Sequoia Story Keeps Expanding

Rebecca Buckman picks up the Sequoia Capital baton in today’s WSJ, and even gives some love to peHUB. She writes the following about Sequoia’s recent hiring of Eric Upin:

“Mr. Upin is leading Sequoia’s charge to create an investment fund that would invest in multiple asset classes, instead of just venture capital… The new vehicle — if it gets off the ground — likely would mimic the investment style of university endowments and other private funds that put money into stocks and bonds but also ‘alternative investments,’ such as buyout funds, venture capital and natural-resources investments.”

This jives with what I’ve been hearing, although my understanding is that Sequoia’s group might act more as an outsourced CIO to actual endowments. Kind of like McKenna, except aiming at smaller fish. My guess – and it’s nothing more – is that such a program would include access to Sequoia’s venture capital funds (not a bad carrot). In fact, that might be the extent of VC exposure.

Also worth noting that Buckman uncovered another member of the team: Keith Johnson, who had been working on public equities at Stanford Management Company.