Another storied investment firm in the tech world, Sequoia Capital, has backed DoorDash, Zoom and 23andMe. A partner at the firm, Roelof Botha, has known Musk for decades, and was hired by him to work on what would become PayPal. Sequoia has also invested in Musk’s other ventures, SpaceX and the Boring Company. “Elon has succeeded in many different industries,” Botha said during an interview at a Wall Street Journal conference in October. “He’s an incredible first-principles thinker.”
What they get: Some of the biggest players in Silicon Valley are now tied to Twitter’s future. They will expect a major return on their investments, and their influence ensures that they can throw their weight around. How Musk decides to run the company, who he hires and promotes, and what features and products he emphasizes will reveal the role these investors will play in the new, private Twitter. But as their messages and public comments suggest, they’re also trying to get into Musk’s good graces.
