VC's 'founders with no hobbies' post backfires as old emails reveal her 'smartness criteria'

kingslyj · x · 2026-11-10

Investor Masha Drokova tweeted that the best founders she backed "had no hobbies, only one obsession — the company." Reply-guys then resurfaced her 2017 emails proposing a "criteria to find smart people" based on Jewish ancestry percentage ("you're 98% Jew, you're very smart"), including sourcing people via relatives and 23andMe tests. The contrast between the inspirational tweet and the leaked emails turned it into a viral VC drama moment.

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