An Open Letter From Technology Sector Leaders On Donald Trump’s Candidacy For President Trump would be a disaster for innovation. 07/14/2016 10:15 am 10:15:1 Alec Ross Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Johns Hopkins University; Author, ‘The Industries of the Future’ "We are inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, researchers, and business leaders working in the technology sector. We are proud that American innovation is the envy of the world, a source of widely-shared prosperity, and a hallmark of our global leadership. "We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a level playing field. Donald Trump does not. He campaigns on anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas and new people, and a fundamental belief that America is weak and in decline. We have listened to Donald Trump over the past year and we have concluded: Trump would be a disaster for innovation. His vision stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy—and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth. "Let’s start with the human talent that drives innovation forward. We believe that America’s diversity is our strength. Great ideas come from all parts of society, and we should champion that broad-based creative potential. We also believe that progressive immigration policies help us attract and retain some of the brightest minds on earth—scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators. In fact, 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Donald Trump, meanwhile, traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women, and is openly hostile to immigration. He has promised a wall, mass deportations, and profiling. "We also believe in the free and open exchange of ideas, including over the Internet, as a seed from which innovation springs. Donald Trump proposes “shutting down” parts of the Internet as a security strategy ― demonstrating both poor judgment and ignorance about how technology works. His penchant to censor extends to revoking press credentials and threatening to punish media platforms that criticize him. "Finally, we believe that government plays an important role in the technology economy by investing in infrastructure, education and scientific research. Donald Trump articulates few policies beyond erratic and contradictory pronouncements. His reckless disregard for our legal and political institutions threatens to upend what attracts companies to start and scale in America. He risks distorting markets, reducing exports, and slowing job creation. "We stand against Donald Trump’s divisive candidacy and want a candidate who embraces the ideals that built America’s technology industry: freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure, and respect for the rule of law. We embrace an optimistic vision for a more inclusive country, where American innovation continues to fuel opportunity, prosperity and leadership. *DISCLAIMER: The individuals listed below have endorsed in their personal capacity and this does not reflect the endorsement of any organization, corporation or entity to which they are affiliated. Titles and affiliations of each individual are provided for identification purposes only. Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Hyperloop One Adrian Aoun, Founder/CEO, Forward Greg Badros, Founder, Prepared Mind Innovations; Former Engineering VP, Facebook Clayton Banks, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem Phin Barnes, Partner, First Round Capital Niti Bashambu, Chief Analytics Officer, IAC Applications John Battelle, Founder/CEO, NewCo, Inc. Ayah Bdeir, Founder/CEO, Little Bits Piraye Beim, Founder/CEO, Celmatix Marc Bodnick, Co-Founder, Elevation Partners John Borthwick, Founder/CEO, Betaworks Matt Brezina, Co-Founder, Sincerely and Xobni Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO, TaskRabbit Brad Burnham, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder/CEO, Slack Troy Carter, Founder/CEO, Atom Factory Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder/CEO, Joyus Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer Amy Chang, Founder/CEO, Accompany Aneesh Chopra, President, NavHealth; Former US CTO Patrick Chung, General Partner, Xfund Tod Cohen, General Counsel, StubHub Stephen DeBerry, Founder/Managing Partner, Bronze Investments Peter Diamandis, Entrepreneur; Author, Abundance and BOLD Barry Diller, Chairman, Expedia and IAC Esther Dyson, Executive Founder, Way to Wellville; Investor Amy Errett, Founder/CEO, Madison Reed Caterina Fake, Founder/CEO, Findery; Co-Founder, Flickr Christopher Farmer, Founder/CEO, SignalFire Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Co-Founder, Techstars Josh Felser, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital & ClimateX Hajj Flemings, Founder/CEO, Brand Camp University Natalie Foster, Co-Founder, Peers David Grain, Founder/Managing Partner, Grain Management, LLC Brad Hargreaves, Founder/CEO, Common Donna Harris, Co-Founder/Co-CEO, 1776 Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder/CEO, Meetup David Hornik, General Partner, August Capital Terry Howerton, CEO, TechNexus Reed Hundt, Former Chair, FCC Minnie Ingersoll, COO, Shift Technologies Sami Inkinen, Founder/CEO, Virta Health; Co-Founder, Trulia Craig Isakow, Head of Revenue, Shift Technologies Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., President and Founder, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Irwin Jacobs, Founding Chairman/CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm Inc Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm Inc Leila Janah, Founder/CEO, Sama & Laxmi Sujay Jaswa, Former CFO, Dropbox; Founder, Witt Capital Partners Mark Josephson, CEO, Bitly Sep Kamvar, Professor, MIT David Karp, Founder/CEO, Tumblr Jed Katz, Managing Director, Javelin Venture Partners Kim Keenan, President/CEO, Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council Ben Keighran, Entrepreneur; Former Design Lead, Apple William Kennard, Former Chair, FCC Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures; Co-Founder, SUN Microsystems Ron Klain, Executive Vice President, Revolution LLC Walter Kortschak, Former Managing Partner and Senior Advisor, Summit Partners Jared Kopf, Founder