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December 17, 2020
Coinbase announced Thursday that it has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the SEC, teeing it up for an IPO likely in early 2021.
The startup could end up being the first crypto exchange to list publicly, a milestone for the crypto industry. Coinbase was last valued at over $8 billion by investors in 2018.
Biz Carson
Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
Big Tech benefits from Biden’s sweeping immigration actions
Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai praised President Biden's immigration actions, which read like a tech industry wishlist.
Newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden signed two immigration-related executive orders on Wednesday.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
January 20, 2021
Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.
January 20, 2021
Immediately after being sworn in as president Wednesday, Joe Biden signed two pro-immigration executive orders and delivered an immigration bill to Congress that reads like a tech industry wishlist. The move drew enthusiastic praise from tech leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
President Biden nullified several of former-President Trump's most hawkish immigration policies. His executive orders reversed the so-called "Muslim ban" and instructed the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which the Trump administration had sought to end. He also sent an expansive immigration reform bill to Congress that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals and make it easier for foreign U.S. graduates with STEM degrees to stay in the United States, among other provisions.
<p>Biden's Day One moves suggest that immigration reform will be one of the key areas for allyship between Silicon Valley and the Biden administration over the next several years. The industry is sorely in need of common ground as Democrats pledge to use their power over Congress and the White House to crack down on Big Tech. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
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</div></p><p>"We welcome President Biden's commitment to pursuing comprehensive immigration reform that reflects the American values of justice, fairness and dignity," said Cook in a statement to Protocol. "This effort will strengthen American communities and the pathways to opportunity this country has long fostered." </p><p>Cook, who is the chair of Business Roundtable's immigration committee, said he looked forward to working with Democrats and Republicans on a "permanent solution for Dreamers that includes a path to citizenship."</p><p>"We applaud @POTUS's quick action on COVID relief, the Paris Climate Accord, and immigration reform," Pichai <a href="https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/1352021111479832576?s=21" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Wednesday. "Google has supported action on these important issues & we look forward to working with the new administration to help the US recover from the pandemic + grow our economy."</p><p>An Uber spokesperson also affirmed the company's support for President Biden's actions. "At Uber, we have long supported positive immigration reform and an effective system that upholds core American values," the spokesperson said. "Uber will continue to support Dreamers, and we welcome the new Administration's effort to reform our nation's immigration system."</p><p>The tech industry, which relies heavily on foreign workers, has spent the last four years <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/08/31/tech-industry-prepares-new-trump-fight-over-daca-dreamer-protection-program/622897001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">battling with the Trump administration</a> over efforts to shut down vital talent pipelines from countries including India, China and Iran. Over the last four years, tech giants have filed <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/dreamers-embody-apples-innovation-strategy-apple-ceo-tim/story?id=66030999" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amicus briefs</a> in high-profile <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/16/21069827/twitter-microsoft-linkedin-public-charge-trump-immigration-tech-companies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">court cases</a> and lobbied in favor of opening up U.S. borders to high-skilled workers. Despite protestations from Silicon Valley leaders, the Trump administration continually added uncertainty to the H-1B visa application process, resulting in significant backlogs. </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
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</div></p><p>Biden's immigration bill would put money towards clearing visa backlogs, eliminate visa caps on certain countries and make it easier for people on temporary work visas to get green cards. Perhaps most significantly, it would immediately give the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. a pathway to become citizens. </p><p>The executive orders on DACA and the Muslim ban will immediately appease immigration advocates, including those inside the tech industry, but the toughest battle still lies ahead: rallying support in Congress for immigration reform, which has failed for years. Still, there may be some in the Republican party who are willing to work with the Biden administration on key pillars of the proposal. On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was a leading player in immigration talks during the Obama years and a top Trump ally, told CBS he is open to creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.</p><p>"What we are really looking for is making sure there is congressional action and there is a legislative solution," said Karolina Filipiak, senior director of government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council, a tech trade group. "We don't want to be in the same position four years from now or eight years from now [with] a new administration that could rescind the program." </p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
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</div></p><p>Companies including Facebook and Google are hoping to work with lawmakers in Congress to create bipartisan support for reform, particularly as they face regulatory headwinds of their own. </p>
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Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.
Tech's love affair with Wall Street is going to continue into 2021.
Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty Images
January 1, 2021
Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
Shakeel Hashim ( @shakeelhashim) is a growth manager at Protocol, based in London. He was previously an analyst at Finimize covering business and economics, and a digital journalist at News UK. His writing has appeared in The Economist and its book, Uncommon Knowledge.
December 31, 2020
The second half of 2020 has been an IPO bonanza. So far, it looks like 2021 will be more of the same.
Affirm and Roblox, which delayed their listings in 2020, are almost certain to go public, and they'll be joined by some of the biggest companies in tech, such as crypto exchange Coinbase.
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Here are the IPOs you need to know about for 2021.
</p><h2>Already flipped an S-1</h2><h4></h4><h3>Roblox</h3><p>
The gaming platform pushed off its December 2020 IPO to 2021 after deciding to reassess its pricing strategies in the wake of huge pops from the <a href="https://www.protocol.com/airbnb-ipo-pricing" target="_self">Airbnb</a> and <a href="https://www.protocol.com/doordash-ipo" target="_self">DoorDash</a> IPOs. Sources <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-roblox-ipo-idUSKBN28M070?taid=5fd480b6d1225d000133c943&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Reuters</a> that Roblox viewed the Airbnb and DoorDash IPOs as under-priced and hoped to get a higher IPO price in the new year.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>The free-to-play gaming platform is a massive hit with more than 31 million average daily active users during the pandemic, up from 17 million the year before. It makes money through the sale of "Robux" and a premium subscription service.</li>
<li><strong>Financials:</strong> Because it's <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1315098/000119312520298230/d87104ds1.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">flipped its S-1</a>, we already have an inside look. The company experienced big COVID-19 tailwinds, with revenue in the first three quarters of 2020 reaching $209 million, up from $72 million in the same period in 2019. The company was last valued by private market investors at $4 billion in early 2020.</li>
<li><strong>The names you should know: </strong>A founder-run company, CEO and co-founder David Baszucki officially launched Roblox in 2006 after <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2018/09/17/how-roblox-is-training-the-next-generation-of-gaming-entrepreneurs/?sh=27801c9551a9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">working on it for a couple years</a>. Sadly, co-founder Erik Cassel died of cancer in February 2013. Roblox's CFO, Mike Guthrie, is a later addition, joining Roblox in 2018 after taking TrueCar public. The big investor winner will be Altos Ventures, which owns over 21% of the company.</li>
<li><strong>What to look for:</strong> After pausing the IPO process, we'll see if Roblox decides to add in different pricing controls or pursue an entirely different path to a public listing. Gaming is unlikely to become less popular over the holidays, but longer term, the big question is whether Roblox can sustain its revenue and engagement levels in a post-COVID world.</li>
</ul><h3>Affirm
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Similar to Roblox, the fintech company also pushed off its highly-anticipated 2020 IPO, but it wasn't as much over pricing concerns. The company is <a href="https://www.axios.com/roblox-ipo-affirm-delay-032685fe-3816-46fb-a50d-85979edf317c.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">reportedly placing much of the blame</a> on the SEC's lack of responsiveness about its IPO during this busy period rather than skittishness over the market.<br>
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>Affirm is a consumer lending company that allows people to break big-ticket purchases into a series of smaller payments, including from retailers like Expedia, Walmart and Peloton. </li>
<li><strong>Financials: </strong>The company nearly <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000110465920126927/tm2026663-4_s1.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">doubled its revenues last year</a>, bringing in roughly $510 million for a fiscal year ending June 30. Pitchbook lists its most recent valuation at around $2.9 billion, but that was from April 2019. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know:</strong> It's a second act for PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, who started Affirm in 2012 and told me in 2014 that he wanted to build a "multihundred-year company." Levchin will be front and center of the roadshow, but Affirm's CFO is former HP exec Michael Linford.</li>
<li><strong>What to look for: </strong>Around <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/news/affirm-s1-ipo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a third of Affirm's revenue</a> comes from one customer: Peloton. It's a risk factor in its S-1 and certainly a risk factor depending on how you feel about Peloton's future as a COVID-19 vaccine rolls out in the next year. </li>
</ul><h3>Poshmark</h3><p>
The secondhand sales platform snuck in just before the holidays, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/18/unpacking-poshmarks-ipo-filing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">making its S-1 public</a> at the end of December with plans to list in the new year.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>The company is known for its secondhand retail empire where people can post their own items for sale in the app, comment on listings and buy from others. Entrepreneurs <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2018/12/14/next-billion-dollar-startups-how-a-serial-social-shopping-entrepreneur-built-poshmark-from-used-clothes-into-a-625m-retail-empire/?sh=2e1af86e1150" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">are now building entire businesses</a> around sales on Poshmark, and it has expanded over time from a focus on clothes into categories like home decor and beauty. In the first nine months of 2020, it had revenue of $193 million, making a small profit of $8 million.</li>
<li><strong>Funding: </strong>The company last raised funding in 2017 at a $625 million valuation and has cumulatively raised around $160 million according to PitchBook. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know:</strong> Co-founder and CEO Manish Chandra runs Poshmark, along with his co-founders Tracy Sun, Gautam Golwala and Chetan Pungaliya, who all remain at the company. Its CFO Anan Kashyap is experienced with the IPO process, having worked on over 20 deals at Deutsche Bank before helping Kayak with the execution of its IPO. </li>
<li><strong>What to look for:</strong> Poshmark's IPO will be heavily compared to ThredUp's, a similar clothing resale business also looking to go public — though the two have very different business models. It will come down to clear storytelling from the company to make sure investors understand the difference between the two, or they will end up in the world of Lyft versus Uber comparisons.</li>
</ul><h2>Confidentially filed</h2><h3></h3><h3>Coinbase</h3><p>
<strong></strong>Coinbase has had a tumultuous year, to say the least. While many in tech will best remember it for the controversy <a href="https://www.protocol.com/coinbase-social-political-policies-backlash" target="_self">around its employees' politics</a>, it's also been a major beneficiary of Bitcoin's soaring price. In December, the <a href="https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-announces-confidential-submission-of-draft-registration-statement-b140a9dfc9f5" target="_blank">company announced</a> it had confidentially filed its S-1.
