Sequoia hires first female investing partner in U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO — Sequoia Capital, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm that backed Apple and Google, has hired its first female investing partner in the U.S.
Jess Lee was co-founder and chief executive of Polyvore, the fashion and home decor shopping service bought last year by Yahoo for $230 million.
“I couldn't be more excited to join Sequoia to help the next generation of founders build transformative companies," Lee said in an emailed statement.
Silicon Valley for decades has wrestled with its lack of gender diversity, from the boardroom to the executive suite to the rank and file. Yet the venture capital industry — made up almost entirely of white men — has the distinction of being the most exclusive club in Silicon Valley.
That matters because these are the financiers who mint billionaires and fund companies, some of which go on to become the world's most powerful. Yet women make up a tiny fraction of investing partners at Silicon Valley venture capital firms and also receive a much smaller percentage of investments made by these firms.
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Diversity advocates have called on venture capital firms to make significant changes in the wake of a closely watched gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, another of Silicon Valley's most famous firms. Ellen Pao lost her case but international news coverage of the trial trained the spotlight on the lack of women and underrepresented minorities in the clubby profession.
Just a tiny percentage of venture capitalists are black or Hispanic. And women are not even holding their ground in venture capital firms; they are losing it. A recent study from Babson College shows that the proportion of women partners in U.S. venture capital firms declined to 6% in 2014 from 10% in 1999.
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“We're thrilled to welcome Jess to Sequoia. Her rare blend of product and design sensibility, leadership and grit will make her a tremendous asset to Sequoia founders and our team," Sequoia's Roelof Botha said in an emailed statement.
Bloomberg was first to report the news on Thursday.
Sequoia thrust itself into the thick of the debate over venture capital's lack of gender diversity last year when its marquee partner Michael Moritz made controversial remarks about women.
Michael Moritz taking heat for comments about hiring women
When asked by Bloomberg's Emily Chang if he was seeking out women to fill positions at Sequoia Capital, Moritz said he hasn't been able to find any.
"Oh, we look very hard. In fact we just hired a young woman from Stanford who's every bit as good as her peers, and if there are more like her, we'll hire them. What we’re not prepared to do is to lower our standards," said Moritz.
He continued: "If there are fabulously bright, driven women who are really interested in technology, very hungry to succeed and can meet our performance standards, we'd hire them all day and night. ... Our job is to field the very best team."
The backlash came swiftly on social media and in scathing headlines, such as this one from technology news outlet Re/code, "Venerated VC Michael Moritz Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot on Question About Hiring Women," or this one from Vanity Fair, "Silicon Valley V.C. Firm Can’t Find Any Women."
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