Silicon Valley lurched on Trump’s win wave of despair in the Valley!

People and Startups– Doer & Thinker –Customary Blog

It was not India that woke up with a contemplative mood about the ban of currency 500 and 1000 notes but the world also was shaken with election of Donald Trump as the President of The US.  The supposed darkened new global order was a cause of serious wave of disappointment which doomed the Business Community especially Consumer Internet , IT Services and Outsourcing. 

While the Electronic Media was busy reporting the speech of Trump the social media started flooding with the personal reaction of tech luminaries. Shirin Pishevar , Venture Capitalist at Sherpa Capital tweeted “ The horror, the horror”. Steward Butterfield (Co Founder of Slack) added “ I am heartbroken”.  One of the companies Grub Hub’s CEO Matt Maloney even wrote a letter to its employees stating that neither he nor the workplace culture he oversees would tolerate hateful rhetoric consistent with Donald Trump’s campaign. “If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here,” Maloney wrote in his initial email.

Why the Startup and the Silicon Valley Community Hate Donald Trump?

During the Obama years the Valley has witnessed its rising power and became economic and social engine of a new digital century. Smartphones have reached the acme of utility and Tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft rose to become the most prosperous companies of the planet. Apple had a cash pile which is greater than many economies of the world (around $ 750bn). Obama nurtured and gave the ample space and resources for the Technology Company to grow and a complete autonomy to build better world. We all knew how Apple confronted its privacy against FBI request to hack one of the terrorist’s user accounts and finally FBI hacked it indigenously. 

Donald Trump on the other hand is foreseen to bring the state of Discord Confusion Lack & Limitation. His speeches has promised to initiate antitrust actions against Amazon, asking Apple to manufacture its product in US and not in China and promoting boycott of Apple phones on the occasion of FBI’s request to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone. The ban over Muslims immigration and antistatic policies seemed to bring more trouble to companies who offshore their businesses for cheap labor.  

Donald Trump is seeing the future with a vision of building big bold and beautiful infrastructures with bigger wheels riding on the roads and what Tech Companies are looking to bring is a virtual world that rests completely upon technology and innovation. The disconnect is evident and shall bring in more conflicts in the coming times.

The Valley could never believe that Donald Trump would ever win?

It came to them as a nightmare and the leaders were bemused to speak what it had brought to them. Some of the responsible leadership knew that they will be remembered for long time if they express at this hour of surprise! To others who seemed to be an entrant and have been flourishing with the technology wave, did express but it later they realized that it’s going to impact them negatively. Grub hub’s CEO (a US-based food ordering major ) has fired an email stating either he nor the workplace culture he oversees would tolerate hateful rhetoric consistent with Donald Trump’s campaign. He initially said “If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here”.

What’s in it for India ?

Silicon Valley is the torch bearer and the product designing is pioneered by handful of companies which lead the innovation in the digital world. In fact Israel which is supposed to bring in more innovation with it’s per square km existence seeks its base to flourish only through Silicon Valley. The Startup bubble of the 90’s, the smartphones intrusion of the 2000’s and now the upcoming lap of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, all started in Silicon Valley. India is the third largest Startup base and majority of the technology infusion and innovation is going to be guided by the Silicon Valley. India in the recent years would see scale and innovation both. However Scale would take away the glory and the innovation would need appropriate infrastructure, resources which would take time to be built, to bring conducive physical environment to lead the Innovation for the Digital Century. Till then, Silicon Valley shall be deemed to be the torch bearer and India shall bring in scale to it.