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<li><strong>What it does</strong>: Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., estimated to hold <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/66974/despite-the-recent-decline-exchanges-still-hold-more-than-16-of-all-bitcoins" target="_blank">around 5.4%</a> of all Bitcoin in circulation. It's recently started <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-27/coinbase-expands-institutional-services-with-tagomi-purchase" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">expanding into institutional investing</a> too, acquiring broker platform Tagomi.</li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> Coinbase has raised $525 million, with the bulk of that coming from a $300 million funding round in 2018. That round valued it at just over $8 billion, and it hasn't raised since.</li>
<li><strong>Names to know: </strong>Brian Armstrong, Coinbase's polarizing CEO, will likely do well from a listing. Keep an eye on Andreessen Horowitz, too: Though Christopher Dixon was the partner that led the firm's investment, Marc Andreessen — who has his fair share of public company experience — joined Coinbase's board in September and was <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/marc-andreessen-kelly-kramer-named-directors-on-coinbase-board" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">elevated to director status</a> in December.</li>
<li><strong>What to watch for:</strong> Coinbase may end up being the first crypto exchange to list, which might make it even more of a magnet for many of the industry's regulatory concerns. Armstrong has already started fretting about <a href="https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1331744884856741888" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rumored plans</a> at the U.S. Treasury, which he says could have "unintended side effects."</li>
</ul><h3>Bumble</h3><p>
Dating app company Bumble could be looking to make its match with the public markets around Valentine's Day. The company has reportedly confidentially filed for an IPO with plans to list in February, and it could value it at $6 billion to $8 billion, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-18/bumble-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-february-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Bloomberg</a>.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>Bumble is known for its dating app, but the company also owns Badoo. Bumble counts around 100 million users, but the combined apps under the Bumble company reach around 600 million people, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90527896/bumble-hits-100-million-users-and-has-new-plans-to-take-over-the-dating-world" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Fast Company</a>. </li>
<li><strong>Funding: </strong>Bumble is majority-owned by the Blackstone Group, which struck a deal in <a href="https://www.blackstone.com/press-releases/article/blackstone-to-take-majority-stake-in-magiclab-owner-of-bumble-and-badoo-at-3-billion-valuation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">November 2019 to acquire the majority stake</a> of MagicLab. That deal valued Bumble company at $3 billion. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know: </strong>Whitney Wolfe Herd is the founder of Bumble after being a big part of the early days of Tinder. She started Bumble with the help of MagicLab's Andrey Andreev, a Russian billionaire who provided the initial funding for a stake in the company. However, after <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2019/07/08/exclusive-investigation-sex-drugs-misogyny-and-sleaze-at-the-hq-of-bumbles-owner/?sh=4f907f0b6308" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a Forbes investigation revealed claims</a> of rampant misogyny and sexism in the workplace, Andreev sold his stake in MagicLab to Blackstone as part of the 2019 deal, and Wolfe Herd <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackstone-takes-controlling-stake-in-owner-of-dating-app-bumble-11573225201" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">became CEO</a> of the company, which was renamed under the Bumble brand.</li>
<li><strong>What to look for: </strong>The pandemic has certainly changed how people date, but it doesn't mean people have stopped. According to Apptopia, dating app usage has <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/11/24/love-in-the-time-of-covid-dating-apps-are-thriving/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">generally grown</a> in the pandemic (blame isolation). Whether that usage has translated into revenue for the businesses is a big unknown. </li>
</ul><h3>UiPath</h3><p>
UiPath could be looking to double its valuation to over $20 billion in a 2021 IPO. The software startup, which specializes in robotic process automation, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-17/uipath-is-said-to-be-close-to-filing-confidentially-for-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Bloomberg</a> in December that it had confidentially filed for an IPO. It has also <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-14/software-maker-uipath-is-said-to-pick-banks-for-2021-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reportedly picked</a> banks in anticipation of a public offering in the first half of 2021.
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<li><strong>What it does:</strong> UiPath creates bots that helps companies do "mindless" tasks like data entry, making it one of the biggest names in robotic process automation. </li>
<li><strong>Funding: </strong>The company has raised around $1.2 billion, including a $225 million round in July that valued the company at $10.2 billion, according to PitchBook. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-17/uipath-is-said-to-be-close-to-filing-confidentially-for-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According to Bloomberg</a>, the company is currently doing $500 million in ARR. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know: </strong>UiPath's CEO and co-founder Daniel Dines is considered the world's first "bot billionaire," <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/09/11/from-communism-to-coding-how--daniel-dines-of-7-billion-uipath-became-the-first-bot-billionaire/?sh=44df8c71206e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Forbes</a>. He started the company with Marius Tirca, UiPath's co-founder and CTO. Its CFO Ashim Gupta joined the company in 2018 after spending his career rising through the ranks at GE.</li>
<li><strong>What to look for: </strong>UiPath competes against companies like Automation Anywhere, but the big cloud giants like Microsoft are certainly taking notice of RPA platforms. Some even suspect that Microsoft <a href="https://www.horsesforsources.com/microsoft-uipath_10282019" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">could end up buying</a> the company before it makes it to the public markers. </li>
</ul><h3>ThredUp</h3><p>
Speaking of which, the other secondhand clothing retailer looking to go public announced in October that it had <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thredup-announces-confidential-submission-of-draft-registration-statement-for-proposed-initial-public-offering-301156380.html#:~:text=OAKLAND%2C%20Calif.%2C%20Oct.,its%20Class%20A%20common%20stock." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">confidentially filed</a> for an IPO.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>Unlike Poshmark, which has a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers, ThredUp is more like an online consignment and thrift store. It receives items from people and then re-sells them through its website. </li>
<li><strong>Funding: </strong>The company has raised a total of around $340 million, most recently with an estimated $670 million valuation in 2019, according to PitchBook. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know:</strong> Co-founder and CEO James Reinhart has been running ThredUp for the last 12 years, alongside his other co-founders: current COO Chris Homer and Oliver Lubin, who left the company in 2017. ThredUp's CFO Sean Sobers joined the company in 2019 after taking the Wi-Fi company Quantenna public. </li>
<li><strong>What to look for: </strong>Ecommerce is a category that has done well in certain sectors this year, and ThredUp likely saw a boost from all the Marie Kondo-style decluttering that got done during lockdown. It'll still face a struggle to differentiate itself from other secondhand retailers like Poshmark during its IPO process.</li>
</ul><h2>Getting the ball rolling</h2><h3></h3><h3>Instacart</h3><p>
The food delivery company saw a boost thanks to the pandemic, and it's only accelerated its IPO plans from there. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/12/instacart-taps-goldman-for-ipo-at-30-billion-valuation-sources-say.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a> that the company is eyeing a $30 billion IPO in early 2021 now that the ballot proposition for <a href="https://www.protocol.com/ab-5-fight-explainer" target="_self">AB 5</a> was passed in California.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>Instacart built a grocery delivery empire that's only expanded to more non-food essentials through deals with companies like Target, BuyBuyBaby and Ulta. Workforce treatment complaints <a href="https://www.protocol.com/instacart-shoppers-planning-monday-strike" target="_self">dog the company</a>, but the passing of AB 5 cleared a major risk factor from its S-1 since there won't be a lurking regulatory threat. </li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> Instacart has raised an estimated $2.47 billion, including a $200 million round in October that valued the company at $17.7 billion, according to PitchBook. </li>
<li><strong>Names to know:</strong> Instacart's CEO and co-founder Apoorva Mehta is already considered a billionaire, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2020/06/17/instacart-founder-apoorva-mehta-becomes-a-billionaire/?sh=6d94ed247e02" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Forbes</a>. Its former CFO, Ravi Gupta, left to join Sequoia Capital in 2019, and <a href="https://news.instacart.com/joining-our-table-instacart-leadership-updates-6fb043c9f3da" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sagar Sanghvi</a> was promoted to the role. </li>
<li><strong>What to watch for: </strong>Instacart is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/27/instacart-faces-lawsuit-from-dc-attorney-general-over-deceptive-service-fees/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">facing a lawsuit</a> over its service fees, and the company has encountered <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/5/21281910/instacart-tip-baiting-changes-congress-inquiry-exploitation-covid-19" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a lot of scrutiny</a> over its tipping practices. A revealing of its finances will be closely watched by both an investor base and its delivery network. </li>
</ul><h3>Flipkart</h3><p>
Jio Platforms may have <a href="https://www.protocol.com/jio-reliance-facebook-investment" target="_self">garnered more attention</a> in 2020, but Flipkart is still India's biggest online retailer, estimated to have had a <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/flipkart-had-66-share-against-amazon-in-online-festive-sales-redseer/story/423203.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">66% market share</a> during the recent festive period. In 2021, investors might finally be able to get in on the action: The company has reportedly <a href="https://www.livemint.com/market/ipo/walmart-readies-for-10-bn-flipkart-ipo-11607300769974.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hired Goldman Sachs</a> to work on the IPO, which could raise $10 billion, valuing the company around $40 billion. For current owner Walmart, the IPO would come a year ahead of schedule: When it acquired Flipkart in 2018, it said it would list it within four years.