AdRoll, HomeRun, Worldly Joseph Kopser, Co-Founder, Ridescout Karen Kornbluh, Former US Ambassador, OECD Othman Laraki, Co-Founder/President, Color Genomics Miles Lasater, Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio Aileen Lee, Founder/Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures Bobby Lent, Managing Partner, Hillsven Capital Aaron Levie, Co-Founder/CEO, Box John Lilly, Partner, Greylock Partners Bruce Lincoln, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem Ruth Livier, President, Livier Productions, Inc. Mark Lloyd, Professor of Communication, University of Southern California - Annenberg School Luther Lowe, VP of Public Policy, Yelp Nancy Lublin, Founder/CEO, Crisis Text Line Kanyi Maqubela, Partner, Collaborative Fund Jonathan Matus, Founder/CEO, Zendrive Josh McFarland, Vice President of Product, Twitter Andrew McLaughlin, Head of New Business, Medium; Venture Partner, betaworks Shishir Mehrotra, Entrepreneur & former VP of Product & Engineering, YouTube Apoorva Mehta, Founder/CEO, Instacart Doug Merritt, CEO, Splunk Dinesh Moorjani, Founder/CEO, Hatch Labs; Co-Founder, Tinder Brit Morin, Founder/CEO, Brit + Co Dave Morin, Entrepreneur; Partner, Slow Ventures Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Asana; Co-Founder, Facebook Amanda Moskowitz, Founder/CEO, Stacklist Alex Nogales, President/CEO, National Hispanic Media Coalition Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder, Reddit Mike Olson, Founder/Chairman/CSO, Cloudera Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay Felix W. Ortiz III, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Viridis; Board Member of The NYC Technology Development Corporation Jen Pahlka, Founder/Executive Director, Code for America Barney Pell, Founder Powerset, MoonExpress, Locomobi; Founding Trustee, Singularity University Mark Pincus, Executive Chairman and Founder, Zynga Shervin Pishevar, Co-Founder/Managing Director, Sherpa Capital and Co-Founder/Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One Brandon Pollack, Director of Global Affairs, 1776 Amy Rao, Founder/CEO, Integrated Archive Systems, Inc. Eric Ries, Entrepreneur & Author, The Lean Startup Justin Rosenstein, Co-Founder, Asana Alec Ross, Author, The Industries of the Future Javier Saade, Venture Capitalist; Former Associate Administrator, SBA Chris Sacca, Founder/Chairman, Lowercase Capital Dave Samuel, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital Julie Samuels, Executive Director, Tech:NYC Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code Chris Schroeder, Venture Investor; Author, Startup Rising Jake Schwartz, Co-Founder/CEO, General Assembly Robert Scoble, Entrepreneur in Residence and Futurist, Upload VR Kim Malone Scott, CEO, Candor, Inc; Former Director, Google Tina Sharkey, Partner, Sherpa Foundry & Sherpa Capital Clara Shih, Co-Founder/CEO, Hearsay Social Shivani Siroya, Founder/CEO, InVenture Steve Smith, Executive Director, Public Policy Institute, Government Relations & Telecommunications Project, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Jonathan Spalter, Chair, Mobile Future DeShuna Spencer, CEO, kweliTV Katie Stanton, CMO, Color Genomics; Former VP of Global Media, Twitter Jenny Stefanotti, Co-Founder, OneProject; Board of Directors, Ushahidi Debby Sterling, Founder/CEO, Goldiblox Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder/CEO, Honor Margaret Stewart, Vice President of Product Design, Facebook Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp Michael Stoppelman, SVP, Engineering, Yelp Baratunde Thurston, Former supervising producer, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah; Co-Founder, Cultivated Wit Stephanie Tilenius, Founder/CEO, Vida Health; Board of Directors, Seagate Technology Richard D. Titus, Entrepreneur; SVP, Samsung Anne Toth, VP of Policy & Compliance, Slack Bill Trenchard, Partner, First Round Capital April Underwood, VP of Product, Slack Max Ventilla, Founder/CEO, AltSchool Tabreez Verjee, Co-Founder/Partner Uprising; Board Director Kiva.org Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia Hunter Walk, Partner, Homebrew VC; Former Director of Product Management, Google Tristan Walker, Founder/CEO, Walker & Company Brands, Inc.; Founder/Chairman, Code 2040 Ari Wallach, CEO, Synthesis Corp. Padmasree Warrior, CEO, NextEV USA; Former CTSO, Cisco Laura Weidman Powers, Co-Founder/CEO, Code2040 Kevin Weil, Head of Product, Instagram Phil Weiser, Hatfield Professor of Law, University of Colorado and Executive Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center Daniel J. Weitzner, Principal Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emily White, Entrepreneur; Former COO, Snapchat Ev Williams, Founder/CEO, Medium; Co-Founder Twitter, Blogger Monique Woodward, Venture Partner, 500 Startups Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University Andrew Yang, Founder/CEO, Venture for America Arielle Zuckerberg, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
what a surprise... many democrat donors in favor of cheap labor. This is the main reason the democrat party has screwed the unions workers for years now... silicon valley and the banker money which helped most of them grow ... runs the democrat party and the establishment republicans. Vote for Hillary.. .if you work for Goldman or Google. Vote for someone else if you wish your kids to have a future.
many are cronies attempting to create a govt / elite corporation rentier type alliance. rollerball socialism. how someone who claims to love labor could be in favor of that is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps your really are a crony at heart.
Ordinary capitalists are in favor of cheap labor, there is no need to bring in crony (read, late stage) capitalism.
no need, except to be accurate. We are in a crony capitalism stage of this cycle. Soon the populists may rise up and get rid of the national bank or the bad trade treaties as we have in past cycles. We have seen populists rise up and reform / change the system when those who make the rules get far too greedy. If I were the cronies I would back off for a while give the people what they want. Lower taxes and let the jobs and wages come up naturally without massive immigration.