Sumaiya Balbale (Sequoia Capital’s Former COO)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sumaiya Balbale

• Sumaiya Balbale hails from San Francisco and has South Asian ethnicity with roots in India.

• She is the daughter of orphaned Indian immigrants. She was born and raised in suburban Chicago.

• Since the fourth grade, Balbale has been wearing a hijab to cover her hair.

• In an interview, Sumaiya mentioned that she faced bullying and taunts during childhood. Some of her classmates called her “camel jockey,’’ an ethnic slur, and they also tried to pull off her head scarf.

• Before obtaining her MBA degree, Balbale worked as a brand strategist and account planner in advertising agencies FCB and Deutsch, handling accounts for clients such as IKEA, Novartis, and SC Johnson.

• In 2013, Sumaiya served as general manager at Diapers.com and Casa.com, both e-commerce platforms under Quidsi, a subsidiary of Amazon.

• In 2014, she joined Jet.com as Vice President of Marketing, leading all consumer marketing efforts, including brand, acquisition, and retention strategies.

• In addition to acquiring over 5M customers and growing the Jet business to a $1B run rate in its first 12 months, she also created award-winning advertising for the brand, which won the Cannes Media Grand Prix in 2017.

• In September 2017, Sumaiya joined Walmart after it bought Jet.com. She served as Vice President of e-commerce, mobile, and digital marketing.

• In 2018, she was named one of Fortune’s 40 under 40.

• In February 2019, Sumaiya joined the Board of Directors of Shake Shack.

• In 2020. Sumaiya joined Sequoia Capital as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Operating Partner, where she led the go-to-market (GTM) platform team.

• In her role, she oversaw the creation and operations of Arc, Sequoia’s seed stage sourcing and company building program, led Talent, marketing, communications, partnerships, scouts, and investor relations.

• Since 2023, Balbale has been a guest lecturer for Stanford’s dydx program.

• In August 2025, Sumaiya Balbale resigned from Sequoia Capital after a senior partner, Shaun Maguire, made Islamophobic remarks about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. She spoke up about it, but when no action was taken, she decided to leave the company.

• Sumaiya’s resignation sparked internal conflict and raised reputational concerns for Sequoia Capital, especially for its Middle East Investors.

• Sumaiya Balbale has been a featured speaker at various industry-leading conferences in the USA, including Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, Next Generation, Advertising Week, Seneca Women’s Forum, and Ad Age.