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<li><strong>What it does:</strong> Flipkart has a sprawling ecommerce empire. Unlike Amazon, it's managed to crack fashion, thanks to its 2014 acquisition of Myntra. It also owns popular mobile wallet PhonePe, though it partially <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/phonepe-raises-700-million-becomes-a-separate-entity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spun some of that off</a> in December.</li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> Flipkart raised over $7 billion before its acquisition by Walmart, which valued the company <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/09/walmart-confirms-16b-flipkart-investment-giving-it-77-in-indias-e-commerce-leader/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">around $20.8 billion</a>. Earlier this year, Walmart <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/14/walmart-invests-additional-1-2-billion-in-indias-flipkart-to-increase-stake/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">led a $1.2 billion funding round</a> in the company at a $24.9 billion valuation. </li>
<li><strong>Names to know: </strong>Walmart will be the biggest winner in an IPO, owning around 82% of the company. But it's not the only one: Tencent, Tiger Global, Microsoft and Accel all own stakes too, as does co-founder Binny Bansal.</li>
<li><strong>What to watch for: </strong>Flipkart is under an <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-flipkart-dominant-position-abuse-6573590/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">antitrust investigation</a> from Indian regulators, having been accused of unfair discounting practices. Investors' response to the IPO will show whether they view the probe as a genuine risk.</li>
</ul><h3>Robinhood</h3><p>
You might not have guessed in March that a stock trading app would be one of the biggest winners from a pandemic, yet here we are. With sports canceled and an awful lot of people stuck at home, "<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-30/if-you-re-bored-you-can-trade-stocks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">boredom trading</a>" surged this year. Robinhood, which enabled many of those people to invest in the booming stock market, grew along with them: Its valuation went from $8.6 billion in July to $11.7 billion in September. The company has reportedly <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-robinhood-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-trading-app-robinhood-hires-goldman-sachs-to-lead-ipo-sources-idUKKBN28I328" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hired Goldman Sachs</a> to lead its IPO, which could value the company at over $20 billion.
</p><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>What it does:</strong> While it's best known for its stock-trading features, Robinhood has far grander ambitions. It's launched cryptocurrency trading and a debit card, and even bought a financial media company. </li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> Robinhood has raised $2.17 billion in total, with a most recent valuation of $11.7 billion.</li>
<li><strong>Names to know:</strong> After Baiju Bhatt <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/11/20/robinhood-ipo-ceo-vlad-tenev-founder-baiju-bhatt-stock-trading-app/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stepped down in November</a>, fellow co-founder Vlad Tenev is the company's sole CEO. Index Ventures is the company's lead investor, and general partner Jan Hammer sits on its board.</li>
<li><strong>What to watch for: </strong>Once again, it's regulation. The SEC is reportedly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/robinhood-faces-sec-probe-related-to-deals-with-high-speed-traders-11599074891" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">investigating the company</a> for failing to disclose its deals with high-speed trading firms, with the potential for a $10 million fine; both the SEC and FINRA are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-31/robinhood-s-rise-brings-dark-side-of-irate-traders-u-s-probes?sref=V9K7mAQf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">investigating its outage</a> from March this year; and Massachusetts <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/massachusetts-regulators-to-file-complaint-against-robinhood-11608120003?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/RwvO5YuiaM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">filed a complaint</a> against it for failing to protect inexperienced investors. How much risk will investors be willing to tolerate?</li>
</ul><h3>Marqeta</h3><p>
The fintech might not get as much attention as some of its peers, but it's quietly built a huge business. It's reportedly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-24/marqeta-is-said-to-target-a-10-billion-valuation-in-2021-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">working with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan</a> on an IPO, with plans to list at a $10 billion valuation.
</p><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>What it does:</strong> Marqeta provides a series of APIs that allow other companies to issue cards. For instance, Instacart uses it to issue their drivers with debit cards that they can use to pay for customers' deliveries. Marqeta offers some innovative features on top of that, such as real-time transaction authorization.</li>
<li><strong>Funding: </strong>The company has raised over $527 million, according to PitchBook, with a valuation of around $4.3 billion as of May 2020.</li>
<li><strong>Names to know: </strong>Traditional financial institutions could benefit from Marqeta's listing: MasterCard, Visa and Goldman are all investors. Founder and CEO Jason Gardner has kept a low profile so far — he only has 800 <a href="https://twitter.com/jmgards?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter followers</a>! — but that could change as the company goes public.</li>
<li><strong>What to watch for: </strong>Marqeta's listing could serve as a bellwether for one of fintech's biggest companies: Stripe. The latter has made it clear that it has no plans to IPO any time soon, and is reportedly in the middle of raising a round at an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-24/payments-startup-stripe-is-said-in-talks-to-raise-new-funding" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">over $70 billion</a> valuation. If Marqeta does particularly well, though, perhaps Stripe's Collison brothers may change their mind.</li>
</ul><h3>Databricks</h3><p>
Investors loved Snowflake's IPO, so Databricks and its enterprise AI platform could be well-positioned to go public in 2021. The company is reportedly in talks with bankers, but hasn't hired underwriters yet despite plans to go public at a "significantly higher" valuation than its current $6.2 billion, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-24/microsoft-backed-databricks-is-said-to-plan-2021-stock-listing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Bloomberg</a>.
</p><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>What it does: </strong>It solves a big problem for organizations: figuring out how to combine information stored disparately across the enterprise so it can be more effectively analyzed. And the company's platform also allows data scientists to collaborate on building predictive AI models on top of it to generate insights.</li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> The company had raised a total of around $900 million at a $6.2 billion valuation as of October 2019, according to PitchBook. </li>
<li><strong>The names you should know:</strong> Databricks has seven co-founders who are all still at the company, including Ali Ghodsi, who took over the CEO role in 2016. Its CFO David Conte has also done this before: he took Splunk public in 2012. An IPO would also be a big win for Andreessen Horowitz, whose co-founder Ben Horowitz sits on the board. </li>
<li><strong>What to look for:</strong> Can the Snowflake lightning strike twice? Databricks will likely be betting that the investor interest in Snowflake is in the overall category and there's appetite for competition. </li>
</ul><h2>The wild card</h2><h3></h3><h3>Ant Group</h3><p>
Ant was set to have the <a href="https://www.protocol.com/ant-ipo-what-you-need-to-know" target="_self">biggest IPO in history</a> this year, with plans to raise around $35 billion. But those grand plans came to a screeching halt when Chinese authorities — reportedly directed by Xi Jinping — forced the company to <a href="https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/index/the-complicated-reality-of-ants-stalled-ipo" target="_self">pull its listing</a>. The company is now conducting a "<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-16/ant-conducting-self-review-after-35-billion-ipo-collapses" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comprehensive self-review</a>," and it's unclear when it will be ready to re-list: Bloomberg reports it could be <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-30/ant-ipo-is-said-to-face-slim-chances-of-getting-done-next-year" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">as late as 2022</a>.
