The Blue Wave hits Sand Hill Road

Ben here. VCs are paid to foretell the forthcoming and bet on the correct people, so the wager by several VCs to go all in on MAGA now looks akin a bad bet following Tuesday's overwhelming Democratic victory.

On X, owned, of course, by GOP megadonor Elon Musk, there were many of quips concerning returning to an era of DEI, pronouns, and land acknowledgments.

On Wednesday morning, several of the loudest VC voices on the right, specified as a16z's Marc Andreessen and Craft's David Sacks, who additionally served as the White House's AI and crypto czar, were remarkably quiet.

Those on the remaining have been much additional talkative, enthusiastic to item out that they never joined the MAGA bandwagon.

I asked Reid Hoffman, capitalist and cofounder of LinkedIn, who donated nearly $40 myriad this cycle, what communication the results dispatch to VCs.

"Voters rejected the position quo, and VCs should obtain that seriously," Hoffman told me. "Because several extremely notable and affluent tech figures have so publically supported the Administration as they've harmed Americans, tech's brand has misplaced enormous amounts of trust. VCs should rethink their assumptions concerning how most Americans are experiencing this economy."

AI data centers emerged as among the top villains in this election. Now Goldman Sachs is estimating nearly fractional of planned US data-center capability could be affected by ballot results in Texas and elsewhere. That's a lot!

One VC told me it's difficult to see how that wouldn't power startup valuations for everyone from OpenAI to smaller neolabs.

"They volition have difficulty finding compute," he said. "This ballot outcome is certainly going to power the AI economy."

There was at smallest one brilliant place for Silicon Valley's biggest governmental spenders. California's billionaire tax, opposed by John Doerr, Vinod Khosla, Ron Conway, Peter Thiel, and many others, looks headed for defeat, according to ballot results in the state.

Still, most VCs, and particularly founders, would fairly not conversation politics. They see it as an unwelcome distraction from the far additional contiguous endeavor of merchandise launches, fundraising, and hiring.

I felt that disconnect yesterday: I couldn't halt thinking concerning the election, during nearly all capitalist or originator I said alongside wanted to conversation concerning their latest publish or upcoming round. That is motionless the actuality on the dirt in San Francisco, exterior a small but increasingly influential collection of investors who have chosen to wade into politics.

Seeing all the posts from VCs during this ballot made me think of what an LP who has backed many notable VC finances told me during the 2024 presidential race.

"I've continually wanted our VCs to fair close their mouths and do their job and not be governmental unless they're defending the startup ecosystem," he said. "Other than that, they shouldn't be posturing for a governmental candidate."

VCs staying quiet? Good fortune alongside that.

The Buzz

Katie here. While everyone was distracted by the ballot results, Sequoia Capital announced multiple important developments: No additional London office! No additional Scout program! And no additional Monday partner meetings, which a individual acquainted alongside the firm's thinking told me was so it could move accelerated and create decisions quickly.

Sequoia is frequently seen as environment the spirit for the industry, so this gained a bit of notice on social media.

The resolute says it volition motionless create bets in Europe, but many in the continent's startup environment were trying to create awareness of what this method for the ecosystem.

Victor Riparbelli, CEO and cofounder of UK-based startup Synthesia, posted on X that "the sad actuality is there fair aren't adequate deals in Europe to validate an agency here."

Ann Bordetsky, a commission partner at NEA and caput of endeavor betterment at Factory, had a distinct perspective. "Everyone's missing the genuine narrative in this Sequoia memo," she posted on X. "It's not the London office. You can win European founders in San Francisco since the companies are earth from day 1. It's the no additional MONDAY meetings, 24x7 agreement sequence and decisions moving alongside the market fairly than holding on to dated VC traditions, bravo."

Post of the week

Around the Cap Table

• Nominate an capitalist here for our annual Rising Stars of VC list!
• SoftBank-backed Nigerian fintech Opay nearly went public at a $4 milliard valuation, afterward canceled the IPO.
• Agility Robotics is taking humanoid robots public in a archetypal for Wall Street.
• Jake Storm joins Headline as broad partner. He was earlier a GP at Felicis.
• Blackstone told investors Anthropic power not obtain an investment-grade ranking following IPO

Please let us cognize what you think of the newsletter and dispatch alongside your tips. Email Ben or Katie anytime or communication them on Signal at benbergman.11 and kroof.26. Email us at [email protected]