On Aug. 25, the New York Times identified Jan Sramek, former Goldman Sachs trader, as the face of Flannery. Sramek orchestrated the land deals. He received financial backing from some of Silicon Valley’s largest investors. These include Mike Mortiz, the former head of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Netscape co-founder Marc Andreesen, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of Steve Jobs and founder of Emerson Collective, a philanthropic enterprise.