On Monday, as tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg sat on stage for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, dozens of founders were at parties across DC, trying to get an audience with the new president’s inner circle. To hear them say, it is not all that hard. Valar Atomics founder Isaiah Taylor spent his weekend party jumping, rubbing shoulders with Sean Spicer or conservative podcaster Jordan Peterson. Taylor’s company wants to use nuclear power to produce synthetic hydrocarbon fuel. He even scored three separate invitations to Mar-A-Lago last month by sending a two-page document about the changes he wants to see to nuclear regulations to anyone with a DC connection. “People are like, ‘Please tell me, how do we fix this? We have to rebuild,'” he said of the administration. His story was shocking. All in America’s capital, the founders enjoyed the fruits of industrial political jockeying. She watched Snoop Dogg at David Sacks’ Crypto Ball, attended a crypto party sponsored by the Milady NFT group, and dressed in a “Coronation Ball” hosted by a publishing company associated with Curtis Yarvin, a controversial thought leader cited by both Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. Tyler Sweatt, CEO of defense technology startup Second Front Systems, says the biggest frustration he has with the federal government is bureaucratic opacity. Founders often don’t know who to contact in government, let alone secure large contracts. But Sweatt left events like the vice-presidential dinner and Trump’s pre-inauguration candlelight dinner looking like the country is about to enter a rare moment where the federal government, big tech and the startup ecosystem are aligned — and where the shroud around government might be. appointed. “Apolitically, it’s very interesting for what we can do as a country,” he said. At a viewing party hosted by the conservative organization American Moment, congressional staffers wore suits with red ties and tech workers wore sneakers. Jacob Martin, general partner of crypto fund 2 Punks Capital and co-founder of the game Guild Ready Player DAO continues to watch for the news that Trump has immediately pardoned the founder of the famous Silk Road Ross Ulbricht, who is currently living in prison. He did not, despite promising to do so at the Libertarian convention in May. Martin also lamented missing the chance to buy a Trump meme coin when it launched at the Sacks’ Crypto Ball, a time when top crypto donors weren’t at their computers. Trading in the coin soon increased. “I can buy it. But I don’t, because it’s obviously a scam, right?” Martin laughed. “There are people making hundreds of millions.” He hopes the Trump administration can make it possible for “people to use blockchain technology to make better things, issue tokens when needed, and not have to worry about jail time.” DOGE is a big chance Some founders feel Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will open the door for startups to take government action on their products in order to fulfill their promise to make government more efficient. James Layfield, chief sales officer of Samplify.ai, which helps companies identify redundant software, created a website called “DogeProof.com.’ The concept, he said, is to offer the Samplify.ai product to government agencies for free, so that they can eliminate extra subscriptions before Musk arrives to reduce costs used to give gifts to just see how to open people to this possibility,” He said. Meanwhile, Rabi Alam, founder of Counter Health, hopes that DOGE can support the company’s mission to streamline the health care system while maintaining the quality of care. But, first, like everyone in the country, he needs to know what DOGE is. Fortunately, Alam got an invitation to the Inaugural Ball, where he wants to look for some DOGE employees. “I want to ask for some of what I would call granularity and more color in what the approach,” He said. If this weekend shows anything, it is the most difficult challenge that the founders will face, between balls and Mar-A-Lago trips, may be to stay focused on their work days. “Someone’s trying to get to the right room,” Taylor said. “And someone is trying to finish the work.”
Startup founders flood the inauguration party hoping for dealmaking
