Sand Hill Road Dodges Telegram Crisis

Typically when something bad happens to the founder of a highly valued private tech startup, the venture investors are at the front lines of the fallout—and in some cases can influence the outcome. 

I know this from reporting on FTX’s collapse (a wipeout for investors like Sequoia Capital and Paradigm) and then the firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, when VC investors threatened to sue if he didn’t return. 

But with the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by French authorities over the weekend, Sand Hill Road seems to have gotten off scot-free. For this they can thank the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on crypto-related offerings.