Why Sequoia is funding open source developers via a new equity-free fellowship

Sequoia Capital is opening applications for its Open Source Fellowship, funding up to three developers annually with year-long stipends to let them work full-time on impactful open-source projects without giving up equity. Positioned against chronic OSS underfunding and software supply chain concerns, the initiative complements Sequoia’s portfolio (e.g., Pydantic, FastAPI) by supporting foundational projects that may resist direct commercialization yet strengthen the broader software ecosystem.