00:14:25 · Eric Newcomer, Yoni Rechtman
[00:14:25] S0: You know, Elon Musk himself is an immigrant. Many of these tech companies have H1B employees doing a lot of the most important work. Yet, there's a strain that's like, obviously immigrants are the ones being attacked here, but there's also some of the leader, like, know, XAI has tons of immigrants. Elon is practically a white nationalist at this I don't know, what do you make of the anti immigrant Well, but they [00:14:52] S1: won't go after the good ones. That's... I think that is, I think it's, that's the cognitive dissonance of like, you know, it's all happening somewhere else over there, it's abstract, you know, it won't affect me, it won't affect the people in my life. And frankly, to some extent it might be true. I mean, because of this system of crony capitalism that we're now in, and like really third world, third world corruption that Trump has brought to America, it might be true that that the people who cozy up to the administration will get to keep the visas for their employees. [00:15:24] S0: But they're also not that competent, thankfully, I think, and so, you know, I don't know, I just saw a tech person the other day who said, you know, they tried to come back from The US on an O-one visa, and had gotten like jerked around and they're just like moving to London. Know, it is like we're gonna lose people who would be in Silicon Valley even if certain firms can get exceptions or special treatment Yeah, from the I mean,
00:15:24 · Eric Newcomer, Yoni Rechtman
[00:15:24] S0: But they're also not that competent, thankfully, I think, and so, you know, I don't know, I just saw a tech person the other day who said, you know, they tried to come back from The US on an O-one visa, and had gotten like jerked around and they're just like moving to London. Know, it is like we're gonna lose people who would be in Silicon Valley even if certain firms can get exceptions or special treatment Yeah, from the I mean, [00:15:48] S1: it sort of reminds me, there's a dark, there's a real sort of dark potential here, which is kind of like perestroika, which is, you know, could we be entering a period of like rapid sort of cronyism and privatization that leaves us overall a much poorer country and looking like looking like Russia with weak institutions, no judicial independence, no central bank independence, but oligarchs who have successfully, you know, seized power based on their proximity to, you know, this like fundamentally illegitimate government.
00:16:24 · Eric Newcomer, Yoni Rechtman
[00:16:24] S0: What's your view on how friendly everybody should be with each other on Twitter and in real life? You know, what do we do? It feels like, okay, we're in this moment where both you and I sort of okay, we were right. Although, like, the sky is falling about Trump really feels true. They are shooting people in the streets. They have a Gestapo like force. They have people literally cosplaying as Nazis. It is a dark moment. A lot of the things that have... If you had predicted that Trump would try to put tariffs on Europe to try and take Greenland from them, you would have been mocked before the election. So things I think are unambiguously worse than you could have really said without being laughed at before the election. So that's the world we find ourselves in. Yet I think we're so fatigued from, woah, cancel culture era of booing everybody. I guess to put a direct question to you, what's your view on this sort of no compelled speech? I said something snide about Garry Tan because he's always out there talking. He's always out there talking. And I said, He's not saying anything on this. He used to be sort of a principled Democrat. And I said, power corrupts, I guess, and he's now blocked me [00:17:42] S1: on And people accuse me of trying to compel speech. Like what's your view on this? I really don't think anybody is required to have or share an opinion about anything or everything. I do think that when you have an opinion about everything except for one thing, that's a little bit different. [00:18:04] S0: It stands out to people. Yeah.
00:18:04 · Eric Newcomer, Yoni Rechtman
[00:18:04] S0: It stands out to people. Yeah. [00:18:06] S1: Yeah. So there are a lot of things that go on in the world that I just don't feel like it's necessary for me to express my opinion about. Frankly, like, I don't live in California. I don't, like, wanna get too deeply involved in California politics, so I mostly keep my mouth shut. Right. Because, like, it annoys me when people talk about New York politics and like, don't have a stake in this. But like, we're talking about America, we all have a stake in it, and there's a lot of people who I think have put themselves forward as not just business leaders, but moral leaders. Right. Who then exempt themselves from that responsibility in moments of moral crisis. So I don't think anyone is required to take up a mantle of moral leadership. I don't think anyone is required to like, be a public intellectual. If you want to be a public intellectual, if you want to, you know, be a philosopher king, then like what... People are gonna [00:18:57] S0: look to you for leadership. Yeah. And when there are moments of moral crisis and you don't offer anything, people are gonna be like, oh, thought you were a source of wisdom. I agree with that take 100%. How much do you tell founders to pick their VCs based on their morals?
00:18:57 · Eric Newcomer, Yoni Rechtman
[00:18:57] S0: look to you for leadership. Yeah. And when there are moments of moral crisis and you don't offer anything, people are gonna be like, oh, thought you were a source of wisdom. I agree with that take 100%. How much do you tell founders to pick their VCs based on their morals? [00:19:14] S1: Not really at all, honestly. Think being... Look, I think it's a lot easier for me to say a lot of this stuff as a venture capitalist. Like, the job of a founder is just immensely more difficult, and I would love to be able to tell someone, like, you know, live your conscience in every way all the time, but like, I heard this once and and it really stuck with me, that like all money is green and all money is red, you know? Like it all spends, and it all probably came from something a little bit dirty. Right. And like ultimately at the end of the day, like, it's very difficult to like, whose money is it really? Frankly, it's like it's sitting in the startup's bank account, but it was put there by a venture capitalist who received it from some institution who received it from its donors. Some of
00:19:14 · Yoni Rechtman, Eric Newcomer
[00:19:14] S1: Not really at all, honestly. Think being... Look, I think it's a lot easier for me to say a lot of this stuff as a venture capitalist. Like, the job of a founder is just immensely more difficult, and I would love to be able to tell someone, like, you know, live your conscience in every way all the time, but like, I heard this once and and it really stuck with me, that like all money is green and all money is red, you know? Like it all spends, and it all probably came from something a little bit dirty. Right. And like ultimately at the end of the day, like, it's very difficult to like, whose money is it really? Frankly, it's like it's sitting in the startup's bank account, but it was put there by a venture capitalist who received it from some institution who received it from its donors. Some of [00:20:04] S0: these investors end up having leverage over you. I guess that would... Yeah. I think, you know, if it's a minority investor and you're just trying to raise money, yeah. I mean, I tend to be on the sort of, when it comes to fundraising, pretty tolerant. I mean, I try to maintain and quote and especially on deal type stories, talk to right wing members of Silicon Valley. Like, is a funny role that I play where it's like, at once I have principals, but, you know, they're part of the community and I'm, you know, I want to be sort of a vehicle