The Little Tech Agenda: Biden vs. Trump

New venture capitalist podcast:

Welcome to "The Ben & Marc Show," featuring a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. In this new episode, Marc and Ben discuss their latest article, “The Little Tech Agenda,” and why the future of American innovation is at a critical juncture.

In a one-on-one conversation, Ben and Marc compare the policies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden regarding Little Tech, explore the potential futures for blockchain, crypto, and AI, and examine how tax policies could shape the future of startups and venture capital.

They also address the recent assassination attempt on President Trump and reveal which candidate they’ll be supporting in the upcoming election. Enjoy!

They first talked about their history of supporting Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Then they detail how Biden administration policies are disastrous for tech innovation companies. They have become Trump supporters.

They are particularly concerned about Biden administration proposals to cripple high-tech ventural capital funded small companies, with regulations on AI, cryptocurrencies, and other technologies, and on taxing unrealized capital gains.

They say:

Problem
The American government is now far more hostile to new startups than it used to be.

For example:

Regulatory agencies have been green lit to use brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries, such as Blockchain.

Regulatory agencies are being green lit in real time to do the same to Artificial Intelligence.

Regulatory agencies are applying direct pressure to banks to cut off disfavored startups and founders from the financial system.

Regulatory agencies are punitively blocking startups from being acquired by the same big companies the government is preferencing in so many other ways.

The federal government as a customer in critical sectors like defense and intelligence is more wired than ever to favor big incumbents over innovative startups.

And, the government is currently proposing a tax on unrealized capital gains, which would absolutely kill both startups and the venture capital industry that funds them.

It is funny to hear them be so defensive about endorsing a Republican. I get the impression that they are losing friends and allies by posting this. For example, Tech Crunch reports:

Horowitz’s support of Trump is particularly painful because he’s always been seen as an advocate for the Black community. He and his wife, Felicia Wiley Horowitz, who is Black, have spoken before about how much they have done for the Black community and have held events and spaces for Black techies to gather and network. He wrote a book with a foreword from famed African American historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. and has spoken of his love for hip-hop and what he learned from the Haitian revolution. He has also touted his relationship with activist and former prison gang leader Shaka Senghor. ...

“It appears personal interest and profit supersedes people,” the Nigerian American founder said. “The ‘hard things about hard things’ sometimes mean standing against oppression.”

None of the Blacks say anything to refute the specific arguments about how the Democrats are bad for tech startup businesses. I the last guy is just unhappy that Trump will not give special preferences to Nigerians.

Update: Biden has been forced out. There is every reason to believe Harris would be worse than Biden.