When I was fundraising for my startup, after pitching I always emailed to ask about the LPs and if there's any Saudi/oil money in the pool. More than 10 firms just ghosted me after that email, potentially because they think it's poor form to ask about LPs. (edit:We were still able to raise over $3.5MM seed though, so don't necessarily let asking put you off.)
Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
11–20 of 176 posts
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#12... what is the problem here? Investment is being made and people are better off for it. Isn't this how trickle down works?
The problem is these companies often claim liberal, progressive values and that they are forces for social good. On the other hand they are flattering and fawning to a murdering oppressive brute in person. It's an exasperating situation to be in. We need Saudi oil so we need to be able to work with them, but they are a grievous threat to freedoms and civil society globally. It's not just MBS either, look at the way g…
I see, that's a fair argument. Thanks missed that from the article which at the surface seemed to me like a great thing.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#13Obviously there is reluctance to support a ruler implicated in murder. Yet Saudi Arabia's oil-based economy has been recognized as a problem and risk for the country's own innocent people and there have long been hopes of diversification into other industries. That these investment schemes are linked to the Saudi government should not be too much cause for upset, because the Saudi Arabian populace benefits from a str…
> the money brought in by the government does go to benefit the average Saudi
Except the oppressed 33% of the population might not actually benefit:
https://aeon.co/essays/are-the-persian-gulf-city-states-slav...
> Thus attempts to deny Saudi government-led investment schemes ends up impacting normal people, not just the rulers.
This is a weak argument, as it could be extended to mean that any government should be supported as long as any fraction of the support benefits the average population.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if you think it purely in cold hard economic terms and believe trickle down economics is a real thing.
I don't know if I "believe" in trickle down, but it seems like this is whats happening. Are people not better off that money has moved from someones bank vault into employment?
The trickle-down theory is not a claim that rich peoples' money flows to less-rich people. (And claiming the opposite would be absurd; rich people do not permanently take money out of circulation.)
The trickle-down theory posits that the best way to get money to poor people is to flatter the rich with more money. It is a goofy excuse for tax cuts. About the only positive feature it has is that it is useful for detecting the economically gullible.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#15Obviously there is reluctance to support a ruler implicated in murder. Yet Saudi Arabia's oil-based economy has been recognized as a problem and risk for the country's own innocent people and there have long been hopes of diversification into other industries. That these investment schemes are linked to the Saudi government should not be too much cause for upset, because the Saudi Arabian populace benefits from a str…
Making the lives of civilian people utterly miserable in order to force them to topple unwanted governments has been a corner stone of US foreign policy for decades. It's why countries like Iran are facing so harsh sanctions; they punish the people severely into desperation. At least that's what the terribly flawed theory predicts. In reality, the rulers can easily circumvent sanctions through smuggling, foreign travel, sophisticated financial setups, etc.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#16> What does it mean for American innovation to be backed by oil wealth?
> Uber. WeWork. Flexport. Slack. MapBox. DoorDash.
Chat app? Office rentals? Adding a layer of ripping off restaurants to food delivery? If this is the “American innovation” the Saudis want a piece of, let them have it.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#17... what is the problem here? Investment is being made and people are better off for it. Isn't this how trickle down works?
The problem is these companies often claim liberal, progressive values and that they are forces for social good. On the other hand they are flattering and fawning to a murdering oppressive brute in person. It's an exasperating situation to be in. We need Saudi oil so we need to be able to work with them, but they are a grievous threat to freedoms and civil society globally. It's not just MBS either, look at the way g…
Look, speaking as someone who had a customer in the area in 2010 who kept me alive... as in, their contracts kept me from homelessness... the US government in 2011 under Barack Obama supported a putsch against the government of Egypt in an attempt to turn the country over to the Moslem Brotherhood, which led to about 1300 deaths in Egypt on both sides at the time. In addition it cost my customer his business.
The Arab world is split between groups that are basically catspaws for making the place a satrapy of Iran, and those that don't. What we tried to do in Egypt, what we did do in Libya, and what we paid the Iranians in 2015 greatly accelerated this. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Syria as Iran reestablished control. WITH US MONEY.
And this wasn't done by the Orange Man Bad, it was done by Barack Hussein Obama, the guy who everyone thinks was healing all the rifts in the world.
Please keep all of those conflicts (the ones in Syria and Libya are ongoing right now) in mind when you hear about what a tragic martyr Khasshogi was. It's just part of the Gleichschaltung and the poeple who generated it have plenty of blood on their hands themselves. (And even bombed, at the end of this week, the 'rebels' they funded with their payment to Iran back in 2015).
Gleichschaltung: it's a hell of a drug.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#18> TL;DR: it’s very ironic that, for all of Silicon Valley’s noise about moving fast, breaking things, accessibility, equality, and good old-fashioned American innovation and Freedom, a not insignificant part of it continues funded by foreign governments whose values are fundamentally at odds with what Silicon Valley claims to promote.
Just put the TLDR at the top of the article, next time.
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#19Undermining faith in the NATO alliance? Banned!
Dismembered a journalist? Welcome! Would you like a tour?
Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)
#202019.
(I upvoted you for adding context). The reason this is being brought up right now is because of Biden escalating tensions with Saudia Arabia over the murder of Khashoggi.
E.g. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/25/politics/biden-us-saudi-r...