Humble Sequoia

Since when does Mike Moritz of Sequoia, a venture capital titan who funded both Yahoo and Google, and avoids industry events like the plague, need to network? Ew. We're talking classy networking, of course. Sequoia's charm offensive began last night in the Sequoia general partner's own home, a temple to minimalist design and expensive-looking contemporary art in Pacific Heights; with DJ Spider from Las Vegas providing the music during the pre-dinner drinks; and with an array of guests who'd look perfect in a glossy group photo in a magazine spread on the new establishment (names after the jump). "We are truly thrilled (if not a bit humbled) by the group of founders who will be coming together for this first of a quarterly gatherings," the Sequoia organizer wrote the firm's guests. Sequoia, humble? Well, maybe the firm has more reason than usual to suck up to the next batch of entrepreneurs: many of them are rich enough to fund their own low-cost startups; and an array of new players, such as Peter Thiel's well-connected Founder's Fund and dumb-money hedge funds, are squeezing traditional venture capital. Even Sequoia can't rely, any more, on the best deals coming straight to them. (After the jump, Silicon Valley's new establishment: who made Sequoia's list?)

• Caterina Fake of Flickr, now owned by Yahoo
• Jason Calacanis recently of Weblogs Inc.
• Shawn Fanning, founder of Napster
• Jawed Karim, an early founder of Youtube
• Brian Sugar of Sugar Publishing
• Reid Hoffman and Keith Rabois from Linked In
• James Hong of Hot or Not
• Mike Birch of Bebo
• Roelof Botha of Sequoia
• Mark Kvamme of Sequoia

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