Carter

Sequoia Capital remains one of the best, if not the best performing Silicon Valley venture firm.

It was an early backer of Google, Yahoo and many more big hits. So we are "Sequoia-ologists," students of Sequoia's every move -- just as we are Kleinerologists. Thus, we report that Sequoia Capital has added two new partners from Boston-based investment firm Summit Partners: Scott Carter, who prior to Summit was an ibanker at JPMorgan and staffer at the U.S. Senate, and Alexander Harrison, who prior to Summit, was also an ibanker, doing research at Goldman, Sachs & Co. covering communication chip companies.

Both Carter and Harrison will focus on software and services investments.

Harrison

There is a common thread in these recent hires. Between Sequoia's recent addition of former UBS ibanker Chris Olsen, and Kleiner Perkins' addition of Jessica Owens , a former ibanker at Robertson Stephens, they all are investment bankers.

So what does that tell us? Well, VentureWire reported (subscription required) this morning that Carter and Harrison were brought on to help find deals for Sequoia's $861M later stage fund, Capital Growth Fund III -- and the firm's largest ever. Investing in more mature companies requires different skills. It requires more focus on deal-structuring and term-setting -- traits of bankers. These new young hires are not former entrepreneurs, which is a trait many early stage VC firms search for. Are these firms going later stage, or are they trying to do both? Kleiner Perkins' focus on "pandemic" investments even resulted in Kleiner's investment in public companies.

Late-stage is a nice place to be, financially -- if you do well. The firm has to put more money to work (because investments in more mature companies demand it), which means investors will give the firm more money to invest. And ideally, it means larger fees and profits in the venture capitalists' pockets. Which is why this area is hot right now, and why even U2's Bono trying his hand over at Elevation Partners.

At least this time the firms are hiring people to help. Remember, Sequoia's first go-round with this strategy didn't work out too well.

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