Zohran Mamdani shows that Silicon Valley is About Isolation

In Silicon Valley it is very possible to isolate yourself into your smaug-like horde of wealth. But in NYC, even if you're a billionaire, there is no avoiding being surrounded by people and being made intimately aware--constantly--that everything you make money off is run off those people. Tech people here are, by necessity, on the streets, surrounded by every type of person. You cannot live or work in NYC and not see people

In a recent conversation with NYC tech execs, that promise of engaging on making systems like 311 more efficient was one of the topics that seemed to resonate best — and that's part of why this community’s tech leaders have started to embrace him. I know many of these leaders, and used to participate in these kinds of conversations when I was a CEO or founder, and given that there isn’t any representation from workers in the room, it’s an extremely positive sign that there’s still a relatively open-minded reception to Zohran and his policies, even amongst the investor class here in NYC. This is a stark contrast to the extremists in power in Silicon Valley, many of whom are trying to influence our election here in New York with their money, who have resorted to rank bigotry as their first line of attack against Zohran's platform, since they can’t win on either substance or popularity.

Fortunately, the fundamental culture of entrepreneurship in New York City is still united by everyone wanting the guy who opened up the bodega on the corner to succeed.

Anil Dash gets right to the heart of it. Entrepreneurship, business generally, is about people. It is built on people and it cannot isolate itself and survive in the long term. I think Mamdani really puts into focus that the SV Billionaire is about a total refusal to give anything back. Even when that refusal is fundamentally self-destructive, as it is among the west coast set.

If your workers are at risk, or your community is at risk, your company can’t succeed. Zohran Mamdani clearly understands that, and the priorities that he’s focused on make that clear. The issues that the entrepreneurial community has identified as its most important requirements, like ensuring access to housing, transportation, education and other foundational services, are exactly the ones being addressed by the Mamdani platform. That’s important to know when there are parties with loud voices distorting that fact.

The community of NYC is its strength and if people are chased out because the rent is too high, the public transport is broken, they can't get childcare or they can't stay health--NYC gets broken to. No one here wants that. At the end of the day New Yorkers want to be move, we want to build.

Entrepreneurship is about working, not getting paid to move money around.

This is an important point that’s increasingly getting lost in the conversation around entrepreneurship and innovation. Someone who builds a new business, or invents a new technology, or who shows up every day to provide goods and services to their community — that’s an entrepreneur. A person who moves money from one bank account to another? That’s not an entrepreneur. And a person who just tries to create systems that let them extract rent from everyone else for doing nothing? That’s definitely not an entrepreneur.

I think the tech billionaires of California are so afraid of Mamdani not just because he wants to tax them, but because when he talks about a just world not having billionaires it isn't just a line. It's the beginning of a real policy for a functioning country and that is the last thing the ultra-wealthy want.

it’s no surprise that our community of entrepreneurs and innovators and dreamers here in New York City has rallied behind someone like Zohran, who wants to open up opportunity for all, by actually making people’s lives better. Because making people’s lives better is what great entrepreneurs want to do, too. And it’s no surprise that those who profit from extraction and exploitation and corruption have resorted to hatred and bigotry in an all-out effort to stop this movement that’s inspired and motivated so many.

But you can’t stop an idea whose time has come.