Inside the VC network that’s gone all in for Kamala Harris

On Wednesday night, hundreds took to Zoom to hear a group of venture capitalists pitching a hot new startup: Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency.

The Zoom was organized by a roughly two-week-old group called VCs for Kamala, which founder Leslie Feinzaig said was born from a “rage tweet” she posted on July 22, the day after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Superstar investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz had recently come out in favor of Donald Trump; in response, she suggested on X the creation of a “VCs for Democracy” group.

“I was just feeling frustrated, like many of you, about a growing sentiment that venture capital and all of my colleagues were going MAGA,” Feinzaig, founder and general partner at VC firm Graham and Walker, said on the call. “I just felt like they didn’t speak for me.”

Her initial post on X spread through Silicon Valley circles circulating by text message, email, and group chat among a growing network of VCs and tech industry figures soon including the likes of entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban and VC legend Vinod Khosla. “I legitimately did not intend to launch a movement,” Feinzaig tells Fast Company, emphasizing that she’s not registered Democrat or Republican. “I just wanted to say something.”

Apparently, so did many others. Just six weeks after Feinzaig’s post on X, VCs for Kamala now counts hundreds of investors among its ranks. The group says it’s raised more than $175,000 for Harris campaign, including more than $100,000 from 97 individual donors during Wednesday’s call, plus another $50,000 in matching funds from investor Ron Conway. Its members have also used social media, press coverage, and private conversations to convince both liberals and moderates—and perhaps even some anti-Trump conservatives—in the industry that Harris is not only the better candidate for preserving the country’s democratic institutions but also for promoting prosperity and innovation.

Silicon Valley’s political pivot

VCs for Kamala arrived during an election cycle that’s seen many in the tech and VC industry grow increasingly vocal about their political leanings. Andreessen and Horowitz are joined on the right by other figures like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and investor David Sacks. (Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, is himself a former VC and protege of Thiel’s.) Meanwhile, Silicon Valley bigwigs like LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and renowned investors Roy Bahat and Khosla have publicly backed Harris in an election that could have profound significance for the future of the U.S. economy and society.

In other words, it’s seen as a high-stakes national election and one that feels increasingly relevant to the startup world. “I was immediately interested in being involved, because there is so much riding on this election,” says Tessa Flippin, founder and managing partner of Chicago-based Capitalize VC and one of the VC for Kamala effort’s early organizers, using business connections and social media to recruit others to publicly endorse the cause.

While Feinzaig says employer policies and other considerations kept some private supporters from signing the public pledge that appears on the VCs for Kamala website, support from big names like Hoffman, Khosla, and Cuban seem to have helped spur the movement’s quick growth, just as interest from big name VCs in a tech startup can often attract the attention of other investors.

“I announced to the folks we have Mark Cuban, and then we could we use that name to go out and bring everybody else in, and that’s when we begin to get these big names,” recalls Shila Nieves Burney, founding and managing partner of Atlanta-based Zane Venture Fund, who helped get Cuban to back the cause. “He immediately responded and said that he would sign on.”

As the movement continues to get attention on social media and in the business and tech press, some organizers suggest it may inspire others in the startup world to feel comfortable taking a political stand based on issues they care about from tech policy to LGBTQ rights.

“It matters that the fund managers signal to the founders that they care about being on the side of equality and freedom,” says VC investor Tiana Tukes, who was among the early VCs for Kamala organizers.

Bringing startup culture to political organizing

The attitude on the Zoom call was festive, like other prominent pro-Harris video calls in recent weeks. Members in a lively chat window cracked jokes about term sheets, oversubscribed funding rounds, and the use of AI to help craft promotional materials for the effort. In a Q&A forum, VCs peppered organizers with questions about how their donations would be directed (they’re going to the official campaign victory fund), and what the movement’s next steps would look like. 

Speakers like Hoffman made the pitch that Harris is actually the candidate best equipped to benefit the nation—and Silicon Valley. “When you compare presidential candidates, she’s the one who’s actually, in fact, been in governance roles with a focus on creating innovation,” he said. Meanwhile, he argued, Trump has a history of counterproductive policies like “tariff wars” with other countries.

Supporters also say a Harris administration is more likely to bring sensible regulation to the tech industry—and stable governance to the business world at large. Some VCs also see in Harris a candidate who will do more to support underrepresented groups in business and otherwise. Burney points to her support for programs like the State Small Business Credit Initiative that offer material assistance to entrepreneurs.

Burney also recently organized another petition drive, which gathered prominent VCs to condemn a lawsuit against the Fearless Fund, an investment fund that’s been accused of illegally discriminating in favor of Black women. And as with her support for Harris, whom she praises for her support for entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, it was a decision that made sense both morally and from a business perspective. “I’m a fund that could be impacted by this at some point, because of me looking at underrepresented founders who happen to be people of color and women,” she says.

Tukes—known for being a pioneering trans woman in venture capital and an advocate for Black and LGBT investors and entrepreneurs—says she hopes the movement’s support for Harris may also inspire greater support for Black women leaders in other arenas.

“If we believe that a Black woman is good enough and qualified enough to run the country, she is certainly qualified enough to build a billion-dollar business,” she says.

The VCs for Kamala movement is still in early days and, Feinzaig says, feels “like a startup.” Or, perhaps, a venture capital portfolio, with different subgroups rapidly brainstorming and iterating to see how their voices, networks, and funds can best be put to use, with organizers working to amplify their efforts.

Tukes, Flippin, and Burney, for instance, are among the organizers of a midweek mixer taking place this month in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. It’s part of a growing number of online and in-person events created by the many type A personalities behind VCs for Kamala between now and November’s election. Meanwhile, another VCs for Kamala Zoom session is slated for September 4. Beyond that, it remains to be seen how the quickly formed coalition—and the increasingly politicized polarized tech community—will evolve.

“I think everyone is really still just trying to figure out how much power we currently have,” Flippin says, “and then where the best avenues are to channel that power for the greater good.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91170418/vcs-for-kamala-2024-election?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss