A joint statement by 130+ founders, executives and investors against President’s Executive Order banning individuals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering America
As technology executives, investors and leaders in Silicon Valley we are appalled at the President of the United State’s Executive Order (EO) signed this Friday, January 27 barring entry to the United States of individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries. Even current visa holders and permanent U.S. residents — many who work in our industry— are being prevented from traveling back home to the U.S. This targeting of individuals based on national origin and religion is morally wrong and profoundly un-American. We urge the President to rescind this order, and for the United States Congress and courts to step in and uphold our constitution (we are heartened by a federal judge’s ruling on Feb., 3 to halt the implementation of the EO, and the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Feb. 9 decision to not reinstate the ban. The administration’s revised EO announced on Mar. 6 still constitutes discrimination against people from six Muslim-majority nations. We reject the measure, and will continue to oppose).
Silicon Valley flourishes because of our free and open culture of entrepreneurship and excellence. We attract the world’s most enterprising talent. We thrive because the U.S. Bill of Rights — our most cherished business advantage — is a guarantor of freedom of expression, religion and movement. For decades we have worked side by side with colleagues of virtually every race and national origin, religion, gender and sexual orientation. Together, we have created products that have transformed lives everywhere. The President’s actions yesterday not only negatively affect Tech’s competitiveness, they hurt the U.S. economy overall.
We, as American entrepreneurs, investors and executives of companies commit to:
- Supporting all our people regardless of their religion and national origin, and raising our voice forcefully against such actions at all levels of our government
- Providing whatever support necessary to any of our employees and their families affected by the Executive Order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States”
- Encouraging an open and honest dialogue on the importance of inclusivity and equity in enabling shared success and prosperity across America
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
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Signatories
Faruq Ahmad, Founding Partner, Palo Alto Capital Advisors
Shinya Akamine, General Partner, Core Ventures Group
Roberto Angulo, CEO, AfterCollege
Shellye Archambeau, CEO, MetricStream
Paul Arnold, Founder & Partner, Switch Ventures
Lindsay Baker, President, Comfy
Ross Baird, CEO, Village Capital
Trip Baird, Founder & Managing Partner, The Builders Fund
Alex Bard, CEO, Campaign Monitor
David Batstone, Managing Partner, Just Business
John Battelle, CEO EIC, NewCo
Josh Becker, CEO, Lex Machina
Manik Bhat, CEO, Healthify
Gina Bianchini, Founder & CEO, Mightybell
John Bielenberg, Cofounder, Future
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder & Chairman, Joyus
Andrei Cherny, Cofounder & CEO, Aspiration
Georges Clement, Co-founder & President, JustFix.nyc
David Cohn, Founder & CEO, Regroup Therapy
Tony Conrad, Founder/Partner, about.me, True Ventures
Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs
John De Goes, CEO, SlamData Inc.
Stephen Dinan, CEO, The Shift Network
Joanna Drake Earl, General Partner, Core Ventures Group
Derek Draper, CEO, Pattern
Tim Dutta, CEO, Verificient Technologies, Inc.
Sharif El-Badawi, Partner, 500 Startups
Nick Ellis, Fellow, Aspen Institute
Amy Errett, Founder & CEO, Madison Reed
Mauria Finley, CEO, Stealth Startup
Laurel Flanagan, Managing Partner, BELLE Capital USA
Corey Ford, Managing Partner, Matter Ventures
Stacey Foreman, Co-founder & Executive Producer, NewCo
Shruti Gandhi, Managing Partner, Array Venture
Joshua Goldstein, CEO, Department of Better Technology
Laura Gómez, CEO, Atipica
Mike Gridley, Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures
Mamoon Hamid, Co-founder & General Partner, Social Capital
Julie Hanna, Board Member, Mozilla Corporation
Robin Hauser, Director, Unleased Productions, Inc.
Kiran Hebbar, COO, Social Tables & Venture Partner, Valhalla Partners
Mar Hershenson, Managing Partner, Pear Ventures
Brian Hill, Founder & CEO, Edovo
Dean Jansen, Executive Director, Participatory Culture Foundation
Keval Kaur, CFO, Start Up Farm International
Jeremy Keeshin, Co-founder & CEO, CodeHS
Farooq Khan, CEO, PHAZR
Dave Kirkpatrick, Co-founder & Managing Director, SJF Ventures
Ben Knelman, CEO, Juntos
Marcin Kowalski, COO, UXPin, Inc.
