Sequoia Kills Its Scouts Program After 17 Years

Sequoia is shutting down the scouts program it invented 17 years ago, and the venture industry is reading it as a verdict on the model itself. The firm announced the move this week in a memo posted to X, as part of a broad overhaul that also includes closing its London office.

The London closure carries less signal. Observers warn against overinterpreting that decision, since the British capital hosts a thriving AI scene. The end of scouts says far more about where venture investing is headed.

What was the scouts model?

Sequoia pioneered the format in 2008-era dealmaking: select founders and operators write checks on the firm's behalf. As competition for deal flow intensified, many VC firms copied the approach. A consensus is now forming that the model has reached its limits in its current form.

Not everyone was sold on it from the start. "They pioneered the scout program but [to be honest] it never made sense to me!" VC Sheel Mohnot wrote on X this week. "The scouts themselves don't really care that much about the investments, you can still miss (like they did with Uber), not sure what it gets you. I suspect other firms will shutter theirs too."

Sequoia did not argue against scouts in its memo. The firm framed the shutdown as part of a broader need for focus, with a stated goal of "putting more energy behind fewer people and things." That language is likely to resonate with investors who have long questioned the "spray and pray" approach to scouting.

How are rivals responding?

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) built a global scout network aimed at spotting opportunities in the U.S. and in smaller European hubs. But the firm has already retooled the program. A16z partner Gabriel Vasquez told TechCrunch earlier this year that the firm revamped it to double down "on the best people."

"They get more budget, but we have reduced the number," Vasquez said. Under the new approach, scouts receive more resources but must also be more active, for example by co-hosting dinners with the firm.

The pattern is clear: VC firms, not founders, are driving the overhaul. For founders, the scouts role remains attractive. It brings them closer to firms they may want checks from someday, or even a partner role. Being seen as someone who can write a check raises their standing among other founders.

What do scouts themselves say?

Some will mourn the program's end. Station F boss Roxanne Varza wrote on LinkedIn that she was "sad" to hear the program was getting cut off, and "hope[d] that other funds [w]on't follow suit."

Varza, a Sequoia scout from 2020 to 2025, told TechCrunch she had no information beyond the public memo. But she noted that scouting had often served as a stepping stone for aspiring investment managers.

"I cannot name all of the incredible scouts that have gone on to join or build funds, but there are quite a few," she wrote to TechCrunch. "And the scout programs may have helped them get there — allowed them to build an investment track record, allowed them to build relationships with various funds directly, and more."

The impact went beyond individual careers, in her view. "I believe they have helped to foster the investment culture and early-stage investment landscape that we now see in Europe, for example," Varza said.

Why did the model run its course?

Two forces explain the retreat, even among those who credit the programs' past role:

• Angel economics beat scout economics. Seasoned operators get more financial upside investing their own money, and they keep the returns too.
• Deal flow now comes to the big firms. Leading VC firms are famous enough that the best founders seek them out directly. Firms worry less about missing deals, except at the very earliest stages or in niches and geographies where they lack reach.

That residual pull of early and niche deals is why scouts programs are more likely to be revamped than to vanish. "While Sequoia may be cutting the program, venture partner-style deals are likely to continue," Varza said in her email to TechCrunch. "Scouts was just a way to scale the format. I don't imagine Sequoia would end all forms of venture partners, but they are full of surprises."

The likely endgame across the industry looks like a16z's approach: fewer scouts, bigger budgets, deeper obligations — reach traded for commitment.