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<li><strong>What it does: </strong>The fintech giant started out as a mobile payments application, but has since expanded to become a comprehensive financial tech company. It licenses out its platform to financial services companies so they can offer loans, insurance and investment options on Alipay. Until now, the vast majority of loans on its platform have been offered by third parties, rather than Ant itself — but new rules might change that.</li>
<li><strong>Funding:</strong> Ant's raised around $23 billion to date, and was expected to be valued around $313 billion in its IPO.</li>
<li><strong>T</strong><strong>he names you should know:</strong> It's all about Jack Ma. Ma's criticism of Chinese regulators is said to have irritated authorities, so expect him to take a <em>much</em> quieter approach this time round. Chairman Eric Jing and CEO Simon Hu may play a larger role instead.</li>
<li><strong>What to look for: </strong>The big question is how profitable Ant will be after new regulations are put in place: Some think the company's valuation <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3d2f174d-aa73-44fc-8c90-45c2a554e97b" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">could halve</a>. And with Ant and Jack Ma no longer in the government's good books, investors might see the deal as too risky to bother with.</li>
</ul>
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Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
People
The breakthrough list: 17 people who had a big 2020
They cut through the noise and found themselves in the spotlight this year.
Clockwise from left: Rashad Robinson, Chamath Palihapitiya, Gwynne Shotwell, Vanessa Pappas and Brian Armstrong all found themselves in the spotlight this year.
Photo: Getty Images and Protocol
December 26, 2020
Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
December 26, 2020
It was a big year for Big Tech, with the CEOs of Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter all appearing before Congress and billionaires like Elon Musk becoming even richer. But they're not the only people with power in the tech industry.
This year, Protocol wanted to highlight the people in tech who broke through the noise and became a name you should know. Some, like Snowflake's CEO Frank Slootman, celebrated giant business successes, while others, like TikTok's Vanessa Pappas, found themselves in a global political match over an app. Coinbase's Brian Armstrong managed to play both the hero and the villain in a year, alienating some employees with a reportedly hostile workplace while being championed by many in Silicon Valley for taking a no-politics stance during a highly political year.
<p>
These are the 17 people who found themselves in the spotlight in 2020.
</p><h3>Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games</h3><p>
<em>For starting an app store war</em>
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Before the Big Tech CEOs testified before Congress in July's <a href="https://www.protocol.com/tech-hearings-how-the-lawmakers-are-doing-so-far" target="_self">antitrust showdown</a>, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney <a href="https://www.protocol.com/epic-games-ceo-blasts-apple" target="_self">talked with Protocol</a> about what he called the "absolutely abhorrent" business practices of Apple and Google. "I think there are some bad practices that need to change and need to change quickly, and if the companies won't make changes themselves, then it's imperative that some combination of the courts and the legislative branch go about solving these problems," he said. The nod to the courts was a foreshadowing of what was to come.
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In a coordinated blitz in August, Epic updated Fortnite to include a way to bypass Apple and Google's payment systems, got kicked out of the app stores and then <a href="https://www.protocol.com/fortnite-app-store-lawsuit" target="_blank">filed lawsuits</a> against both companies. Then, it held an event inside Fortnite complete with a parody of Apple's 1984 TV ad. Overnight, Tim Sweeney became the David against Tim Cook's Goliath — but it hasn't stopped there. Now there's <a href="https://www.protocol.com/epic-spotify-match-apple-nonprofit" target="_blank">a coalition of apps</a> that are part of Sweeney's war against the App Store, and he shows no interest in backing down.
</p><h3>Vanessa Pappas, interim head of TikTok</h3><p>
<em>For navigating app diplomacy</em>
</p><p>
Famed Disney executive Kevin Mayer got the job of TikTok CEO only a few months <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/27/21403698/tiktok-ceo-kevin-mayer-resigns-trump-administration-ban-microsoft-disney" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">before he quit</a>, citing a changing political landscape as not part of the job he signed up for. That's when TikTok tapped its <a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/career-advice/a33485889/tiktok-vanessa-pappas-interview/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"secret weapon,"</a> Vanessa Pappas, to step in and navigate the app through a high-stakes political process.
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The former U.S. general manager for the app had joined TikTok in 2018 after spending much of her career at YouTube, where she built its first ever audience development team before running its creator team. TikTok poached her to run TikTok in the U.S. before adding Australia and New Zealand to her purview — and then this year, the globe.
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Now that TikTok's become a political pawn, Pappas has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/technology/tiktok-vanessa-pappas-bytedance.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">had to navigate</a> how to keep a creator-base happy and loyal to the app even amid the uncertainty. And it seems to have worked, despite new competition <a href="https://www.protocol.com/instagram-reels" target="_self">from Instagram's Reels</a>: Just think of how many of this year's trends, from whipped coffee to the Blinding Lights dance, started on TikTok.
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<a href="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg3NjM3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjQ0NDA4MX0.74SXSa03rp_kFo5-flQYvXXex4rx24Ma7khUtwlxRsg/img.jpg?width=980" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg3NjM3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjQ0NDA4MX0.74SXSa03rp_kFo5-flQYvXXex4rx24Ma7khUtwlxRsg/img.jpg?width=980" id="a55f0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="971927110b241c6605e2fc9ff95767a8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom"></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Eric Yuan had been focused for a decade on building a better video platform.</small>
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Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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</p><h3>Eric Yuan, CEO, Zoom<br>
</h3><p>
<em>For powering the video world in a pandemic</em>
</p><p>
No company has had a bigger year in 2020 than Zoom, a videoconferencing software that went from corporate meetings to a verb that <a href="https://www.protocol.com/how-zoom-won-2020" target="_blank">came to define this period</a> of the pandemic. Its understated CEO, Eric Yuan, had been focused for a decade on building a better video platform that challenged his former employer Cisco and would stand against Microsoft and Google in winning enterprise customers. But 2020 changed that, and suddenly it wasn't just Yuan who spent his days on Zoom (he <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/04/19/zoom-zoom-zoom-the-exclusive-inside-story-of-the-new-billionaire-behind-techs-hottest-ipo/?sh=76f4a1ad4af1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">famously conducted</a> nearly all of his company's IPO roadshow over video), but everyone.
</p><p>
Zoom's reliability and ease of use is what made it take off, but it wasn't always smooth sailing. Yuan had to <a href="https://blog.zoom.us/ceo-report-90-days-done-whats-next-for-zoom/" target="_blank">build a new security team</a> to address privacy flaws, and the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/doj-zoom-employee-chinese-government-shut-down-tiananmen-square-commemorations" target="_blank">DOJ charged</a> a former Zoom employee in China with disrupting video calls held in remembrance of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But Zoom's revenue has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zoom-earnings-revenue-soars-lower-gross-margins-free-users-2020-11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">skyrocketed 367% year-over-year</a>, and Yuan was named <a href="https://time.com/businessperson-of-the-year-2020-eric-yuan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Time's Businessperson of the Year for 2020</a>. "We never thought about consumers or K-12 schools when we started planning the year 2020," he told Time. Now, everyone knows what Zoom is.
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</div></p><h3>Rashad Robinson, president, Color of Change </h3><p>
<em>For fighting racial injustice and holding tech companies accountable</em>
</p><p>
While many companies really only started grappling with racial injustice following this summer, Rashad Robinson's Color of Change has been holding tech companies (and other giants like Pepsi and Coca-Cola) accountable for years. One of its earliest pushes was in 2014 when it helped lead a charge to get Twitter to release its diversity statistics. In 2016, Robinson sat down with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and other Color of Change team members after #AirbnbWhileBlack became a rallying cry. Airbnb <a href="https://blog.atairbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/REPORT_Airbnbs-Work-to-Fight-Discrimination-and-Build-Inclusion.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ended up commissioning a civil rights audit</a> of its platform.
</p><p>
But in 2020, Color of Change's power and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90584287/color-of-changes-rashad-robinson-has-had-enough-of-corporate-americas-empty-platitudes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robinson's influence</a> has only grown. This year, the group was part of a multiorganizational campaign for an advertiser boycott of Facebook in July, but left <a href="https://twitter.com/rashadrobinson/status/1280599012270276609?lang=en" target="_blank">disappointed</a> from a meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. Still, there were wins: Color of Change <a href="https://colorofchange.org/press_release/following-talks-with-color-of-change-zoom-hires-chief-diversity-officer/" target="_blank">convinced Zoom</a> to hire a chief diversity officer, and more recently, it <a href="https://twitter.com/rashadrobinson/status/1314678122688778240?lang=en" target="_blank">pressured Google</a> to stop hosting the Proud Boys' website.
</p><p>
"We've made ourselves unignorable," Color of Change's president, Robinson, <a href="https://www.protocol.com/color-of-change-civil-rights-big-tech" target="_self">told Protocol</a>. "Being unignorable means they're going to have to navigate you."
