Calling all nerds: One venture capitalist wants you to support Clinton
Dave McClure's campaign, Nerdz4Hillary, aims to raise $100,000 in support of Clinton.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
Venture capitalist Dave McClure wants tech nerds to support Hillary Clinton.
Venture capitalist Dave McClure hopes the force is strong with Hillary Clinton.
McClure on Wednesday launched Nerdz4Hillary, a campaign complete with a Star Wars-themed website designed to rally the tech community behind the Democratic presidential nominee.
"500 Nerdz. One mission to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat the Dark Force (Donald Trump)," says the site, which features a picture of Clinton as Princess Leia. McClure and company believe Clinton will best promote topics like entrepreneurship, job creation, tech innovation, tech diversity and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.
"She represents a lot of the positions that people care about," McClure said of Clinton's appeal to Silicon Valley, which he characterized as largely independent or left-leaning, but socially progressive and fiscally conservative.
These Nerdz are people from the tech industry -- founders, VC and techies like Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and Leanne Pittsford, founder of Lesbians Who Tech -- just to name a few currently on the site's Wall of Nerdz.
That group has already raised more than $35,000, and will ask more than 500 Nerdz to donate. The campaign aims to raise $100,000 for Clinton.
McClure is the founding partner of 500 Startups, an accelerator and early stage seed fund, which has invested in companies like MakerBot, Udemy and Twilio. Previously, he was at VC firm Founders Fund.
He's not the the first venture capitalist or tech figure to get involved in the election this cycle. VC and entrepreneur Peter Thiel spoke at the Republican National Convention in July in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff came out in support of Clinton in March.
"You're seeing a lot more influence coming out of Silicon Valley and I would expect that to continue in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing candidates coming out of Silicon Valley in the future," McClure said.
With a little more than a month left until the election, the campaign is banking that there's still time to "defeat the Dark Side."
"We're realizing shit's getting a little too close for comfort and we want to make sure people know there's a reason to get out and vote and a reason to contribute," he said.
Updated at 3:01 p.m. PT: Adds comments from Dave McClure.