Perhaps because it has excelled in backing some of the world’s most disruptive businesses, Sequoia has been intent on painting itself as the ultimate stable financial partner, a bastion of calm and continuity. So anything that disturbs the mystique it has succeeded in weaving around itself is significant. When lead partner Roelof Botha said this week he was stepping aside barely three years after he took over as what the firm calls its “senior steward”, it felt little short of an upheaval.