Name: Hey, Entrepreneurs: Ignore National Politics and Keep Building
Uploaded: 2016-12-15
Duration: 3 min 59 s
Description: According to Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson.

Jeff, Silicon Valley and the tech industry have had amazing growth in innovation and jobs over the past couple of years. What impact do you think the economic policies of President Elect, Donald Trump could have on Silicon Valley in the years ahead? I think there's a lot of uncertainty right now, absolutely, with the new administration coming in. Especially one that's fairly unprecedented in the style of the campaign. And time will tell, but ultimately our job building companies, especially for technology companies, especially for startups, right? There's a lot more that is in your control, in the company that you build Then, it's out of your control in the sense of like macroeconomic factors or economic policy of the president, and so I encourage entrepreneurs, personal beliefs aside, as far as your business goes, put your head down, don't get too distracted and keep building a great business by focusing on customers. Certainly, some of Trump's plans are very pro- growth, whether you're talking about tax cuts or about reducing the Regulation. But how concerned are you and other entrepreneurs about his stance on restricting immigrants? And given that Silicon Vally depends on this talent pool of immigrants, and so many of the success stories of The Valley were companies that were started by immigrants. What do you think about that? I think this country needs to be open to immigration and that is good for our economy, and that is good for start ups and its good for silicon Valley. You know Jeff one thing that we've learned from this election that a lot of americans felt that they were cut off from the overall economy and the economic growth and they even feel that they didnt get the full benefits of the tech boom And maybe that's part of the reasons that they voted for Trump. What do you think that we can do to change that? I think technologists shouldn't be blind to the fact that all technology doesn't benefit everybody equally, and that all technology isn't what's best for mankind. And I think that that's a balanced approach. We have to believe that there's obviously positives that come about from technologies that we're creating. But also, we have to be cognizant of its impact on a wider audience than just the people who we typically think of as the customers of our products. There's a lot of people in the world, and technology affects them all differently. I was talking to Steve Case, the founder of AOL and many other companies, recently. And he's a big advocate of getting entrepreneurs to expand into the heartland of America and to build companies and create jobs in places like your hometown of Detroit. Would you even consider doing something like that, and do you think it would make a difference? Of course. I've actually thought about it before. I think there's great talent everywhere in this country. I believe that diversity is important. Diversity is an important part of Trulia's ethos. That's diversity of gender, of sexual identity, of race, a variety of things. But that also goes to geographic diversity. And people of different backgrounds and people bringing different life experiences into the mix. I mean there's a wide variety of ways to look at diversity and folks that are in a wide variety of places in the United States and outside the United States I think help build a better company. Different points of view help you build better products It's no secret that many entrepreneurs were big supporters of Hilary Clinton. What do you think has to be done to develop a good relationship with our new President. I think that our country overall, we need to try to step back from the vitriol that has dominated American politics. Both at the candidate level, but also at the population level. And as a population, as a country, as a set of people with a shared set of beliefs, we need to work on coming together and being open To understand the other side. And be open to communicating. But the vitriol is what needs to stop. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]