Matt Mahan

Yeah, I think that these – I work to the tech sector building civic tech tools, helping people essentially organize and be civically active and hold their elected officials accountable.

And I can tell you from working in the space for quite a few years that technologists –

don't start from the perspective of politics or the kind of presence that you're talking about or even brand building.

I know it's sort of the myth, although I think kind of the reality of tech that it's much more people who are

tinkerers, inventors who are literally starting in a garage, and they're interested in creating something new and powerful that gives you a new capability that can solve a problem.

And it's sort of like all the rest, the revenue, profit, sponsorships, marketing, politics is super secondary.

For years, the tech sector had a mutual avoidance with government and just wanted to be left alone.

It was actually a very libertarian sector.

And so whether you're in San Francisco, I think it still is a libertarian mindset.

I mean, you know, I think we do have some exceptions, though.

I have to give a huge shout out to Adobe headquartered in downtown San Jose.

Thousands of employees.

They contribute a ton to the community.

They're always sponsoring things, investing in arts and culture.

So but they are.

Yeah, although I've got to say, same for Cisco, which is here in San Jose.

I think it depends on the maturity of the company and the maturity of the sub-industry.

If it's a new robotics company or vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, they're just focused on trying to get the tech to work.

They're trying to actually figure out, is there a market for this thing and does it work?

Once a company has been around 20, 30 years, is profitable, is more mature, they're a lot more likely to actually look around and say, okay, how do we show up in the community?