Companions at Andreessen Horowitz, the blue-chip enterprise capital agency in Silicon Valley, defended to buyers their determination to rent Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide final 12 months, based on an inside memo seen by The New York Instances.
Andreessen Horowitz, the memo mentioned, is most certainly the most important investor of public security and protection enterprise capital within the nation, and “as end result, we spend lots of time with active-duty navy, veterans, chiefs of police, sheriffs; these relationships are essential to the success of our corporations.”
Mr. Penny’s “navy veteran expertise will be useful in persevering with to construct these relationships, and plenty of of our public security and protection founders and companions have shared an identical sentiment,” mentioned the memo, which was despatched on Wednesday by Jen Kha, the agency’s head of investor relations.
The agency instructed staff on Tuesday morning that it had employed Mr. Penny. David Ulevitch, an funding companion, mentioned in a separate memo that he had been launched to Mr. Penny final 12 months and that the veteran had acted with “braveness in a tricky state of affairs.”
Mr. Ulevitch requested Mr. Penny to affix the agency’s American Dynamism funding group, which focuses on the aerospace, protection and manufacturing sectors.
Mr. Ulevitch added that he had carried out “investigations and interviews” with Mr. Penny and believed that Mr. Penny had behaved “honorably and appropriately given the chaotic and harmful circumstances” on the subway, the memo mentioned.
Quickly after the hiring grew to become public, companions on the agency started receiving messages from outsiders and restricted companions expressing concern, mentioned two individuals conversant in the messages, who spoke on the situation of anonymity.
Among the individuals requested why Mr. Penny was being employed with no funding expertise, whereas others expressed concern that his extremely politicized trial would draw undue consideration to the agency.
A spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A lawyer who represented Mr. Penny through the trial declined to touch upon Wednesday.
Companions on the agency, together with the co-founder Marc Andreessen, supported President Trump in final 12 months’s election. Some have additionally gravitated towards right-leaning figures, together with Mr. Penny, who was embraced by conservatives throughout his trial.
A former structure pupil, Mr. Penny was charged in 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney’s office with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder after a video of him fatally choking one other passenger, Jordan Neely, on the subway circulated on-line.
Mr. Neely, 30, had boarded a northbound F prepare on the Second Avenue station and instantly started to scream at passengers, witnesses mentioned, about desirous to return to jail and never caring if he lived or died. Mr. Penny approached him from the again, put him in a chokehold and took him to the ground.
A four-minute video recorded by a bystander shortly unfold on-line, displaying the lads struggling on the ground of the subway prepare. Mr. Neely, who had struggled together with his psychological well being for years, died.
In December, jurors deadlocked on essentially the most critical cost Mr. Penny confronted, manslaughter, and the judge dismissed it. Jurors then thought-about criminally negligent murder and acquitted Mr. Penny.
For some, the case epitomized their issues over homelessness, psychological sickness and crime in New York Metropolis. Others noticed Mr. Neely as somebody in want of assist in a metropolis that lets its most susceptible slip via the cracks.
The Andreessen Horowitz memo acknowledged robust opinions about Mr. Penny, however added that “we imagine there may be long-term worth in increasing our community in collaboration with Daniel and are excited to have him as a part of our group.”