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</div></p><h3>Chamath Palihapitiya, investor, Social Capital</h3><p>
<em>For fanning a SPAC frenzy</em>
</p><p>
The theme of the financial deal industry in 2020 was the SPAC, and the face of it has been Chamath Palihapitiya. The founder of Social Capital had dealt with the implosion of his VC firm before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chamath-palihapitiya-second-act-spac-2020-5" target="_blank">he switched strategies</a> and went after the SPAC deal instead, a process of taking a company public by merging it with a blank-check company. Instead of raising venture funds, Palihapitiya has repeated the SPAC process of raising money for his blank-check vehicles and then going after companies he wants. Virgin Galactic was <a href="https://de.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUSKCN22331U" target="_blank">an early success</a> that set off this wave, but he's since repeated it with companies like real estate platform <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/opendoor-shares-slip-in-market-debut-following-merger-with-spac" target="_blank">Opendoor</a>.
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And Palihapitiya isn't a quiet force while doing it. Instead, the investor is known for his brazenness and also <a href="https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1lw211ts92n62/The-Unusual-Ambitions-of-Chamath-Palihapitiya" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a penchant for rants</a> against people in his own industry. Outside of just the SPAC trend, Palihapitiya gained notoriety early in the pandemic when he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuepiJcMKoQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">railed against hedge fund managers</a> getting a bailout: "We're talking about a hedge fund that serves a bunch of billionaire family offices. Who cares? Let them get wiped out."
</p><h3>Gwynne Shotwell, president, SpaceX</h3><p>
<em>For the first private company to fly U.S. astronauts to space</em>
</p><p>
In May, SpaceX made history when it became the first private company to send American astronauts to space. But don't give all the credit to Elon Musk. Gwynne Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 and is now in charge of the day-to-day operations of the <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/08/18/elon-musk-spacex-valuation-latest-funding/" target="_blank">$46 billion startup</a> as its president and COO. It's been a banner year for SpaceX and Shotwell: It <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-military-contracts-dod-space-force-2020-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">won new contracts</a> with the DoD and <a href="https://wccftech.com/spacex-starlink-tests-software-update-speed-double/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">doubled the internet speed</a> of its Starlink satellite project. Even a rocketship explosion was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/tech/spacex-starship-40000-foot-test-flight-scn/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">seen as a milestone</a> for the company as it works to send people to Mars. But May's Falcon 9 launch will be a defining moment in U.S. space history, and for Shotwell and SpaceX, too. "This is really just the beginning," she said <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/spacex-s-gwynne-shotwell-rocket-woman-bloomberg-50-2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">at the time.</a>
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</div></p><h3>Frank Slootman, CEO, Snowflake</h3><p>
<em>For a record-setting IPO </em>
</p><p>
Frank Slootman's been a long-respected name in the world of enterprise CEOs, but this year's <a href="https://www.protocol.com/snowflake-ipo" target="_self">Snowflake IPO</a> was Slootman's triple crown. After taking Data Domain and ServiceNow public, Slootman led the data warehousing company through the largest IPO ever by a software company with the $3.4 billion it raised. But the big interest in the big data company reignited the discussion around whether there's <a href="https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/pipeline/pipeline-snowflake-ipo-experimentation?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" target="_self">too much money left on the table</a>. "It's just nonsense talk. A lot of the direct listing chatter, they're like, 'you left money on the table.' It's complete nonsense," Slootman <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/09/17/snowflake-ceo-frank-slootman-talks-ipo-pop-narrative-of-lost-billions-is-nonsense-talk/?sh=54140c287d1d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Forbes</a>. "We could've scraped a few more bucks off the table, but if you think you could have sold this offering at $245, I mean, people are smoking something. That is just ridiculous." What's also ridiculous is Slootman's pay package as a result. He's now one of the highest paid technology execs with a reported <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/04/snowflake-ceo-frank-slootman-salary-net-worth/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$95 million payout</a> every month.
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</div></p><h3>Ifeoma Ozoma, Aerica Shimizu Banks, Emily Kramer and Françoise Brougher </h3><p>
<em>For forcing companies to confront sexism and racism in the workplace </em>
</p><p>
In June, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks publicly quit their jobs at Pinterest after <a href="https://twitter.com/IfeomaOzoma/status/1272546213322080258" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">coming forward</a> with their allegations of racism and sexism at the social network. "The company was happy to have our Black faces on the work but not to pay us," Ozoma told <a href="https://www.protocol.com/former-pinterest-employees-say-they-were-victims-of-racism-and-discrimination" target="_self">Protocol</a> at the time. Pinterest ended up <a href="https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/statement-by-the-board-of-directors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">launching an investigation</a> into the claims and other experiences of employees, and in December, agreed to recommendations from <a href="https://www.pinterest-assets.com/m/137b577c199a60d3/original/Special-Committee-Communication-and-Recommendations-for-Pinterest.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an 18-page report</a> on how to overhaul its culture. It's also <a href="https://www.protocol.com/pinterest-racism-lawsuit" target="_self">facing a new shareholder lawsuit</a> over the racism allegations.
</p><p>
But Ozoma and Banks were just the start of women holding their employer's accountable this year: In July, Emily Kramer <a href="https://www.protocol.com/carta-gender-discrimination-lawsuit" target="_self">sued her former employer, Carta</a>, over claims of gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination in what remains an ongoing lawsuit. Pinterest also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/technology/pinterest-francoise-brougher-gender-discrimination-lawsuit.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">faced an additional lawsuit</a> from its former COO, Françoise Brougher, who claimed that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/technology/pinterest-francoise-brougher-gender-discrimination-lawsuit.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">she faced gender discrimination</a> at the company. Pinterest ultimately <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/technology/pinterest-gender-discrimination-lawsuit.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">agreed to pay a $22.5 million settlement</a> to Brougher, of which $2.5 million is earmarked for charity. Their experiences are a reminder that the treatment of women in the tech industry is still far from equitable, even in a post-#MeToo world.
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Vijaya Gadde reportedly was early to suggest banning political ads at Twitter.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo: Martina Albertazzi/Bloomberg via Getty Images</small>
</p><h3>Vijaya Gadde, head of legal, policy and trust, Twitter<br>
</h3><p>
<em>For navigating Twitter through both a pandemic and an election full of disinformation</em>
</p><p>
Jack Dorsey may call the final shots and be the one to respond to Congressional summons, but it's Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, who's a guiding force in most of Twitter's high-stakes decisions. A near-decade veteran of the social network, Gadde <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/28/twitter-vijaya-gadde-free-speech-policies-technology-social-media-429221" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reportedly was early to suggest banning political ads</a> from the platform entirely, and has held similar levels of influence in shaping how Twitter handles everything from its election tweets to pandemic disinformation. That's not to say Twitter and Gadde always get it right. After the New York Post story on Hunter Biden, Gadde <a href="https://twitter.com/vijaya/status/1316923549236551680" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">took to her own Twitter handle</a> to explain the company would be changing its policy.
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"I don't really see an easy solution for how you moderate content at scale around the world," Gadde <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/28/twitter-vijaya-gadde-free-speech-policies-technology-social-media-429221" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told POLITICO.</a> "There's going to be errors, and there's going to be corrections, and there's going to be inconsistencies." Gadde's job in 2020, a year with a double whammy of a political election and a pandemic, was to minimize the bad calls as much as possible, and she's emerged as a force inside Twitter because of it.
</p><h3>Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, Quibi </h3><p>
<em>For the quick bite of Quibi</em>
</p><p>
Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman had set themselves up for a breakout year in 2020 with the long-awaited launch of their "quick bite" streaming platform Quibi. The former co-founder of DreamWorks and former HP CEO were a powerhouse of experience, and investors had already bet around <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/streamer-quibi-raises-additional-funds-ahead-of-launch-11583267901?emailToken=4559567342a4dcb730c45b00558ec47blkA3V1faPLS7T88wNxMuW5TaIlxKUI+vb5bZAgUX1g+ioE172ra8ju5GyMjiG6DpLvUuUZSR/jXznSphgKgjzqsDfxaazontOsh7WO+gRyE32Etwvg2MuEwNB4CTyTEV&reflink=article_copyURL_share" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$1.75 billion</a> that the duo could change the industry.
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Instead, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-katzenberg-whitman-streaming-startup-11592157291" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the pair were already fighting</a> before the pandemic even threw a wrench in the year, and Quibi never recovered. The pandemic surely complicated its vision for building a streaming service that people watched during their commute and while in lines, but there were also terrible product decisions made and fighting at the top. By the time August rolled around, Whitman was already <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-08-10/quibi-chief-meg-whitman-lists-west-hollywood-condo-for-6-5-million" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">listing her Los Angeles condo</a> on the market, and by October, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-11-11/what-went-wrong-at-quibi-jeffrey-katzenberg-meg-whitman-and-self-sabotage?sref=18veDlX6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Quibi announced it'd be shutting down</a> six months after its launch. A quick bite indeed.
