E6: Vivek Ramaswamy on Running for President in 2024 and His Message to Silicon Valley

Vivek Ramaswamy is a 2024 Republican presidential candidate who founded biotech company Roivant Sciences, now public. He has written books about what he sees as the excesses of woke capitalism and started an asset management firm called Strive, meant to be a right-wing competitor with BlackRock. With his presidential campaign, Vivek challenges conventional orthodoxy on several core issues, including affirmative action and climate change. Regardless of what you may think about his policies or him, it's worth understanding how he stands to influence our upcoming election and inject his views into the mainstream. If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream

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Every week investor and writer of the popular newsletter The Diff, Byrne Hobart, and co-host Erik Torenberg discuss today’s major inflection points in technology, business, and markets – and help listeners build a diversified portfolio of trends and ideas for the future. Subscribe to “The Riff” with Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg: https://link.chtbl.com/theriff

TIMESTAMPS: 

(00:00) Preview of the episode

(04:10) When Vivek changed from founder to presidential candidate

(11:47) Vivek’s presidential platform: Affirmative action, Climate, Fed, Drug crisis

(16:34) Sponsors: Secureframe

(17:58) Where Vivek overlaps/differs with Silicon Valley: DEI, Free speech, SVB

(25:51) Meritocracy above all else?

(32:32) How to remove politics from corporations

(40:26) Silicon Valley should empathize more with the rest of the country?

(56:56) Defining “woke”

(58:14) What’s it like to run a presidential campaign

SOCIAL LINKS:

Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg

Vivek’s Twitter: @VivekGRamaswamy

Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod

Erik’s Substack: eriktorenberg.substack.com

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