Companions at Andreessen Horowitz, the blue-chip project capital company in Silicon Valley, defended to traders their determination to rent Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide closing yr, in step with an interior memo considered by means of The New York Instances.
Andreessen Horowitz, the memo stated, is perhaps the most important investor of public protection and protection project capital within the nation, and “as outcome, we spend numerous time with active-duty army, veterans, chiefs of police, sheriffs; those relationships are important to the luck of our firms.”
Mr. Penny’s “army veteran revel in will also be useful in proceeding to construct those relationships, and lots of of our public protection and protection founders and companions have shared a an identical sentiment,” stated the memo, which used to be despatched on Wednesday by means of Jen Kha, the company’s head of investor family members.
The company instructed workers on Tuesday morning that it had employed Mr. Penny. David Ulevitch, an funding spouse, stated in a separate memo that he have been presented to Mr. Penny closing yr and that the veteran had acted with “braveness in a difficult scenario.”
Mr. Ulevitch requested Mr. Penny to sign up for the company’s American Dynamism funding workforce, which makes a speciality of the aerospace, protection and production sectors.
Mr. Ulevitch added that he had performed “investigations and interviews” with Mr. Penny and believed that Mr. Penny had behaved “honorably and as it should be given the chaotic and perilous instances” at the subway, the memo stated.
Quickly after the hiring become public, companions on the company started receiving messages from outsiders and restricted companions expressing worry, stated two folks acquainted with the messages, who spoke at the situation of anonymity.
One of the crucial folks requested why Mr. Penny used to be being employed with out a funding revel in, whilst others expressed worry that his extremely politicized trial would draw undue consideration to the company.
A spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz didn’t right away reply to a request for remark. A attorney who represented Mr. Penny right through the trial declined to touch upon Wednesday.
Companions on the company, together with the co-founder Marc Andreessen, supported President Trump in closing yr’s election. Some have additionally gravitated towards right-leaning figures, together with Mr. Penny, who used to be embraced by means of conservatives right through his trial.
A former structure pupil, Mr. Penny used to be charged in 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney’s office with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder after a video of him fatally choking any other passenger, Jordan Neely, at the subway circulated on-line.
Mr. Neely, 30, had boarded a northbound F educate on the 2nd Street station and right away started to scream at passengers, witnesses stated, about short of to go back to prison and no longer being concerned 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 means of a bystander temporarily unfold on-line, appearing the lads suffering at the ground of the subway educate. Mr. Neely, who had struggled along with his psychological well being for years, died.
In December, jurors deadlocked at the maximum critical rate Mr. Penny confronted, manslaughter, and the judge dismissed it. Jurors then thought to be criminally negligent murder and acquitted Mr. Penny.
For some, the case epitomized their considerations over homelessness, psychological sickness and crime in New York Town. Others noticed Mr. Neely as anyone short of assist in a town that shall we its maximum susceptible slip throughout the cracks.
The Andreessen Horowitz memo said robust evaluations 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 workforce.”
