Rowan explains that his public stand against antisemitism at his alma mater and Apollo's rejection of identity-based hiring both stem from a principle of judging individuals on merit plus distance traveled, not group characteristics. ✦ AI generated
Marc Rowan · a16z Podcast · 2026-05-27 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 39:04
“I'm curious how you thought about being so vocal with university leadership in that moment.”
We hire for merit adjusted for distance traveled. And distance traveled is not about your immutable characteristics. It is about you as an individual, not your class, not your group. Show me the kid. Show me the individual who's had to overcome something and still achieved. That's who I want.
verbatim transcript · starts at 39:04
39:04just how passionate you've been about fighting anti-semitism. Um you know, obviously this came to a head after October 7th, you know, and at your alma mater. Um, I'm curious how you thought about, you know, being so vocal with university leadership kind of in in that moment. >> Well, if I had thought about it more, I might not have done it, but it I am a passionate person, but I I will say the
39:27whole thing struck me as just incredibly unfair and incredibly ill- advised. >> What we were watching was not free speech. We were watching favorite speech, preferred speech. And in the initial foray with the university that I had ahead of their Palestine Rights Conference, uh I wrote to the president of the university and I said, "I'm a free speech absolutist. I believe this conference should go forward, but the
39:53university as a 300-year-old moral institution is funding it, >> promoting it, requiring students who are Jewish to attend it during Jewish high holidays. and you've outsourced the ownership of this conference which had gone on for many years to a known Hamas sympathizer and terrorist sympathizer. Other than that, I was fine with it. >> Right. Right. Exactly. >> And the inability to reflect on the role of a university in society.
40:23What is the role of a university in society? And too many times the question was amorphous. I don't think our president at the time knew what the role of a university in society was. >> Is it academic excellence and research or is it social change? >> Right? >> And if it's social change, whose social change, >> right? >> Is it her social change? Is it what the
40:48trustees decided? Is it what the faculty decided? Was there a vote? No. What had happened in our university is we had had this us versus them. this anti-Americanism, anti- capitalism, >> anti-merit on steroids. Israel, Palestine is not fully an anti-Semitic issue. >> And that's not what I saw at these universities. I saw it as an anti-American, anti-system issue. [clears throat] And so when it persisted, I believe that we should not support