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Shaun Maguire

Shaun Maguire is a venture capitalist and a partner on Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, investing from the seed stage through the growth stage. Its historical investments include Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, Airbnb, and Stripe; in 2021 it introduced the Sequoia Capital Fund structure, which can continue to hold public securities, and in 2023 its regional businesses became independent brands and partnerships.Open the full entry’s seed/early team; he earned a PhD at Caltech and previously co-founded the cybersecurity company Qadium (later renamed Expanse) and served as a partner at GV.

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Key facts

Graduate Studies at Stanford University

According to his own account in a Caltech oral history interview, he entered graduate school in Stanford University’s statistics department in 2007 and moved to Caltech in 2009 after earning a master’s degree.⁠[1]

Work at DARPA and Co-founding Qadium

He has said he was recruited to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by Regina Dugan and worked there full-time for about a year and a half; around 2012 he co-founded the cybersecurity company Qadium, later renamed Expanse, which by his account was eventually sold for about one billion dollars.⁠[1]

Joining GV

According to TechCrunch, he joined Google Ventures (GV) in 2016. On his Sequoia profile he says the job let him stay in Los Angeles and finish his PhD in quantum gravity; in an interview he said he was a partner at GV at the time and worked there for about three years.⁠[2][3][1]

PhD from Caltech

The Caltech Heritage Project lists him as a 2018 PhD graduate whose research covered quantum information, black holes and quantum gravity; he named John Preskill as his advisor.⁠[1]

Summer 2019: Joining Sequoia Capital

He has said he joined Sequoia Capital in the summer of 2019. According to his Sequoia profile, when another fund recruiting him made a reference call to Patrick CollisonPatrick CollisonPatrick Collison is an entrepreneur who grew up in Ireland. In 2010 he cofounded the payments and financial infrastructure company Stripe with his brother John Collison and serves as its chief executive; he is also a cofounder of the biomedical research organization Arc Institute and has been a director of Meta since 2025.Open the full entry, Collison instead told Sequoia to hire him; TechCrunch likewise reported that when he left GV in 2019, Collison recommended him to Sequoia’s partners.⁠[1][3][2]

As of October 2026: Partner on Sequoia Capital’s Seed/Early Team

Sequoia’s website lists him as a partner on its seed/early team, with companies he has partnered with including SpaceXSpaceXSpaceX is a company founded by Elon Musk in 2002 whose businesses include space transportation, Starlink satellite communications and artificial intelligence. It went public in 2026 under the ticker SPCX.Open the full entry (2020), X (2022), xAI (2024), Safe Superintelligence (2024) and Neuralink (2025). TechCrunch reported that he led Sequoia’s investment in the stablecoin platform Bridge, which Stripe later acquired for $1.1 billion.⁠[3][2]

Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts

Stanford University: Official website: https://www.stanford.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

California Institute of Technology: Official website: https://www.caltech.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

Sequoia Capital: Official website: https://www.sequoiacap.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3]

Sources

  1. Shaun Maguire (PhD '18), Quantum Researcher and Venture Capitalist (opens in a new window)
  2. Sequoia bets on silence (opens in a new window)
  3. Shaun Maguire (opens in a new window)