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</div></p><h3>Tim Stokely, founder, OnlyFans</h3><p>
<em>For transforming an adult content website into a media giant</em><br>
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Before the pandemic, OnlyFans had a sizable and growing following in the adult entertainment world as a place where creators could sell content to a dedicated fan base. But when the pandemic put people out of work and shut down the strip clubs, like everything else, the virtual equivalent exploded — and it's grown past its roots in adult entertainment into what many are calling a silent media giant. Cardi B <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/cardi-b-onlyfans-1043254/" target="_blank">released</a> a behind-the-scenes "WAP" video through her OnlyFans account, and even Beyonce's <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/onlyfans-beyonce-megan-thee-stallion-savage-991989/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">name-dropped</a> the company. Oh, and it's reportedly profitable and wants to expand next into sports and comedy content, <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/onlyfans-chief-talks-sports-ambitions-and-role-of-adult-content-in-site" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to The Information</a>.
</p><p>
The company's bigger vision starts with founder Tim Stokely, a British serial entrepreneur who had tried other websites, from GlamWorship, which specialized in a financial domination sexual fetish, to 121with, a marketplace where specialists like plumbers could be paid for a video call to share their expertise. The ideas ended up merging into OnlyFans, which Stokely launched in 2016. The challenge for Stokely is transforming the website with such strong adult entertainment roots into more of a mainstream creator website, but <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-05/celebrities-like-cardi-b-could-turn-onlyfans-into-a-billion-dollar-media-company" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">with 85 million users</a> and more than a million creators, Stokely's already created a hidden giant in the media world.
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</div></p><h3>Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase</h3><p>
<em>For sparking a conversation on politics in the workplace</em>
</p><p>
Seen as either a hero or a villain, Coinbase's Brain Armstrong emerged this year as <a href="https://www.protocol.com/coinbase-social-political-policies-backlash" target="_self">a polarizing figure in the tech industry</a>. In September, Armstrong <a href="https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published a blog post </a>about how his company was going to be "mission-driven", which meant narrowly focusing on advancing cryptocurrency and ignoring larger political and societal discussions. Armstrong's stance was championed by several leaders in tech who felt like politics in the workplace had gone too far, and it came at a time when even giants like Google and Facebook were clamping down on internal conversations. But many others saw it as an abdication of doing the hard work of diversity and inclusion in favor of a strictly capitalist stance. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/10/08/60-employees-leave-coinbase-over-ceos-pledge-to-be-apolitical/?sh=5d1c2fc15a06" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">At least 60 employees quit</a> over the memo, and later The New York Times published a story featuring <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/technology/coinbase-cryptocurrency-black-employees.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">several former employees' allegations</a> that Coinbase and Armstrong in particular had created a work environment that was not welcoming to all employees. It hasn't slowed Coinbase down though. In December, the company announced it had confidentially filed to go public, meaning Armstrong could be leading the first publicly-traded crypto exchange in the new year.</p><h3>Trevor Milton, founder, Nikola</h3><p>
<em>For over-promising and under-delivering</em>
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Hydrogen-powered truck startup Nikola was on the front wave of the SPAC takeovers when it went <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/investing/nikola-hydrogen-electric-truck-stock/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">public in June</a> through a reverse merger. The momentum continued when <a href="https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2020/sep/0908-gen2fcs.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a few months later</a> it announced a deal with GM, which would manufacture its trucks and take a stake in the company.
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Then things fell apart for its founder, Trevor Milton, when a short-seller called the company <a href="https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an "intricate fraud"</a> and sent shares plummeting. Since then, details have emerged about allegedly <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/168be1c5-5f54-473f-b373-096b8a511ba9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shady former business practices</a>, and Milton was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/two-women-file-sexual-abuse-complaints-against-nikola-founder-trevor-milton.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">accused of sexual abuse</a> by two women. Both the DOJ and SEC have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/cars/nikola-milton-subpoenas/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subpoenaed company directors</a> over the fraud allegations, garnering comparisons of Milton to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Through it all, Milton and Nikola <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/nikola-issues-fuller-throated-denial-of-short-seller-s-claims" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">have denied </a>any wrongdoing, but Milton ultimately resigned from Nikola in September.
</p><p>
From its peak in June, shares have fallen over 80%, and GM <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/11/30/nikola-gm-deal-collapses-devastating-news/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced in November</a> that it was scaling back its deal and no longer taking a stake in the company or producing its trucks. And other companies are following: In late December, a waste management company <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/23/nikola-motor-republic-services-deal-2020-electric-vehicles-evs-zero-emissions-garbage-trucks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">canceled its order for 2,500 trucks</a>, sending the stock dropping again. Milton has remained mum on social media in the months since his resignation, but plans to remain the company's largest shareholder, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-08/nikola-founder-milton-used-56-million-in-stock-for-land-deals#:~:text=The%20German%20company%20previously%20had,person%20familiar%20with%20the%20matter." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Bloomberg</a>.
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Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
People
Tech rallies around social and political causes. One CEO is pushing back.
Will others follow Coinbase's lead?
"We could use our workday debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not be in service of the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders," writes Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images
October 5, 2020
Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
October 2, 2020
In 2017, Sergey Brin attended rallies at the San Francisco Airport to challenge Trump's immigration order. In 2018, Microsoft employees protested their company's work with ICE. In 2019, Google, Microsoft and Amazon employees all walked off the job to urge climate change action. It's fair to say that during a divisive presidency, the tech industry — and business leaders writ large — has become much more comfortable speaking out on societal and political issues.
But in 2020, Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong said enough is enough.
<p>On Sunday, Armstrong <a href="https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">laid out</a> how his company was no longer going to take activist stances on anything outside a narrowly defined mission of advancing cryptocurrency. "We focus minimally on causes not directly related to the mission," he wrote. Societal issues unassociated with its mission are a no-go because "impact only comes with focus." Political issues are only worth weighing in on if they directly affect the business.</p>
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</div></p><p>"We could use our workday debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not be in service of the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders," Armstrong wrote. </p>
<p>But for a CEO whose stance was to make his company staunchly apolitical, he's done a surprisingly effective job of sparking what may be the next culture war to consume the tech industry. </p>
<h3>Bring your true self</h3>
<p>The technology industry has long prided itself on giving employees a voice. It's the spirit behind everyone getting equity, frequent town hall meetings and even the message boards that are still hugely popular inside large companies like Google and Facebook. Startup company culture only further compounds it, with co-workers spending long hours together, eating catered lunches and dinners at the office, and bonding over elaborate offsites from escape rooms to cooking classes. In return for long hours and proud allegiance, tech companies have encouraged staff to show up as their authentic selves to work and consider teammates as close friends or even like family. </p>
<p>Salesforce literally defines its company culture as Ohana, which means family in Hawaiian, and hasn't been afraid to stand up for it. When Indiana introduced an anti-LBTQ bill in 2015, Salesforce's, CEO Marc Benioff, was among the first to condemn it and threaten economic sanctions. He <a href="https://hbr.org/cover-story/2018/03/divided-we-lead" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Harvard Business Review</a> that it was about standing up for his employees and the company's core value of equality. </p>
<p>"CEO activism is not a leadership choice, but a modern — and an evolving — expectation," Benioff said in 2018. "CEOs have to realize that millennials are coming into the organization and expecting the CEO to [publicly] represent the values of that organization."</p>
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</div></p><p>Americans are also getting more comfortable with corporations speaking out on political issues — even if they are outside the realm of what directly affects their company. In <a href="https://www.globalstrategygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-GSG-Business-and-Politics-Study.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Global Strategy Group's 2020 Business and Politics survey</a>, 84% of Americans surveyed said they believed companies should take a stand on issues that directly affect their company. The majority (62%) also think it's OK for companies to take a stance in general. </p>
<p>Most employees also said they talk about politics at work and aren't afraid to put pressure on their companies to take action that represents them. 57% of people surveyed said they would sign a petition asking their employer to take action on an issue, and 41% said they would attend a boycott or rally with their colleagues to put pressure on their company to speak out. </p>
<p>One of the draws of working at these tech companies has been the idea of working at a "mission-driven" company. While the lofty platitudes may often be mocked, companies draw in employees with the allure of being focused on changing the world and whatever mission they stand for. More often than not, that empathy is viewed as a positive and even a competitive advantage.</p>
<p>And over the last four years, as the political climate in the U.S. has become more divisive than it has been in decades, many people in tech have had a realization: that tech companies don't operate in a silo. Companies no longer have the excuse to have their heads in the sand and not realize how their products are interacting in the real world. Facebook had to change its tune in the wake of the 2016 election from "we're just a platform, we didn't have much of a role" to understanding and strategizing the pitfalls of how its tech could be used in the upcoming elections.</p>
