Tweets by 8VC's Joe Lonsdale about “woke” tech diversity prompt swift criticism from tech investors as he attempts to recontextualize his earlier statements
Last week, in response to someone who tweeted that VCs were racist, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale … Tweets: @thevaluesvc , @ceonyc , @triketora , @brianbrackeen , @jtlonsdale , @jtlonsdale , @yoda , @jtlonsdale , @alexisohanian , @nmasc_ , @jtlonsdale , @beastmode , @lolitataub , @wajahatali , @sindhya , @devindra , @nmasc_ , @timnitgebru , @tom_courtright , @ryan_browne_ , @daudex , @freedvc , @nmasc_ , @nessawilliams , and @jtlonsdale Tweets: Elliott Robinson / @thevaluesvc : Its not VCs like @JTLonsdale that hold the tech ecosystem and society back. Its the hundreds of LPs, co-Investors, Founders, and decision makers that remain silent because: 1) They do not care 2) They are scared 3) They agree I feel bad for him/them to live like that. Its sad https://twitter.com/... Charlie O'Donnell / @ceonyc : Props to @nmasc_ for keeping the spotlight on this issue... Imagine the press this would have gotten if a female founder had tweeted it or posted it in Slack and an employee sent it to a journalist. https://twitter.com/... Tracy Chou / @triketora : lonsdale was one of the speakers in my yc batch. perhaps not surprisingly, his comments on stage were also terribly distasteful. it sucks that even after everything he's trotted out by the establishment as an exemplar and to give advice. https://twitter.com/... Brian Brackeen / @brianbrackeen : Deeply true. Any LP of his is complicit. Also, there is no shame in being him in SF. The culture there is to accept people like him. Diversity in tech can't improve until we diversify the geography. https://twitter.com/... Joe Lonsdale / @jtlonsdale : @BEASTMODE This is taken out of context and edited. The debate was if all disparity in VC funding by race is due to racism today. Clearly there are still huge structural effects of past racism (including family issues) but we can't blame all issues on racist VCs or current industries. Joe Lonsdale / @jtlonsdale : I disagree that most disparity is tied to on-going racism, and with the Ibram X Kendi doctrine that we shouldn't discuss how cultures have aspects to improve. But I realize that some perceive that as racism in our sensitive times. Will focus on positives and solutions instead. Drew Olanoff / @yoda : absolutely 130% batshit crazy. https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/... Joe Lonsdale / @jtlonsdale : DEI: divisiveness, envy, insipidity Don't tolerate bad or racist ideas in your organization. @alexisohanian : Yet we don't see VCs condemning “average white culture” for the opioid epidemic in America (80% of all overdoses!) — but these are ALL complex issues that require nuance, thoughtfulness, and empathy. https://twitter.com/... Natasha / @nmasc_ : in a statement to techcrunch, lonsdale continued to defend that his original tweets had been mischaracterized. here are some snippets of his e-mailed comment to me: https://twitter.com/... Joe Lonsdale / @jtlonsdale : Insidiousness works too. John H. Meyer / @beastmode : I'm not one of those founders who's going to hide behind a desk when “influential” VCs are wrong. This statement by Joe Lonsdale (@JTLonsdale) is racist, disgustingly privileged, and wildly ill-informed. There isn't room for this kind of racism in our industry. It must stop. https://twitter.com/... Lolita Taub / @lolitataub : 🙅🏽♀ ️Racism is NEVER acceptable. And yet, normalizing this hasn't happened. 🙌🏽This is why I thank everyone who - instead of hiding behind their privilege - uses their platform & wallet to right wrongs & demand that we all respect our equals. ✨S/O @nmasc_ https://techcrunch.com/... Wajahat Ali / @wajahatali : “Average Black culture” https://techcrunch.com/... @sindhya : So glad to see this article in @TechCrunch today by @nmasc_. @TheValuesVC @DelJohnsonVC @ArlanWasHere @lolitataub @EdGrapeNutZimm you made this happen! https://techcrunch.com/... Devindra Hardawar / @devindra : It's hilarious to see Lonsdale trying to justify his bullshit https://twitter.com/... Natasha / @nmasc_ : investors including @TheValuesVC, @lolitataub, @DelJohnsonVC and @BrianBrackeen took to twitter to response to lonsdale's now-deleted tweets, in which the entrepreneur attributed disparities in venture capital investing to “average black culture.” https://techcrunch.com/... Timnit Gebru / @timnitgebru : Investor in one of the worst companies, Palantir, tweeted that the problem with Black ppl is they have too many kids who're not interested in education & “doing homework” He just said out loud what all of them making $$ funding racist tech bros to create racist tech quietly say. https://twitter.com/... Tom Courtright / @tom_courtright : @JTLonsdale Very concerned, but unsurprised, that this man is responsible for any money or policy whatsoever. Knows nothing about history, cares nothing about justice. https://twitter.com/... Ryan Browne / @ryan_browne_ : This just reads like a parody of how people respond now when being called out on racist remarks https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/... D. Barry / @daudex : Two years ago I worked with a French VC in London that stated loudly in a room with 70+ people that he wouldn't invest in an African woman's fintech startup because Africans were corrupt. There's plenty of fuckheads like these in VC. https://twitter.com/... @freedvc : @JTLonsdale ... VC's shouldn't invest in cultures, they should be investing in individuals and companies. It's these destructive (to returns and society) short cuts, framed as “pattern recognition” that allow VCs to ignore and look beyond the value of founders that don't fit their stereotype. Natasha / @nmasc_ : i wrote about joe lonsdale's comments last week, and the resulting push back from some tech investors: https://techcrunch.com/... Vanessa Williams / @nessawilliams : No new news here! 🤦🏾♀ ️ https://twitter.com/... Joe Lonsdale / @jtlonsdale : Worth clarifying: you can be against divisive and “woke” nonsense, and I am. But we should still appreciate the positive parts of our culture and wisdom of the 21st century - that it's important to be aware of past racism, kind, inclusive, and against actual racism of all sorts.
Context & Ripple Effects
Joe Lonsdale's attempt to recontextualize his tweets on race and diversity lands on ground already fought over for years: back in June 2020, Black founders told VCs to move past what they called diversity theater rather than performative commitments, while workers described discrimination across tech workplaces. His remarks — which drew replies from investors including Elliott Robinson, Lolita Taub, Brian Brackeen, and Devindra Hardawar — show those tensions now erupting between VCs themselves.
The episode also fits a pattern of intra-industry accountability that has escalated over time: by mid-2025, an open letter from more than 800 founders and VCs demanded Sequoia respond to Shaun Maguire's comment about Zohran Mamdani, signaling that public peer criticism of individual investors' statements has become an established mechanism.
First-order effects
- Fellow investors — including Elliott Robinson, who pointed at limited partners as the real constraint on the ecosystem, alongside Lolita Taub and Brian Brackeen — are publicly contesting Lonsdale's framing, turning a personal tweetstorm into a reputational dispute among named VCs.
Second-order effects
- With peers openly criticizing one of their own, other investors face pressure to take positions or stay silent at reputational cost, and limited partners gain a visible lever: Robinson's argument explicitly shifts accountability from individual GPs like Lonsdale to the LPs who fund them.
Third-order effects
- If episodes like this and the Sequoia letter keep recurring, VC firms may treat founders' and partners' public statements as firm-level risk — with LPs, not just social media, becoming the enforcement mechanism for conduct norms around race and DEI.
The trend: Venture capital's debates over race and diversity are migrating from behind closed doors into public, peer-enforced accountability, with limited partners emerging as the decisive constituency.