During an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on Monday, Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha defended his colleague, Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, over the controversial comments Maguire made earlier this year, calling the firm a believer in his partner’s right to “free speech.”

In a July 4 post on X, Maguire attacked New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling the politician an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything.” His remarks led to a sizable online backlash and debate about the reputational risk to the VC firm that has backed companies like Airbnb, Google, Nvidia, and Stripe.

Shortly after the event, over a thousand founders and tech industry professionals signed an open letter urging Sequoia to take action and make it clear

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