Kapor Capital founding partner Freada Kapor Klein isn’t happy. Klein, one of technology’s leading social activists and impact investors, has been “deeply troubled” by the election of Donald Trump. She is particularly disgusted by what she calls the “unleashing” of “horrific behavior” since the election, such as what she fears might even be the now acceptable use of the N word on the streets of San Francisco.
So what can Silicon Valley do to respond to Trump?
We need, Kapor Klein says, to “get out of our bubble.” The time is right, she insists, for Silicon Valley to “double down” on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as economic inequality in society. Technology is “never neutral,” she reminds us. And technologists can’t be neutral either. It’s time, she says, for “leaders to step up” — leaders like herself, of course, as well as voices of decency like Reid Hoffman.
As always, many thanks to the folks at CALinnovates for their help in the production of this interview.