The 900 people who shelled out up to $7,500 for access to tech kingpin Reid Hoffman’s sold-out Masters of Scale conference in San Francisco’s Presidio this week may have thought they were paying for a marquee tech conference. What they got instead was a steady diet of politics.
“I hope people didn’t come here thinking they’d get business advice,” mused one venture capitalist during a break between sessions.
On hiatus since its debut in 2022, the Masters of Scale Summit returned for a second round of keynotes and moderated panels featuring names like venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, “Blackish” actress Tracee Ellis Ross, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and President Bill Clinton. But if attendees thought they were in for treatises on emerging technologies or the pros and cons of “founder mode,” they were in for a surprise.
Trump versus Harris was about all anyone could talk about. Khosla, the billionaire founder of Menlo-Park based Khosla Ventures, told a story about taking Elon Musk to task over his support of Donald Trump. He informed Musk that he voted primarily on a candidate’s values. “Obviously, you don’t think [that’s] important,” Khosla said he told Musk. “I’m an independent. But I have a clear prioritization of my political priorities.”
“Thank you for being public about your political views. Not a lot of leaders are,” responded Jeff Berman, former counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer and the CEO of WaitWhat, who hosted the summit.
“It’s not the smartest thing to do,” responded Khosla. “MAGA extremists [send me] a lot of hate mail and threats.”
The heavy political bent was a change for Masters of Scale, a lucrative extension of the Hoffman-hosted podcast of the same name, where the venture capitalist, original PayPal Mafia member, and co-founder of LinkedIn interviews business leaders about how they made it big. The first Scale summit two years ago was a two-day, $5,000 extravaganza heavy on talk of mental health, psychedelic healing, and design thinking. Prince Harry showed up to that one, as did Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, AirBnB CEO Brian Chesky, and Arianna Huffington.
This time, the topics and the guests were more overtly political. Day One’s focus was on the looming U.S. election, with a panel on the Israel-Palestine conflict, a “live” Gen Z focus group, and a “Fires we can’t let burn” panel, featuring Gov. Moore in conversation with Steve Case, former CEO of AOL and founder of Revolution, a DC investment firm.
“You have the specter of a sitting president of the United States singling out a particular company by name for retaliation,” said Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney General and host of “Stay Tuned With Preet” podcast, referencing President Trump’s threat to slap a 200% tariff on John Deere if it moves its manufacturing to Mexico, during the “Fires we can’t let burn” panel. “You have to be worried, whether you’re Meta or NBC, that the cannon of the presidency can be turned upon you.”
Gov. Moore told attendees his entire focus was on preventing a second Trump presidency. “There is an inherent danger, not just in the policies of the guy but in his values,” he said, refraining from mentioning Trump by name. “Tactics can be flexible, but his values are. You can’t claim to love your country when you hate half the people in it.”
Unsurprisingly, the most loaded exchanges came during the panel on the Israel-Gaza war. “The extremists are winning because they’re manipulating us,” said Daniel Lubetzky, the CEO of Kind and a recent addition to ABC’s “Shark Tank” judging pool. Speaking of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, Lubetzky said, “We need to use horrible things [as a catalyst] to have a cathartic resolution.” He went on: “We need to remove extremists from power in the United States.”
The theme of polarization was of huge concern to many on stage. “We’re shunning each other because we don’t know one another,” said David McCullough, founder of The American Exchange Project, a domestic exchange program that introduces kids to life and culture across state lines. “Kids today are growing up in a bubble. … American towns are becoming more politically and socioeconomically homogeneous … 4% of newlyweds don’t cross the political aisle.”
Astro Teller, the CEO of Alphabet’s moonshot factory, offered a more simplified solution. “To have more civil discourse, let’s sew everybody’s mouth shut,” he joked.
For many, the slant the event took was no real surprise, considering Hoffman’s vocal support of the Harris campaign. He told the audience that he no longer talks to Peter Thiel because of politics. “I call [Reid] the anti Elon,” commented tech journalist Kara Swisher during a fireside chat with Hoffman. “Still, it’s a low bar.” Hoffman expressed frustration at how his tech peers had turned toward Trump. Of their belief that Trump isn’t serious about his tariff threats, Hoffman said, “That’s what Lindbergh said about Hitler.”
At the drink socials after the panels, conversations ranged from concern over Gen Z’s negativity to chats about AI tarot readings, parental GPT, and generative AI animation. However, everything circled back to politics. Yes, the event was nominally about building bridges and scaling businesses for good. But with so much in flux two weeks before Nov. 5, it was hard not to have tunnel vision.
Bharara, a former federal prosecutor, tried to channel the event’s nervous energy into action: “You have your orders. Go forth. Vote. Be involved. Participate.”