Trump is About to Change Everything For Tech Startups
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How did the Biden administration’s policies affect tech startups and what changed with Trump’s election?
So I felt like a boot off the throat. Like every morning I wake up happier than the day before because all of all of these forms of repression that I just had gotten used to. You're under this level of repression for this long. When it's relieved, it takes you a little bit of time to realize, you know, my God, I can actually I I and the founders we work with can actually do all the things that we that were completely legitimate things to do that we're we're nevertheless being being blocked. Hallelujah. The content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investors in any A16 Z fund.
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Hi everybody. Uh welcome back to the Mark and Ben Show for a very special episode, which is our post election uh recap and so uh and landscape. And so long longtime viewers will know that we had a uh we had a uh we we did some episodes earlier on on the political landscape, including our you know, our our own activities uh earlier this year. Um and of course the election results are in and very dramatic. Um and I you know, we think a large number of very important Things are are about to change, or actually already changing. And so we want to give give everybody kind of a our sense of what the landscape looks like and the changes ahead for tech and and and for little tech. Um I want to start with uh two disclaimers right up front.
Uh one is per our normal custom, we are not going to get into non-tech political topics. And so people care very passionately about many aspects of politics. We're not going to talk about most of those. We'll talk specifically about tech and business and America's role in the world. Relative to tech and business. Um, and then second, important to say, uh, you know, we in no way are we speaking for the administration the new administration or anybody in it. Um everything we talk about about policy, we'll either talk about things that the people in the new administration have already said they plan to do, or we'll talk about options that they have, uh, you know, for things that they, you know, things that they can do, things that they might do.
Um and so with with that in mind, we wanted to start with sort of a recap of of basically in retrospect, you know, we're now through the election. Um, you know, the last uh, you know, four years uh, you know, have been, you know, very dramatic. Uh you know, politics politics in the last four years have had a much bigger impact on on the tech industry than certainly any other period in my life. Um and so let's let's start with like a recap of basically what what what happened in the last four years that led up to this point.
Yeah, so it was um probably the I I think Unarguably the worst uh four years in our career in terms of uh White House policy as it related to technology and you know probably to business more broadly. Um and you know, I do want to separate the Biden White House from uh Congress and so forth. There are a lot of uh Democrats who did good work in Congress, who voted for the right things, who uh you know have a A good kind of set of policy ideas, but the White House wasn't that way. And in particular, they did things that, you know, no White House has done, which is they they went far outside the law. And they did things, you know, like debanking companies, um, issuing Wells notices to companies for no reason, threatening companies, uh, and so forth, all with kind of the goal, and it was
you know, mainly focused on the areas of fintech and crypto. And they did it, you know, to basically try to destroy those industries. And it's still unclear exactly why. But that was, you know, it was a very hard fight. They were very good at it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did the Biden administration’s policies affect tech startups and what changed with Trump’s election?
0:00–9:34
2
What is “debanking” and how did it impact crypto and fintech companies?
9:34–15:53
3
Why do Marc and Ben believe tech policy is a top‑tier issue for America’s future?
15:53–22:17
4
What does the “Fit‑21” market‑structure bill aim to achieve for crypto regulation?
22:17–31:27
5
How will AI‑driven identity‑proof and provenance tools reshape security and content creation?
31:27–38:15
6
What are the biggest bottlenecks for AI and chip production and how might the new administration address them?
38:15–46:29
7
Why are drones considered the most transformative military technology since the stirrup?
46:29–53:19
8
What actions can founders take now to build in crypto, AI, and defense under the new policy environment?
53:19–59:34
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Ben & Marc Show
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