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</div></p><p>At the same time, workers have found their own voice to push back and challenge their companies. As a result, tech worker action has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/22/tech-worker-activism-2019-what-we-learned" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">soared exponentially</a> in the last few years, with over 100 different worker actions in 2019 alone, according to <a href="https://collectiveaction.tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Collective Action in Tech</a>, which tracks events. In August alone, the site catalogued worker protests outside of Jeff Bezos' NYC home, a virtual walk out at Pinterest to protest racial and gender discrimination, two weeks of strikes at Deliveroo for better worker's rights, and a salary spreadsheet circulating inside Microsoft where over 300 employees shared their salary and pay bonus data. </p>
<h3>Value destruction
</h3><p>Armstrong has clearly been watching this situation with growing concern.</p>
<p>"It has become common for Silicon Valley companies to engage in a wide variety of social activism, even those unrelated to what the company does, and there are certainly employees who really want this in the company they work for," Armstrong wrote, adding emphasis. "<strong>While I think these efforts are well intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division.</strong>"</p>
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</div></p><p>To some, it was a watershed moment for the industry and a path for other companies to follow. "I predict most successful companies will follow Coinbase's lead. If only because those who don't are less likely to succeed," Y Combinator founder Paul Graham <a href="https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1310583298666696705" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. "Coinbase appears to be taking the unpopular position of allowing (even encouraging) diversity of thought in the workplace. Good for them," investor Michael Arrington <a href="https://twitter.com/arrington/status/1310381397975076865" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. Craft Ventures' David Sacks <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1310457296288280576" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">viewed it</a> as a way to build a movement: "Focusing and keeping the team united around why they wanted to join in the first place is how you build a movement and change the world."</p>
<p>But to many, the post seemed like an abdication of leadership and putting money-making capitalism first and foremost before fighting for employees' rights and building an inclusive environment. Sleeping Giants co-founder Nandini Jammi <a href="https://twitter.com/nandoodles/status/1310654284674015237" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that Armstrong's post was essentially a commitment to being a white supremacist organization. "Really brave of @brian_armstrong to buck the growing trend towards 'inclusivity' & invest in a safe space for white tech bros," she added. Fellow crypto enthusiast Jack Dorsey, who serves as CEO of Square and Twitter, also criticized Coinbase for its decision not to acknowledge the connected social issues, saying it "<a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1311423420274372608" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">leaves people behind</a>."</p>
<p>Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo escalated it even higher in a since-deleted tweet. "Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution," he tweeted. "I'll happily provide video commentary."</p>
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</div></p><p>One concern some people have with Coinbase's stance is that it could use it to shield itself from the hard work of building a more diverse and inclusive environment. "The Coinbase drama is showing us how many folks in tech believe that growing a business that is respectful & aligned with your diverse team members' well-being is a 'left vs. right' or 'libs vs conservative' issue rather than a business challenge," Jammi later added. </p>
<p>The company has reportedly had a few instances of division in its ranks. In an incident known as "bathroomgate," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroomgate-incident-is-one-example-of-political-drama-at-coinbase-2020-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Business Insider reported</a> that the company had hung up signs on gendered bathrooms saying that the company recognizes gender is not binary and people are welcome to use the bathroom most comfortable to them. Those were reportedly removed after some employees saw it as political. </p>
<p>Armstrong's blog post may have originated when the CEO reportedly did not immediately agree to making a public statement in support of Black Lives Matter, which many tech companies from Apple to Airbnb were quick to do. <a href="https://www.axios.com/coinbase-controversy-b707973c-0f24-4d1e-9690-78ac5fdb94e7.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslogin&stream=top" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According to Axios</a>, Armstrong was asked to make a public statement, but he wouldn't commit to it during an all-hands meeting. Several employees participated in a walkout as the result, and Armstrong <a href="https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1268622377182621696" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ultimately tweeted</a> in support of Black Lives Matter. </p>
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</div></p><p>Coinbase declined to comment. </p>
<p>In his blog post, Armstrong argued that being an activist company outside of its core mission would "go against our principles of inclusion and belonging." </p>
<p>We have people with many different backgrounds and viewpoints at Coinbase, and even <strong>if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not agree on how to actually go solve it</strong>," Armstrong wrote (emphasis his own). "This is where there is a blurry line between moral statements and politics. We could use our work day debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not be in service of the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders."</p>
<p>Angel investor Susan Kimberlin said there's nothing wrong with putting the business first, but what was missing was any clarity around what the company's values are and how that goes hand-in-hand with the mission. A former Salesforce employee, she said one reason the company has been so successful is that Salesforce has been able to clearly communicate and articulate what its mission and shared value system is, so employees join knowing what the company stands for. Articulated clearly, it shouldn't even be a question of whether a company will stand for a cause like Black Lives Matter, she said. </p>
<p>Instead, while Coinbase says it is mission-first, there's still a gray area and question on what that will mean in practice and what its values will be. And without that clarity, employees may <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-01/coinbase-workers-rattled-by-politics-ban-and-fear-being-muzzled?sref=18veDlX6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">feel stifled</a> from talking about issues that are important to them personally. </p>
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</div></p><p>"I believe it's really important to let people bring their whole selves to whatever they're doing," she said. "This clearly kind of discourages people from reacting to and living with what we all have to right now, which is this incredible amount of ambient stress, an enormous amount of social upheaval, and really concerning and upsetting events that are affecting large groups of people."</p>
<p>Being business-focused isn't an excuse. "Those things don't go away because you're working on something," she said. </p>
<h3>The fear spreads?</h3>
<p>But despite the fierce criticism, there have been other signs that tech might be starting to feel uncomfortable about how loudly and openly employees are discussing and protesting political and societal issues. In 2019, Wayfair's CEO said <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2019/09/19/wayfair-ceo-says-hed-like-prospective-employees-to.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">he preferred</a> "non-political" employees just a few months after employees had walked out to protest the sale of furniture to migrant detention camps. Google even <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/google-shakes-up-its-tgif-and-ends-its-culture-of-openness/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">curtailed</a> its famous weekly TGIF company meetings last year after CEO Sundar Pichai said they were "not working" in their current form.</p>
<p>One prime example: The internal message boards that have historically been such a big part of Big Tech culture, allowing people to share everything from code and snack tips to political opinions and thoughts about the future of their company. But recently, both Google and Facebook are said to have increased their moderation of internal content, cracking down on conversations about politics, race and more. </p>
<p>Facebook, for instance, is doing more to keep contentious subjects out of people's Workplace feeds. Per Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/facebook-employee-communication-rules-internal-message-board" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">speaking to Fox Business</a>: "What we've heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed. We're updating our employee policies and work tools to ensure our culture remains respectful and inclusive."</p>
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</div></p><p>And <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/google-content-moderation-internal-message-boards-memegen.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a> that something similar was happening at Google, citing the following message allegedly posted on an internal company blog: "Our world is going to get more complicated as the year continues. Tensions continue specifically for our Black+ community with Black Lives Matter, and our Asian Googlers with coronavirus and China/Hong Kong. All of this is compounded by the additional stress of working from home, social isolation, and caregiver responsibilities — to name a few. This new world creates urgency to keep work a welcoming place."</p>
<p>In other words, there's evidence that Armstrong might not be alone in his view: Maybe other CEOs also think that workplace activism might be too big a distraction to leave totally unfettered. And now, there's a real possibility that, despite trying to not wade into a political fight, Coinbase has only inflamed one. </p>
<p>For its part, Coinbase has doubled down on its approach: It's <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coindesk-severance/coinbase-offers-severance-package-to-employees-unhappy-with-its-new-apolitical-stance-idUSKBN26L3N4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">now offering</a> between four and six months of severance to employees who want to leave the company. Some predict there will be an exodus, others argue that it will make Coinbase all that more attractive to potential recruits. </p>
<p>Over the coming weeks, any CEOs who have had similar thoughts to Armstrong's but have chosen to remain silent so far will be watching that staffing situation play out. Depending on what happens, workplace activism in Silicon Valley could be in for a reboot.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="9">
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Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.
People
‘It’s going crazy’: Silicon Valley’s rush to cope with coronavirus
As Facebook and others cancel events, companies across tech ponder remote-work solutions, bigger cleaning budgets and more.
A commuter in a mask and gloves got some work done Thursday on a BART train in Oakland.
Photo: Sam Hall/Bloomberg via Getty Images
April 29, 2020
Lauren Hepler ( @lahepler) is a former reporter for Protocol covering how people live and work in Silicon Valley. She previously covered development, energy, and tech for The New York Times, The Guardian, the LA Times, the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and others. Lauren can be reached at lhepler@protocol.com (just ask for Signal), and you can share information with her anonymously via Protocol's SecureDrop. She grew up in Ohio and lives in Oakland.
February 27, 2020
Phase one: If 100 cases of the coronavirus are confirmed near a Coinbase office, all employees for the cryptocurrency exchange will be allowed to work from home.
Phase two: After 1,000 confirmed cases, essential personnel may be relocated, and office services like snacks and cleaning will likely become unviable for anyone still risking the commute.