Raina Kumra, Founder, Juggernaut
Leslie Jump, Founder & CEO, Startup Angels
Abhey Lamba, Technology Analyst, Wall St. firm
Wendy Lead, CEO, Centrifuse
Brandon Levey, CEO, Stitch Labs
Ginger Lew, CEO, Three Oaks LLC
Don Loeb, VP Corporate Development & Strategy, Techstars
Alex Lofton, Co-founder, Head of Growth, Landed, Inc.
Benjamin McCann, Co-founder & CTO, Connectifier
Matt Mahan, Co-founder & CEO, Brigade
Akif Malik, CEO Sports Colab
Jules Maltz, General Partner, IVP
Martin Manly, Cofounder & former CEI, Alibris
Kanyi Maqubel, Partner, Collaborative Fund
Tom Matzzie, Founder & CEO, CleanChoice Energy
Ross Mayfield, Cofounder & CEO, Pingpad
JP Maxfield, Founder, Waste Farmers
Sascha Meinrath, Director, X-Lab
Jana Messerschmidt, Founding Partner, #Angels (former VP, Twitter)
Andrew McLaughlin, Chair, Access Now
Andrew McLaughlin, Venture Partner, Betaworks
Lenny Mendonca, Angel Investor, (Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Co.)
Chris Misner, Advisor/Investor, (former GM, Apple Online Store, APAC)
Lesa Mitchell, Managing Director, TechStars
Bonny Moellenbrock, Executive Director, Investors’ Circle
Sheel Mohnot, General Partner, 500 Fintech
Gabriel Moncayo, CEO, AlwaysHired
Lisa Diaz Nash, Director, Atma Connect
Haley Nelson, General Manager, NewCo
R. Jerry Nemorin, Founder & CEO, LendStreet
Keith Nilsson, Managing Partner, Visionnaire Ventures
Mathieu Nouzareth, Co-founder & CEO, FreshPlanet
Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
Jennifer Pahlka, Executive Director, Code for America
Stephanie Palmeri, Partner, SoftTek VC
Sonja Perkins, Founder, Broadway Angels & Project Glimmer
Sam Perry, President, Ascendance Ventures
Lauren Pufpaf, Cofounder, Feed.fm
Adam Quinton, CEO, Lucas Point Ventures
Arvind Rajan, Cofounder & CEO, Cricket Health
Mahesh Ram, CEO, Solvvy
Andrew Rasiej, Founder & CEO, Civic Hall
Jana Rich, Rich Talent Group
Ben Rigby, CEO, Sparked.com
Philip Rosedale, CEO, High Fidelity
Joe Ross, CEO, Schoold
Greg Sands, Founder & Managing Director, Costanoa Venture Capital
Joseph Sanberg, Co-founder, Aspiration.com
Doug Scott, CEO, Ethic
Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code
Christopher Schroeder, Venture Investor
Max Schireson, Former CEO, MongoDB
Danny Shader, PayNearMe, Inc.
Brad Sharek, Founder & CMO, march49
Tina Sharkey, CEO, Brandless
Chitra Sharma, Founder, gCompliance, Inc.
Harpinder Singh, Cofounder & CEO, Slice
Narinder Singh, Entrepreneur, UCSF & UC Berkeley
Christopher Smith, Managing Partner, Extrope
Dug Song, CEO, Duo Security
Kevin Spain, General Partner, Emergence Capital
Jeff Stanger, President, CDI Lab
Graham Stanton, Co-founder, Peloton
Beth Ann Steinberg, Founder, Mensch Ventures
Lisa Stone, CEO & Co-founder, BlogHer
Emre Sokullu, Founder & CEO GROU.PS Inc.
Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder & CEO, Honor
Dilawar Syed, President, Freshdesk
Allen Taylor, Managing Director, Endeavor Catalyst
Chuck Templeton, Investor, S2G Ventures
Stephanie Tilenius, CEO, Vida Health & Board Director, Seagate and Coach
Christopher Turek, Director, Professional Services, Microsoft
Tracy Turner, Founder & Chairman, Copia Global
Imo Udom, CEO, WePow
Steve Wax, Partner & Chief Narratologist, The Cooke Wax Partnership
Arthur Bart-William, CEO, Vizzit
Ann Crady Weiss, CEO, Hatch Baby
David Weiss, CTO, Hatch Baby
Brooke Wurst, Founder & CEO, Remote Harbor
Elizabeth Zalman, Co-founder & CEO, strongDM
Bilal Zuberi, Partner, Lux Capital
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