Entrepreneurs Pledge to Safeguard Freedoms; Advance New Economy Jobs in America
As American entrepreneurs and business leaders, we believe that the historical commitment to civil liberties as set forth in the United States Constitution is a unique advantage for U.S. businesses — one that is inextricably linked with our global competitiveness and success. Any threat to fundamental civil liberties is bad for American business. It is incumbent on us as entrepreneurs, leaders, and patriotic Americans to speak up. We believe that the rights and liberties enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights are under threat and need to be safeguarded.
In Tech, we have an environment that celebrates the open exchange of ideas without regard to an individual’s background, religious practice, ethnicity or sexual orientation. This ethos has led to the creation of some of the world’s most admired brands — companies that have transformed the way in which the world lives, works, and communicates.
We are concerned about recent incidents of harassment in diverse communities that could lead to a brain drain of much needed talent. Rather than attract the best from throughout the world, we risk losing our edge. Whenever our employees and colleagues experience hostility and fear, we believe, as business leaders, we must support them, unconditionally.
There is a pragmatic reason for this support. Tech talent who are confident their government will guarantee their freedoms — and operate free of fear — are better enabled to create America’s future innovative products. Simply put, innovation in Tech thrives on trust and inclusiveness. We deeply cherish:
- Open and trusted workplaces where our talent shares ideas confidently
- Our ability to attract the brightest talent from around the world to build success
- An entrepreneurial ecosystem where entrepreneurs for generations have mentored each other without regard to an individual’s background or beliefs
- A track record of creating global enterprises using a model where our country has been a beacon of participatory government, the rule of law, and a fair, level playing field
We will work to maintain American leadership in our industry globally — with the guiding premise that any perception of the United States regressing on individual freedoms diminishes America’s brand. Moving forward, we, as leaders, identify three core tenets which will guide our actions:
Our Pledge:
- We pledge to unconditionally protect our people from the erosion of their civil liberties, and to speak up and resist such attempts.
- We categorically refuse to contribute our skills or platforms to any effort that infringes on civil liberties by any government agency.
- We accept a responsibility to partner with communities where the effects of rapidly changing technologies have hurt our fellow Americans. As a business community that has built a formidable leadership and impact globally, it is our patriotic duty to find innovative ways to help create New Economy jobs throughout our country.
DISCLAIMER: The individuals listed below have endorsed in their personal capacity. They do not reflect the endorsement of any organization, corporation or entity to which they are affiliated. Titles and affiliations of each individual are provided for identification purposes only
We are proud to have 135+ dynamic tech leaders from across the United States as signatories to this pledge. This campaign is on-going:
Lend your name— if you would like to join fellow entrepreneurs, investors and leaders in signing the statement, please fill this form.
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Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor of Marketing, Stanford GSB
Faruq Ahmad, Founding Partner, Palo Alto Capital Advisors
Shinya Akamine, General Partner, Core Ventures Group
George Arison, Founder & CEO, Shift
Paul Arnold, Founder & Partner, Switch Ventures
Ross Baird, CEO, Village Capital
Lindsay Baker, President, Comfy
Lalit Balchandani, Senior Director/EIR, Adobe
Chris Barbin, CEO, Appirio
Alex Bard, CEO, Campaign Monitor
John Battelle, CEO EIC, NewCo
Josh Becker, CEO, Lex Machina
Andrew Beebe, Managing Director, Obvious Ventures
Daniel Berkowitz, Former Senior Director of Corporate Communications, AppDynamics
Elana Berkowitz, Co-Founder, HelloVote
Mark Bernstein, CEO, Willpower Labs
Dolores Benardo, Leadership Development, Airbnb
Gina Bianchini, Founder & CEO, Mightybell
Benjamin Black, Co-founder, Akkadian Ventures
Eve Blossom, Founder & CEO, WE’VE
Catherine Bracy, Founder, Executive Director, TechEquity Collaborative
Sage Brennan, CEO & Co-founder, Cicerone Mobile
BC Broussard, Founder, Flying Cranes
Jorge Calderon, Founder and CEO, Eddily
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder, Joyus.com & theBoardlist
Robin Chase Co-founder, Zipcar and Veniam
Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures
Debra Cleaver, Founder & CEO, Vote.org
