Bolt founder Ryan Breslow blasts ‘vicious’ Instacart backer Sequoia Capital
Ryan Breslow, founder of online checkout technology startup, Bolt, has launched an extraordinary attack on Instacart investor Sequoia Capital.
In a series of Twitter posts, Breslow claimed that “Sequoia murdered Instacart’s founder Apoorva Mehta in cold blood”.
Last year, Instacart appointed Fidji Simo as its new CEO, just seven months after she joined the grocery delivery company’s board of directors.
Simo, formerly the VP and Head of the Facebook app, replaced Mehta, with Mehta transitioning to executive chairman of the board.
Breslow said on Twitter: “As far as the mob goes, Sequoia is the Don. As vicious as they come. Their violence is done in silence. Experts at pressure & power.”
Mehta, he stated, “built one of the most transformational companies of the last decade. He made online grocery shopping go from zero to everyone. Covid helped, although it was already well on the rise.”
“Apoorva absolutely crushed it. He’s a lights out visionary and entrepreneur. No one is perfect, but Apoorva is as good as it gets. Instacart is a tough as nails business to build that no one had ever pulled off prior.”
Breslow added: “But in 2019, a dark plan began to form. Sequoia saw blood….an easy way to return money to their LPs via an IPO. Up to 100X from their 2013 investment. Apoorva, fearless and not known for compromise, was unlikely to be onboard with this plan. They needed him out.”.
“So they made one of the sneakiest moves of all time. Hiring Instacart’s CFO in 2019. Ravi Gupta joined Sequoia as a Partner Gupta knew every mistake the company had made. If you’re going to murder a founder, hire their CFO.”
“One day they held a meeting. Then out of nowhere, called a vote to kick Apoorva out as CEO. It passed immediately; and Apoorva had NO CLUE what hit him. He went into shock.”
“Sequoia and the Instacart board then: Put in a CEO who knows literally nothing about logistics; Hired Facebook’s former global ad chief, who departs within four months; Appoint President/CEO of The NYTimes and the co-founder of Home Care Assistance to the board. What??”
Breslow concluded: “Last month, Instacart slashed its valuation by almost 40% to $24 billion. They did it to attract talent at a more reasonable valuation. The reality: to prepare for an up-round IPO, a nice narrative of success, and LP cashflow.”
Instacart and Sequoia Capital did not respond to our request for comment.
