Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has made the decision to hire Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine who is mostly known for having choked an unhoused man on the New York City subway in 2023. Now, the company is trying to explain to investors why Penny seemed like a good hire, given the fact that his most noteworthy accomplishment is having put a man in a fatal chokehold.<\/p>\n
The VC firm recently announced that they had recruited Penny to their American Dynamism fund, which invests in national defense, public safety, and aerospace companies. \u201cHe will learn the business of investing and he will work to support our portfolio companies,\u201d said David Ulevitch, an a16z general partner, in a note sent to employees earlier this week. \u201cI believe, as I know many of you do, that Daniel acted with courage in a tough situation,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe was acquitted of all charges. Beyond that, it has always been our policy to evaluate the entire person and not judge them for the worst moment in their entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the New York Times reported on a memo that a16z had circulated to its investors, which attempted to explain why they thought Penny was a necessary hire. Penny\u2019s \u201cmilitary veteran experience can be helpful in continuing to build these relationships, and many of our public safety and defense founders and partners have shared a similar sentiment,\u201d the memo reportedly said. Again, the memo was authored by Ulevitch. The memo further states that a16z is a huge investor in public safety products and companies and that, \u201cas result, we spend a lot of time with active-duty military, veterans, chiefs of police, sheriffs; these relationships are critical to the success of our companies.\u201d The implication appears to be that a16z thinks cops like Penny for what he did, and thus, hiring Penny will make cops like the firm.<\/p>\n
The encounter between Penny and 30-year-old Jordan Neely took place in May of 2023 when Neely boarded an F train in Manhattan and began screaming at the car\u2019s other passengers. Penny\u2019s response was to approach the man, put him in a chokehold, and then keep him in said chokehold for a period of six minutes, not long after which the man died. The New York City medical examiner\u2019s office later declared Neely\u2019s death was the result of \u201ccompression of the neck.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had him pretty good,\u201d Penny could be heard to say in footage from a cop\u2019s body camera. \u201cI was in the Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penny was eventually arrested for his role in Neely\u2019s death and prosecutors subsequently charged him with criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter. During the trial, Penny\u2019s defense brought in a forensic pathologist who claimed that Neely hadn\u2019t died from being choked but from a \u201ccombination of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, sickle cell trait and the struggle from being in Penny\u2019s restraint,\u201d NBC previously reported. The NYC medical examiner who conducted the original autopsy subsequently dismissed these claims, alleging in court \u201cthat there are no alternative reasonable explanations\u201d for Neely\u2019s death and that the defense\u2019s suggestions were \u201cso improbable \u2014 that it stands shoulder to shoulder with impossibility.\u201d A jury acquitted Penny of the charge of negligent homicide in December.<\/p>\n\n Andreessen Horowitz Hires Former Marine Accused of Choking Unhoused Man on NYC Subway Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has made the decision to hire Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-3846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-andreessen-horowitz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/7567b9aa296b0bd4236b4b9979fe4997.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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