Silicon Valley billionaires' strange new respect for Elizabeth Warren

[BlueMTexpat]

I was surprised to find this headline today after all the brouhaha about Mark Zuckerberg's antics. But still ....

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/2/20894388/silicon-valley-donors-elizabeth-warren-big-tech-mark-zuckerberg

...
“To find her right on everything else and then disqualifying when it’s about my industry? Maybe that’s a little bit too precious,” said Walk. “I’m willing to say, ‘Yes, change all the other things! Uproot all these other assumptions!’ But then, oh my goodness, when she said something about tech, that’s disqualifying? Come on.”

Walk isn’t alone. Recode’s canvass of a group of major Democratic donors and fundraisers in Silicon Valley shows Warren is making significant inroads with some of tech’s wealthiest Democrats. That progress would have been unthinkable just six months ago after she called for the industry’s iconic companies to be split asunder.

Warren has not moderated her at times vitriolic rhetoric toward Silicon Valley. But tech elites are not, as often caricatured, single-issue voters driven by tech policy. And the two dozen tech executives, investors, and veteran fundraisers who spoke with Recode outlined three key reasons why their industry is making this unexpected shift toward Warren: They say they respect her policy rigor. They see her as less radical than once imagined (and especially when compared to Bernie Sanders). And perhaps most importantly, she has a reasonable path to winning the nomination, and there’s nothing Silicon Valley loves more than a winner.

What’s even more unusual is that Warren is gaining traction with these elites by doing barely any of the traditional coaxing and coddling that is a mainstay of today’s big-money era. While some of her 2020 competitors are returning to Silicon Valley multiple times within a single month, Warren is, by at least one measure, doing the best in the tech industry while also doing the least — sometimes with glee.

If Silicon Valley is embracing her, Warren is not reciprocating.
...

Lots more at the link.

[BlueMTexpat]

1. This para is one that struck home with me

and I believe that it is beginning to do so with many others:

“The clarity of her plans and message is the way folks in tech are used to talking about tackling problems,” said Nabeel Hyatt, an early investor in companies like Discord and Postmates. “Even if you disagree on some things, there is just a craving for competency, for someone who will do a job well.”

[DBoon]

3. Yup, they recognize someone who is smart, honest, and straightforward

Even if they hate taxes and regulations.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Lots of good reporting

Smart people who respect the quality of her thinking and agree with her on a lot of big issues even if it’s not tech.

[DrFunkenstein]

4. "Guys, We Look Like a Bunch of Tools..."

"...every time we trash her. Let's just shut our cakeholes and give money to Biden on the sly," said the billionaire who heroically refuses to wear a tie. At least in my imagination.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. ...