Georges Clement, Co-founder & President, JustFix.nyc
Kendall Collins, CMO, AppDynamics
Anil Dash, CEO, Fog Creek Software
Alex de Carvalho, Co-founder, Visual Storytelling Institute
Jim Delli Santi, CEO and Founder, JDS Consulting
Suzanne DiBianca, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce
Stephen Dinan, CEO, The Shift Network
Joanna Drake Earl, General Partner, Core Ventures Group
Derek Eder, Partner, DataMade
Althea Erickson, Global Policy Director, Etsy
Johannes Ernst, CEO, Indie Computing Group
Gwen Edwards, Angel Investor & Managing Director, Golden Seeds
Nick Ellis, CEO, HIRABL
Jeff Epstein, Operating Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Naomi Fine, President & CEO, Pro-Tec Data
Natalie Foster, Co-founder, Peers
Brittany Fuller, Founder & CEO, Roadmap
Jamie Gardner, Principal, Gardner Consulting
Christie George, Director at New Media Ventures
Jasvir Gill, CEO, AlertEnterprise
Josh Goldstein, CEO, Department of Better Technology
Bobby Goodlatte, Founder & CEO, OpenVote
Mike Gridley, Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures
Mamoon Hamid, Co-founder & General Partner, Social Capital
Julie Hanna, Chairwoman Kiva, Board Member Mozilla Corporation
Mar Hershenson, Managing Partner, Pear Ventures
Jodi Sherman Jahic, Managing Partner, Aligned Partners
Leila Janah, CEO & Founder, Sama and LXMI
Dean Jansen, Executive Director, Participatory Culture Foundation
Leslie Jump, Founder & CEO, Startup Angels
Sina Khanifar, CEO, RSRF
Kaval Kaur, CFO, AlertEnterprise
Michael Keating, Founder & CEO, Scoot
Shuja Keen, Managing Director, The Resource Group
Susan Kim, CEO, EatWith
Gary Kremen, Founder, Match.com & Clean Power Finance
Elena Kvochko, CIO, Group Security Function, Barclays
Aileen Lee, Founder, Cowboy Ventures
Cadir Lee, President, OhmConnect
Kathy Levinson, Founder, Lesbian Equity Fund
Ginger Lew, Managing Director, Cube Hydro Partners
Sheila Ellian Lewis, CEO & Navigator, Ashton212
Alex Lofton, Co-founder, Landed
Dave Lu, Co-founder and President, Pared
Jorn Lyseggen, Founder & CEO, Meltwater
Matt Mahan, Co-founder & CEO, Brigade
Jules Maltz, General Partner, IVP
Kanyi Maqubela, Partner, Collaborative Fund
Karla Martin, Business Development and Innovation, Shopkick
John-Paul Maxfield, Founder, Waste Farmers
Ross Mayfield, CEO, Pingpad
Loretta McCarthy, Founding Partner, Golden Seeds
Andrew McLaughlin, Chair, Access Now
Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups
Sascha Meinrath, Director, X-Lab
Lenny Mendonca, Angel Investor, (Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Co.)
Chris Misner, Independent Advisor; former GM, Apple Online Store, APAC
Lisa Diaz Nash, Director, Atma Connect
Dan Neumann, Founder, Neumann Capital Management
Keith Nilsson, Managing Partner, Visionnaire Ventures
Mathieu Nouzareth, Co-founder & CEO, FreshPlanet
Amanda North, Founder & CEO, Artisan Connect
Mike Obrien, Co-founder, Appirio
Sara Olsen, Founding Partner, SVT Group
Jen Pahlka, Founder & Executive Director, Code for America
Stephanie Palmeri, Partner, SoftTech VC
Dan Parham, CEO, Head of Product, Neighborland
Nayan Patel, Founder & CEO, H2
Sunil Paul, Co-founder & CEO, Sidecar
Julie Pearl, Chair, Tracker Corp & CEO, Pearl Law Group
Sam Perry, President, Ascendance Ventures
Jesse Pickard, Co-founder & CEO, Elevate
Victoria Pettibone, Managing Director, Astia
Ramoa Pierson, CEO, Declara
Shelly Porges, Managing Director, Reservoir Q Global
Lauren Pufpaf, CMO & Founder, FEED.FM
Jesse Pujji, Co-founder and CEO, Ampush
G. Nagesh Rao, 2016 Eisenhower Fellow, Chief Technologist, SBA
Daniel Ramot, Co-founder & CEO, Via
Osman Rashid, Founder & CEO, Galxyz
Andrew Rasiej, Founder & CEO, Civic Hall
Nina Richardson, Independent Director, Silicon Labs
Adam Roberts, Founder & CEO, Camerarrific
Alec Ross, Author of The Industries of the Future
Greg Sands, Founder & Managing Director, Costanoa Venture Capital
Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO, Girls Who Code
Max Schireson, Former CEO, MongoDB
Linda Segervall, Principal & Founder, Icon Branding
Premal Shah, Co-founder & President, Kiva.org
Radhika Shah, Co-President, Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs
Tina Sharkey, CEO, Brandless
Naveed Sherwani, Founder & CEO, PeerNova
Narinder Singh, Co-founder, Appirio
Savneet Singh, Co-founder and President, Gold Bullion International
Jeff Stanger, President, CDI Lab
Beth Ann Steinberg, Founder, Mensch Ventures
Lisa Stone, CEO & Co-founder, BlogHer
Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation
Dilawar Syed, President, Freshdesk
Steve Thommes, Founder & CEO, Rainbow
Tracey Turner, Founder & Chairman, Copia Global
Tanya Van Court, Founder & CEO, iSow
Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Astia
Charley Wang, Co-CEO, Josephine
Jeff Weitzman, Co-founder, Go Factory
Steve Westly, Managing Partner, The Westly Group
Bryan Whitaker, CIO, TargetSmart
Brooke Wurst, Founder & CEO, Remote Harbor
