Another well-known tech investment firm, Sequoia Capital, has backed DoorDash, Zoom and 23andMe. A partner in the company, 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 been successful 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 Silicon Valley’s biggest players are now tied to Twitter’s future. They will expect a significant return on their investments and their influence ensures that they can give it weight. 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 posts and public comments suggest, they’re also trying to get into Musk’s good graces.