USA TODAY International Edition
Silicon Valley trying to spread the wealth
Venture for America, Miley team to target Trump’s America
SAN FRANCISCO Leslie Miley says he knows how Silicon Valley can lift the fortunes of communities bypassed by the tech boom: Put boots and brain power on the ground. And this Silicon Valley engineer and diversity advocate says that’s what he plans to do.
He’s joining forces with Venture for America to launch a new executive- in- residence program that will tap Silicon Valley experience and know- how to build businesses and jobs in such overlooked spots as Detroit and Cleveland. It’s a new twist for Venture for America, a non- profit that trains and matches college graduates with start- ups for a twoyear fellowship in underserved cities.
It comes on the heels of a bruising election that illuminated the deep divides between pockets of high- tech wealth and the Rust Belt towns that are in a spiraling decline of job losses, in part due to automation that has wiped out some manufacturing jobs. The tech industry’s work visa programs that hire tens of thousands of employees from overseas each year also are under fire. Monday, word leaked that the Trump administration has drafted an executive order that could restrict those programs.
Between five and 15 seasoned managers from major tech companies will leave their jobs and uproot their lives for one year, with their employers paying their salary adjusted for the lower cost of living outside Silicon Valley. Two companies, LinkedIn and Yelp, have signed on so far.
Miley, who is leaving his job as a director of engineering at San Francisco start- up Slack to jumpstart the program, says he will be among them, with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield’s blessing.
The goal: for Silicon Valley executives to use their skills and connections to accelerate innovation in places with plenty of entrepreneurial spitfire but fewer resources. During the residency, they will work out of Venture for America innovation hubs, serving as mentors and advisers.
“I believe you can take what we do here and take it into these communities and help accelerate the building of jobs in their growing tech ecosystems,” Miley told USA TODAY. “The opportunity is not just to give the communities access to the people, talent and networks they have a hard time having access to, but also to create a pathway for people in those communities to come here and for people here to go there.”
The idea was an outgrowth of conversations Miley had been having on how to address wealth and opportunity gaps, especially in hard- hit communities of color. When Americans’ economic anxieties showed up at the polls in November with the election of Donald Trump, Miley says he felt compelled to act.
“There is a sense we need to do much more to bolster job growth and optimism in many parts of the country,” Venture for America founder and CEO Andrew Yang told USA TODAY. Since Trump’s election, the tech industry has been knocked for being out of touch with great swaths of the nation it serves. It has spawned young millionaires and six- figure salaries in coastal tech hubs, yet tech advances spearheaded by tech companies have hastened the loss of middleclass jobs elsewhere. “It’s important to cultivate opportunities across the U. S. that are accessible to more people,” Butterfield says. “If we don’t take what we learn here and invest in these communities, the divide that in our country, that has become evident to many, will only increase, making it harder for people to collaborate on solving problems in their respective communities,” Miley said of the disconnect between the tech industry and middle America. “Trump is the canary in the coal mine.”
When Americans’ economic anxieties showed up with the election of Donald Trump, Leslie Miley says he felt compelled to act.