Sequoia shutting down its Scouts program marks the end of an era
- ID
- 44086
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 07 Nov 2026, 1:01 PM
- Fetched
- 07 Nov 2026, 1:54 PM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/06/sequoia-shutting-down-its-scouts-program-marks-the-end-of-an-era/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 07 Nov 2026, 1:54 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_foundersstartup_founders
What happened
Sequoia announced a broad overhaul in a memo posted to X this week that includes closing its London office and shutting down its scout program — the model it pioneered 17 years ago, where select founders and operators write checks on the firm's behalf. The memo framed the move as needing "more energy behind fewer people and things" rather than as a case against scouts. Meanwhile a16z partner Gabriel Vasquez said the firm has revamped its own scout network with more budget but fewer scouts, who are now expected to be more active, such as co-hosting dinners, and VC Sheel Mohnot wrote on X that the scout model "never made sense to me" and predicted other firms will shutter theirs too.
Why it matters
This is a signal about early-stage deal flow, not a tool or policy change: if scout networks thin out, the informal path where a founder gets introduced via a scout writing small checks on a big firm's behalf narrows, and firms like a16z are explicitly asking fewer scouts to do more visible work (dinners, events). For a founder building a fundraising pipeline, that argues for tracking who at each target firm is actually active now and routing warm intros through them, rather than assuming the same scout contacts still carry weight. There is no Malaysian or Southeast Asian element in this text, so treat it as general venture-landscape context, not local news.
Discussion angle
If fewer scouts are writing cheques, what actually replaces that informal front door for early-stage founders — and is it worth rebuilding a warm-intro map around the handful of active scouts firms are doubling down on, or going direct to partners instead?