A man who once said “the cyber is so big” is now the president-elect of the United States.
This — along with the fact that Donald Trump has barely discussed his technology policies throughout the entirety of his campaign — is cause for concern for many in Silicon Valley.
Trump’s entire campaign has been about looking backwards, so it is troublesome that he is now the man who has to lead us forward. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, is the only tech entrepeneur to have backed him in the campaign. Most other leaders in the industry took to Twitter to express their fears. Here’s what they said:
M.G. Siegler, general partner at Google Ventures
I hate to break out hyperbole. But we’re fucked. Not because of Trump necessarily. But the people who elected him. One thing we can fix…
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) November 9, 2016
Anil Dash, co-founder of ThinkUp
No matter what, we have to organize & stand up to Trump and fight for the marginalized. I am not afraid of that motherfucker
— Anil Dash (@anildash) November 9, 2016
Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack and co-founder of Flickr
We are drinking the expensive stuff.
— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) November 9, 2016
Dennis Crowley, founder of FourSquare
This sums up exactly how I feel right now. And my emotions are amplified by having a 6mo old daughter. And even tho it’s not over, I’m sad. https://t.co/KWOp9wMzAI
— Dennis Crowley (@dens) November 9, 2016
Aaron Levie, CEO of Box
You know those times where we watch other countries and are like “oh man you guys are crazy”. Shit that’s us now.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) November 9, 2016
Paul Graham, inventor of Bayesian spam filters
Losing the election doesn’t mean giving up.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) November 9, 2016
Sam Altman, co-chairman of OpenAI
i’d like to wake up now please
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 9, 2016