Kamala Harris’ VC supporters raise $150,000 on a Zoom call

It started with a “rage tweet.”

“Gonna commencement ‘VCs for Democracy,’” Leslie Feinzaig, laminitis and wide spouse astatine Graham & Walker, wrote connected X successful precocious July. “Who’s in?”

Turns out more than 1,300 “techies,” including 750 accredited investors, were successful arsenic portion of a radical that came to beryllium known arsenic VCs for Kamala. On Wednesday, that radical raised $150,000 to enactment Vice President Kamala Harris’ way to the presidency during an hour-long Zoom telephone that reached up to 600 attendees.

About $100,000 of that came from 97 donors, and different $50,000 came successful the signifier of a lucifer from SV Angel laminitis and managing spouse Ron Conway, who helped footwear disconnected the call. The radical had already raised astir $25,000 from its archetypal propulsion to get VCs to motion its pledge to enactment Harris, bringing its full fundraising to astir $176,000 truthful far.

The donations surged rapidly during the call, which besides featured salient Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Over astir fractional an hour, capable donations poured successful to unlock the $50,000 threshold for Conway’s match.

It’s the latest successful a trend of governmental organizing connected Zoom, including 1 monolithic telephone soon aft Harris joined the contention that hosted tens of thousands of Black women. And later, determination was the tongue-in-cheek “White Dudes for Harris.” Feinzaig noted the VC telephone would beryllium a “smaller telephone than that one, adjacent though there’s a precocious overlap betwixt those 2 groups.”

The telephone took some a affirmative and somewhat defiant tone. Several VCs made side-glancing comments toward Andreessen Horowitz — whether oregon not by sanction — whose founders recently announced their support for erstwhile President Donald Trump. The radical connected Wednesday’s telephone seemed vexed that the views of a fewer salient members of their assemblage had travel to beryllium perceived arsenic typical of the task superior community’s governmental leanings.

When Feinzaig sent her “rage tweet,” she said she’d been “feeling frustrated, similar galore of you, astir the increasing sentiment that task superior and each of my colleagues were going MAGA, and I conscionable felt similar they didn’t talk for me, and I felt similar I wanted my dependable to beryllium heard. And much critically, I felt similar those loudest voices were not speaking to the hundreds of founders that I speech to connected a monthly basis.”

In July, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz posted a blog called “The Little Tech Agenda,” wherever they identified “bad authorities policies are present the #1 menace to Little Tech,” which they fundamentally deliberation of arsenic startups. “We enactment oregon reason politicians careless of enactment and careless of their positions connected different issues,” they wrote. Just a mates weeks later, it became wide they would enactment Trump successful the election.

“The steadfast that enactment this model retired determination would person america judge that folks who are backing Kamala Harris are anti-capitalists,” Stephen DeBerry, laminitis and managing spouse of Bronze Investments, said connected the call. “That doesn’t marque immoderate sense. We’re not opposed to profits. We’re not opposed to precocious growth. That’s what drives america that’s wherefore we’re here. We’re not opposed to billionaires — determination are respective of them connected this call. What we are opposed to is gathering a regulatory authorities that guts our authorities and pulls retired safeties, truthful that the strategy can’t withstand itself and it collapses. And therefore, the wealthiness successful the strategy is aggregated to lone a fewer and we go an oligopoly nine similar Russia.”

Mac Conwell, managing spouse of RareBreed Ventures, questioned the constituent of “differentiating tech.”

“We’re each expected to beryllium moving unneurotic and they’re virtually trying to say, we don’t privation to enactment with y’all, we privation to enactment implicit here,” Conwell said. “And we don’t privation immoderate rules. We privation maturation for growth’s involvement with nary guardrails, regulations beryllium damned. And arsenic a VC, yes, regulations suck. Right? They get successful the way, they marque things harder. But they besides marque definite that this strategy doesn’t collapse.”

Roy Bahat, a task capitalist who leads Bloomberg Beta, shared a startup-style transportation platform with the radical successful enactment of Harris’ campaign. One descent showed a matrix of the the competition. On the Y-axis was “Stable” and “Unstable.” On the X-axis, “Past” and “Future.” In the “Unstable” and “Past” quadrant, Bahat enactment an representation of erstwhile President Donald Trump successful a Make America Great Again hat. In the “Stable” and “Future” quadrant? A coconut emoji.

“The contention is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and immoderate different funds, but we each cognize much superior isn’t needfully the happening that makes the difference,” Bahat said. “It’s that positive a program for execution.”

Feinzaig said she’s not a registered Democrat oregon Republican, and arsenic a naturalized citizen, her “personal authorities don’t really lucifer to American authorities successful immoderate cleanable way.” But erstwhile she looks astatine an investment, she asks, “what does the satellite look similar if this institution is massively successful?”

“No substance wherever you beryllium connected the governmental spectrum, inquire yourself, what does the satellite look similar if these candidates are massively successful?” Feinzaig said. “And I deliberation that there’s 1 imaginativeness of that that is exciting. And past there’s 1 imaginativeness astir that is that is really rather terrifying.”