--- title: Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over... description: Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody publicly accused Sequoia of running a 'dual-pricing' scheme where the firm invests in two tranches at vastly different... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over ‘dual-pricing’ valuation tricks | daily.dev og:description: Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody publicly accused Sequoia of running a 'dual-pricing' scheme where the firm invests in two tranches at vastly different... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/k2vpOSgNC.png og:image:alt: Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over ‘dual-pricing’ valuation tricks og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over ‘dual-pricing’ valuation tricks **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody publicly accused Sequoia of running a 'dual-pricing' scheme where the firm invests in two tranches at vastly different valuations — a small amount at a high headline price and a larger stake at a much lower preferential price. The inflated headline valuation creates a false perception of market dominance and can mislead employees and angel investors. Sequoia's Shaun Maguire pushed back, framing the practice as a market reality rather than deception. The piece also explores how 409A valuations structurally skew low, leaving employees without a fully accurate picture, and how ARR manipulation is another widespread tactic in the AI startup ecosystem. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why AI startups are selling the same equity at two different prices](https://daily.dev/posts/why-ai-startups-are-selling-the-same-equity-at-two-different-prices-crcbcfvq5) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Sequoia unveils $950M in new early-stage funds as it strives to be ‘only as good as our next investment’](https://daily.dev/posts/sequoia-unveils-950m-in-new-early-stage-funds-as-it-strives-to-be-only-as-good-as-our-next-investm-fcjuqlrrc) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation](https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-is-in-talks-for-a-20b-valuation-aguv0ym92) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over ‘dual-pricing’ valuation tricks","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc"},"datePublished":"2026-06-09T00:47:17.705Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T00:47:44.552Z","description":"Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody publicly accused Sequoia of running a 'dual-pricing' scheme where the firm invests in two tranches at vastly different...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2eebeb292ad704d6fc7e777e1e77bda3?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2eebeb292ad704d6fc7e777e1e77bda3?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/mercor-s-brendan-foody-calls-out-sequoia-over-dual-pricing-valuation-tricks-k2vposgnc","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"venture-capital","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Mercor’s Brendan Foody calls out Sequoia over ‘dual-pricing’ valuation tricks"}]} ```