In the weeks since Zohran Mamdani’s New York City Democratic primary win on June 20, a slew of tech executives who do not have a primary residence in the city or state of New York have been panicking about the prospect of him becoming mayor.
Every member of the popular All-In podcast, including current White House “AI and crypto czar” David Sacks, has raised alarms on X about the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty.
“Wake up, Silicon Valley,” Sacks posted on June 29, sharing a video of Mamdani on Meet the Press. “You basically have two choices now: Get on board with MAGA or prepare to be on Mamdani’s dinner menu.”
Gemini cofounders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, former X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Y Combinator president and CEO Garry Tan have also posted about Mamdani with some combination of anger, fear, and dread since his primary win. Even Elon Musk has weighed in, though with less frequency and intensity than his posts on many other topics.
Generally speaking, these tech leaders' slights are mostly concerned with Mamdani identifying as a Democratic Socialist—though, they often describe him as a plain “socialist,” which is meaningfully different, or a “communist,” which is completely different.
But some tech leaders who live or have corporate headquarters in New York City tell WIRED that they don’t agree. Several executives who attended an approximately 200-person private meeting on July 16 with Mamdani tell WIRED that they were impressed by Mamdani’s eagerness to listen to their concerns, his thoughtful answers to their questions, and his charisma, which eased the tension in a room with a diverse set of opinions.
One attendee, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, tells WIRED that the makeup of the people at the tech-focused event, cohosted by Partnership for New York City (PNYC), appeared to be primarily company founders, general partners, and senior executives. Among them, they claim, were William Floyd, Google’s senior director of US state and local government affairs and public policy; Nihal Mehta, cofounder of Eniac Venture Capital; and Julie Samuels, president and CEO of Tech:NYC.
Got a Tip? Are you a current or former tech worker who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at 785-813-1084.
Event moderator Kevin Ryan, the chief executive officer of venture capital firm AlleyCorp and founding member of the professional network Tech:NYC, tells WIRED that coming out of the meeting, attendees seemingly “felt better about Zohran than they did coming in,” noting that Mamdani “is charming, well-spoken, articulate, and comes across as genuine.”
“I'm not saying that everyone walked out wanting to vote for him,” says Ryan (who also helped to organize events for several other candidates). “But what I've heard afterwards from people is that they were at least impressed.”
Ryan adds that people were often “frustrated at either the vagueness of some of his answers,” or have the perception of Mamdani as not very “pro-business.”