On Monday, As tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg sat on stage for President Donald Trump's inauguration, dozens of founders threw parties all over Washington, D.C., trying to gain an audience with the new president's inner circle.
It's not that hard to hear them tell it. Isaiah Taylor, the founder of Valar Atomics, was on the weekend. At the Sunday party, I was bouncing and rubbing shoulders with Sean Spicer or conservative podcaster Jordan Peterson. Taylor's company wants to use nuclear energy to produce synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. He even received three separate invitations to Mar-a-Lago last month by sending Washington contacts and a two-page document about changes to nuclear regulations he wanted to know about. “People are saying, 'Please, how can I fix this?'” he said of the administration.
His story is surprisingly common. All over America's capital, founders enjoyed the fruits of their labor's politicking. They watched Snoop Dogg at David Sacks' Crypto Ball, attended a week-long crypto rave sponsored by the Milady NFT group, and dressed up for a “Coronation Ball” hosted by a publishing company associated with controversial thought leader Curtis Yarvin. Quote from both Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel.
Tyler Sweatt, CEO of defense technology startup Second Front Systems, says a big frustration with the federal government is the lack of bureaucratic transparency. You don't even know who the founders are. to contact the government; A large contract is less secure.
But Sweatt said events like the vice presidential dinner and Trump's pre-inauguration candlelight dinner, the federal government, It leaves the country feeling like it's entering a rare moment when Big Tech and the startup ecosystem are aligned — and one where the inner workings of government are on the fence. May be revoked. “Politically speaking, it's interesting to see what we can do as a country,” he said.
At a watch party hosted by the conservative organization American Moment, congressional staff wore suits with red ties and techies wore sneakers. Jacob Martin, general partner of crypto fund 2 Punks Capital, co-founder of gaming association Ready Player DAO; He continued to watch the news that Trump had immediately pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the famous founder of Silk Road, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison. Promised but not delivered. Do so at the Libertarian Convention in May.
Martin sadly missed the opportunity to buy the Trump meme coin at the Sacks' Crypto Ball, when top crypto donors were away from their computers. Soon coin trading increased. “I could buy it. But I'm not saying it's a scam, right?” laughs Martin. “There are people out there who have made hundreds of millions.”
The Trump administration hopes to make it so “people can use blockchain technology to do better things, unlock tokens when needed and not worry about jail time.”
DOGE is their big right.
Many founders felt Musk's government efficiency department would open the floodgates for startups to put government on their products to fulfill his promise to make government more efficient. James Layfield, Chief Sales Officer of Samplify.ai, created a website called “DogeProof.com” that helps companies identify obsolete software. He said the idea is to offer Samplify.ai's products to government agencies for free so that they can get rid of their extra subscriptions before Musk lowers their costs.
Layfield pitched Florida State Rep. Byron Donalds at an inaugural ball and said he seemed interested. “The whole experience has been incredibly rewarding to see how open people are to this possibility,” says Layfield.
Meanwhile, Rabi Alam, founder of Counter Health, hopes that DOGE can support his company's mission to streamline the healthcare system while maintaining high quality of care. First, Like everyone in the country, He needs to find the exact DOGE. Fortunately, Alam got an invitation to the Inauguration Ball, which was meant to spy on some DOGE employees. “I'd like to have some of what I'd call more color in terms of what the approach is in detail,” he said.
If anything this week shows. Between football and trips to Mar-a-Lago, the toughest challenge the founders face may be staying focused on their day job. “There are people trying to stay in the right room,” Taylor said. “There are people who try to get the job done.”