Yes! I think Sam was always Paul and Jessica’s goodest boy and if they found this out by announcement it was likely quite hurtful and explains how rumors spread that he was fired for it.
> and explains how rumors spread that he was fired for it.
And maybe why PG apparently put no effort into dispelling those rumors for months despite being asked to comment on them by places like the Washington Post and there being plenty of discussion about them here and on Twitter.
He obviously knew about the rumors and he had plenty of time and opportunity to clarify things previously. But it wasn't until some other external party starts criticizing Altman in the press and we seemingly get an "only I can pick on my little brother" type response.
Because that timing is the weirdest thing to me. If PG really cares and respects Altman as much as he always seems to claim, why allow these rumors to persist for so long and suddenly choose this moment to dispute them?
Not commenting on topics is fine (and arguably even the default) response.
Don’t allow yourself to feel (or be) obligated to answers questions about a past employee, portfolio company, or similar. If you choose to you can, but the answerer chooses, not the questioner.
But he made an initial decision to not comment only to now comment after several months of rumors, so there was clearly a recent change in PG's thinking on the right way to handle this. That raises the question of "what caused that change?"
