Sequoia Capital, certainly one of Silicon Valley’s most outstanding enterprise capital corporations, is shedding its Washington, D.C.-based coverage staff and shuttering its workplace there, simply as some tech-related firms attempt to improve their visibility within the U.S. capital after President Trump’s re-election.
The modifications will take impact on the finish of March and affect three full-time staff in addition to coverage fellows who labored with the agency. Sequoia confirmed the layoff whereas two sources aware of the matter who requested anonymity as a result of the subject is delicate, mentioned that the agency would shut its Washington workplace.
Sequoia says it had arrange its small coverage staff 5 years in the past—in the course of the first Trump Administration—to advise its funding staff and portfolio firms on regulatory points, deepen its information of the coverage panorama, and strengthen its connections with international policymakers, specialists, and suppose tanks. Don Vieira, who had held senior nationwide safety positions on the Division of Justice and Home Everlasting Choose Committee on Intelligence, opened the workplace, in keeping with his LinkedIn. Vieria will depart the agency as a part of the modifications. He didn’t reply to requests for remark.
“Due to [the policy group’s] strategic steerage and efforts, Sequoia is now well-positioned to hold these relationships within the U.S. and Europe ahead,” a Sequoia spokesperson mentioned. “To that finish, we’re sunsetting the devoted coverage operate and shutting our D.C. workplace on the finish of March. We’re grateful to the staff for his or her contributions and affect.”
The modifications at Sequoia are in distinction to tech firms which were growing their visibility in Washington, D.C. since President Trump’s re-election. Meta in January employed Joel Kaplan, former deputy chief of employees to former President George W. Bush, to go its international coverage staff and CEO Mark Zuckerburg has visited Trump on the White Home and Mar-a-Lago.
Another enterprise capital corporations have been beefing up their presence in Washington, D.C. to assist portfolio firms that function in extremely regulated or political industries like protection, crypto, or AI. Enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz, for instance, which has had a number of of its companions take official or advisory positions within the White Home, lately employed Patrick McHenry, the previous North Carolina congressman, and Matt Cronin, former Chief Investigative Counsel and Deputy Basic Counsel for the U.S. Home Choose Committee on Strategic Competitors, as senior advisors to the agency. Final fall, earlier than the election, Basic Catalyst launched what it calls the “Basic Catalyst Institute” to affect AI, healthcare, protection and intelligence, manufacturing, and power coverage.
Sequoia Capital has traditionally remained politically impartial as a agency, regardless that lots of its companions individually specific political beliefs or make giant donations to presidential candidates. Prime accomplice Roelof Botha mentioned final summer season that he’s not registered with both political occasion, however that he’s “extra targeted on the insurance policies that may drive entrepreneurship, job creation, and ensuring that the US stays forward.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
