn edge lord is being deliberately provocative for attention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgelord https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgelord), but Shaun Maguire instead is just expressing his actual opinion, which is worse in my opinion.
- einszwei 1y agoLooked at Shaun Maguire's twitter page and I find it appalling. Maybe I was naive about people in tech being more tolerant (as they both work with and build for diverse people).
- thaw13579 1y agoThat was previously the case from my perspective as well, but it seems to be rapidly changing.
- didip 1y agoLarge amount of money simply shows what a person truly is. It enhances the personality that’s already there.
- acdha 1y agoI think there’s an argument that the pandemic era caused a lot of resentment in tech executives. They didn’t like employees having better negotiating power, resenting the pay increases and also things like support for BLM or trans rights, and stuff like RTO factored into that showing people who’s the boss. There was also a successful outreach attempt which went under the radar until Semafor published this: https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-t...
- prewett 1y agoI note this "tolerance" seems to only go one way. Tolerance means supporting the people I like (e.g. "diverse" people), but it never seems to mean tolerating people I don't like. True tolerance is the reverse: tolerating people whose views you find abhorrent.
- tremon 1y agoHe's not in tech, he's in finance.
- keyKeeper 1y agoI recall Shaun Maguire trying to interfere with European politics, specifically supporting AfD in Germany. Instantly lost my admiration towards Sequoia, the image I previously had about them was something like calm, deeply analytical grown ups. Turns out they are into petty daily politics that will not go anywhere other than stir drama, at least this Shaun guy. Still feels bad when I think about it, disillusionment is painful.
- 762236 1y ago[flagged]
- mrtksn 1y agoSince when social unrest is good for business? Africa, the Balkans and the middle east must be printing money then with their decades long identity politics and divisions.
- croes 1y agoGood for business for companies like the German Fox News: Nius, led by the former chief editor of Germany‘s worst „newspaper“ Bild: Julian Reichelt financed by the founder of CompuGroup Medical: Frank Gotthardt
- croes 1y agoThe AfD can only point at problems but has no solutions. The economic policies of Weidel and Höcke contradict each other. They are only high in the polls because they don’t actually have to do anything.
- drivingmenuts 1y agoThe world could stand a few less of that type of business and more of a few who don't sow hatred.
- mmooss 1y agoAuthoritarian countries are generally more poor than free ones.
- deleted 1y ago
- zhengiszen 1y agoIslamophobia is like yesterday Judophobia but with way more benefits