<p>Phase three: Panic. As <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SRP4dnVCvKB7A5WXrESe-cL51i6_cg5nNGLNld6qch0/preview#" target="_blank">the contingency plan</a> released this week by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says, "It's going to be a wild ride."</p><p>Thursday was the day COVID-19 fully seized the Silicon Valley consciousness. Over the last two months, the virus <a href="https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-27-20-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">has killed</a> nearly 3,000 people and upended global supply chains. But this week, its spread sent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/" target="_blank">U.S. financial markets</a> into free-fall, and the first Northern California case of unknown origin was <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-has-shortage-of-coronavirus-test-kits-15089735.php" target="_blank">confirmed</a> late Wednesday in Solano County, north of San Francisco.</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><h4>Get what matters in tech, in your inbox every morning. <a href="http://bit.ly/2UqeOM7" target="_blank">Sign up for Source Code.</a></h4><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p>In the Coinbase plan, the company was telling employees that the risk of infection was relatively low, and that the firm's plan reflected an effort to prepare for worst-case scenarios. The plan was created by the company's internal security team, led by Chief Information Security Officer Philip Martin, who previously worked as a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent and led information security for Palantir, according to his LinkedIn profile.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="1">
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</div></p><p>"We hope to help other companies that are trying to navigate this situation and to encourage a calm, rational approach," Martin said in a statement to Protocol. "Part of the goal is to also help our employees feel confident and knowledgeable, so they can make educated decisions on how to prepare."<br></p><p>On Thursday morning, Facebook <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2020/02/27/important-f8-2020-update/" target="_blank">announced</a> it was canceling its F8 developer conference scheduled for May in San Jose, and as companies including Microsoft, Sony and EA said they are pulling out of next month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to protect employees from the potential spread of COVID-19.</p><p>Beyond the economic ripple effects of tech mega-events, big companies like Amazon and Apple — along with legions of <a href="https://www.protocol.com/kickstarter-coronavirus-delays" target="_self">much smaller tech manufacturers</a> — are working behind the scenes to try to keep their overseas factories running. </p><p>"We're still in kind of that reactionary phase," said Peter Leroe-Muñoz, senior vice president of technology and innovation policy for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.</p><p>Aside from rethinking supply chains so that companies are "not left with a single point of failure" — a process that could take years — he said many of the group's member tech companies are seriously reevaluating global policies for remote work and trying to assess the impact of stalled R&D in China and beyond.<br></p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="2">
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</div></p><p>"There's also going to be a lag on innovation that we'll see," Leroe-Muñoz said.</p><p>Most large multinational companies have existing pandemic plans, said Peylina Chu, the Boston-based vice president and technology industry leader for environmental, health and safety consulting firm Antea Group. But deciding how fast to implement those plans is a different matter, as is helping smaller companies assess what to do now. Some are hiring consultants like Antea or <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/apple-iphone-maker-foxconn-taps-famed-scientist-as-coronavirus-advisor.html" target="_blank">scientists</a> known for containing past outbreaks. Some like Coinbase are leaning on internal expertise. And others are scrambling to keep up.</p><p>"Oh yeah," Chu said. "It's going crazy."</p><p>Many companies with operations in China, Japan and Korea have switched to remote work where possible, she said. Around the world, safety and HR personnel are paying to have offices cleaned more often and debating whether to invest in surgical-style masks (which many experts argue won't do much, she noted). </p><p>"What's the right level of control that they want to put in place for their own organization?" Chu said. "The situation is just so fluid right now. Nobody's saying, 'This is the plan. It's done.'"</p><p>Getting access to updated local information in affected areas is most crucial, Chu said. At Uber, a spokesperson told Protocol that the company has formed a "dedicated global team" of executives in operations, security and safety, all guided by a public health consultant, "to respond as needed in each market where we operate."</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="3">
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</div></p><p>Still, even luminaries of the quantitative world, like DJ Patil, the country's first chief data scientist appointed by President Barack Obama, are turning to the masses to ask for advice on where to get updates. Patil is now the head of technology for health care startup Devoted Health.</p><p>"Given the current gov response," Patil <a href="https://twitter.com/dpatil/status/1233082457546805252" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Thursday, "I think we're going to have to figure this out on our own."</p><p>If COVID-19 presents significant costs to some companies, it may also yield opportunity — and maybe even cement long-brewing cultural shifts — in fields related to remote work. Amid a larger plunge in the markets on Thursday, share prices climbed 6% for video conferencing company Zoom. CEO Eric Yuan, who grew up in the coastal Chinese province of Shandong, wrote in <a href="https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/02/26/zoom-commitment-user-support-business-continuity-during-coronavirus-outbreak/" target="_blank">a blog post</a> Wednesday that Zoom is offering its services for free to help with efforts including remote doctor visits, mental health calls and education.</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><h4>Related: </h4><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.protocol.com/coronavirus-covid19-remote-work" target="_self"><strong>Are businesses really ready to go remote? We're about to find out.</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://www.protocol.com/sequoia-coronavirus-warning-black-swan" target="_self"><strong>Sequoia calls coronavirus 2020's 'black swan'</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://www.protocol.com/vpn-unexpected-coronavirus-winner" target="_self"><strong>Coronavirus fears spark a rush of interest in the humble VPN</strong></a></li></ul><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p><a href="https://www.protocol.com/sequoia-coronavirus-warning-black-swan" target="_self"></a>At Cisco, teams are "working around the clock" to ensure that its Webex conferencing platform remains available in affected areas like China, where traffic on some networks has spiked to as much as 22 times normal levels, said Sri Srinivasan, senior vice president and general manager for team collaboration. </p><p>"We're humbled that our technology is playing a part to help people stay connected during this trying time," Srinivasan said in a statement to Protocol. Cisco is offering free access to Webex for companies in affected countries "to further support more working from home," he said.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="4">
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</div></p><p>On the ground in Silicon Valley, where startups and tech incumbents like Google have long experimented with unconventional offices and remote work, panic about the virus is colliding with intense anxiety over untenable office rents and <a href="https://www.protocol.com/silicon-valley-tech-shuttles" target="_blank">nightmare commutes</a>. Carlos Escutia, CEO of San Francisco home-office furniture rental company GroWrk, said he is fielding a surge in inquiries from big and small employers alike.</p><p>"Companies are preparing for a scenario where they have to ask their office workers to work from home indefinitely," Escutia said. "We are developing packages already that are customizable to their needs." </p><p>Escutia started GroWrk after feeling the sticker shock of shopping for office space in San Francisco for his previous startup, and learning about a trend in which large tech companies give monthly stipends to employees to set up productivity-enhancing home offices. For stand-up desks and other ergonomic furniture that could cost thousands of dollars up front, GroWrk offers subscriptions to lease furniture for $55 to $188 per month. </p><p>"We're in the early stage of the remote work revolution, if you wanna talk in those terms," Escutia said. "Remote work is going to stay here whether there is the coronavirus or not, but that could accelerate it."</p><p>The spread of the virus comes at a moment of existential crisis for Silicon Valley, Leroe-Muñoz said. One <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/02/24/leaving-bay-area-47-percent-survey-discontent-housing-crisis-traffic/" target="_blank">recent poll</a> by his organization found that more residents are considering leaving than staying. For years, homegrown companies like Apple, Google and Facebook have been expanding to emerging tech hubs like Austin, Denver, Portland and Seattle.</p><p><div class="ad-tag"><div class="ad-place-holder" data-pos="5">
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</div></p><p>"Our region is going to feel a disproportionate impact as a result of this epidemic," Leroe-Muñoz said. Though everyone hopes the virus is contained quickly, he said, "One of the opportunities, if you will, that comes out of the coronavirus is having to have a conversation" about the sustainability of the Bay Area's work patterns.</p><p>One bright spot, said Rufus Jeffries, spokesman for the business-sponsored Bay Area Council, is the improved capacity for remote work: "These technologies have come a long way, so they definitely provide employers more flexibility to respond."</p><p>While it may be too early to assess lasting impacts, Jeffries said lost tourism dollars and productivity are immediate concerns. Mindful of the loss of F8, which was slated to be held at the San Jose Convention Center, Facebook said it will donate $500,000 to community causes, double its normal contribution around the event.</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><h4> Get in touch with us: Share information securely with Protocol via encrypted Signal or WhatsApp message, at 415-214-4715 or <a href="https://www.protocol.com/send-a-tip" target="_self">through our anonymous SecureDrop</a>.</h4><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p>"As we've already seen, there's going to be an economic impact from this," Jeffries said.</p><p>For companies still figuring out how to respond, Antea's Chu suggests getting a move on, even if COVID-19 doesn't reach an office near you.</p><p>"It'll happen again, obviously," Chu said. "What can you do to be prepared for the next crisis?"</p>
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Lauren Hepler ( @lahepler) is a former reporter for Protocol covering how people live and work in Silicon Valley. She previously covered development, energy, and tech for The New York Times, The Guardian, the LA Times, the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and others. Lauren can be reached at lhepler@protocol.com (just ask for Signal), and you can share information with her anonymously via Protocol's SecureDrop. She grew up in Ohio and lives in Oakland.
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