{"id":7578,"date":"2016-11-10T17:41:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T17:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fabricegrinda.com\/?p=7578"},"modified":"2023-10-17T03:50:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T03:50:15","slug":"some-thoughts-on-trumps-surprising-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/some-thoughts-on-trumps-surprising-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts on Trump\u2019s surprising win"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Connie Loizos<\/a> from Techcrunch yesterday. Unsurprisingly the conversation rapidly veered towards discussing Trump’s surprising win. I am reproducing our discussion below for your reading pleasure.<\/p>\n

You can find the original article at:
\nhttps:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2016\/11\/09\/a-serial-founder-on-trump-hes-a-startup-that-disrupted-the-establishment\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"trump<\/center><\/p>\n

Fabrice Grinda<\/a>, a longtime New Yorker, has helped create hundreds of jobs for Americans and others. Among the companies he has started is OLX<\/a>, one of the largest free classifieds sites in the world \u2014 one that was acquired over time by the African conglomerate Naspers for $250 million.<\/p>\n

Grinda more recently co-founded Beepi, the peer-to-peer used car marketplace based in California; Rebagg<\/a>, a New York-based platform that buys high-end luxury bags from their owners for cash; and Instacarro<\/a>, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based car-buying service that will buy individuals\u2019 cars for cash in an hour\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

Grinda and longtime business partner, Jose Marin, also plug between $15 million and $20 million of their own capital into startups each year through their joint vehicle, FJ Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But though he sounds it, Grinda isn\u2019t American. He doesn\u2019t have dual citizenship. He\u2019s \u201cpure French.\u201d He just happened to head to Princeton at age 17, and he hasn\u2019t much wanted to leave the East Coast since.<\/p>\n

So what does this European make of a new U.S. president who has Silicon Valley on edge? Because he\u2019s a global operator and because he doesn\u2019t live in the Bay Area, we talked with Grinda earlier today about President-elect Trump and whether he\u2019s concerned about what comes next.
\n
\nTC: How did the U.S. election just change the picture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FG: Public market investors, limited partners in venture funds and private equity firms \u2014 they don\u2019t like uncertainty. What they don\u2019t know is the actual set of policies coming down the line that could impact them going forward. What will be his tax policy? What will his administration regulate and deregulate? It\u2019s not like [Trump\u2019s team] came forward with a well-thought-out set of policy proposals. It was all kind of vacuous. So I think investors will be more cautious until they understand what a Trump presidency means.<\/p>\n

TC: Do you think it could impact you personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FG: I don\u2019t spend much time thinking about politics. I\u2019m not sure it has a real impact on day-to-day life. It\u2019s a large part of the reason I\u2019m on the internet. I like its deregulated, fast-moving nature.
\n
\nTC: Yet there could easily be consequences. People worry, for example, that for the sake of creating more American jobs, Trump might somehow slow tech, including self-driving technologies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

FG: There\u2019s no hard data regarding what is going to be done. My only concerns are around the uncertainty.
\n
\nTC: What do you make of Trump, the candidate, and soon, the president?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FC: I dislike the guy. I dislike populism and most of the things he said and much of what he stands for. I\u2019m pro immigration and probably more socially liberal than anyone I know. But look, he\u2019s a startup who has disrupted the establishment. He used a lot of the same tactics that a startup would use to get free press, frankly. He created a story that was compelling enough that he garnered press all the time and so had much lower acquisition costs than the other candidates. Jeb Bush was paying something like $5,000 per voter in the GOP primaries, where Trump was paying about $300.<\/p>\n

In startup terms, he had an effective distribution and a marketing strategy and messaging that people found compelling. I think he proved the adage that any press is good press. And the establishment only realized this was dangerous once it was too late.<\/p>\n

By the way, I think the same is true of jihadists; all the media attention that ISIS receives makes it easier for them to get recruits.<\/p>\n

TC: Let\u2019s not go there. What do you think Silicon Valley does now to turn this situation into a win instead of something to suffer through?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FG: Clearly, there\u2019s a percentage of the population that\u2019s been left behind and not listened to and we need to find a better way to deal with that. I am an optimist. I do believe the tide of history is toward more liberalism and the quality of life improving. Sometimes, you have pushback, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn\u2019t seem to matter. As horrible as the Great Depression must have been to live through, it barely registers in the bigger picture. I think the next four years will be a blip, too.<\/p>\n

Has globalization had some losers? Absolutely. If you\u2019re a high school dropout, your relative job position in the job market hasn\u2019t been great over the last 30 years. It\u2019s a class of people who haven\u2019t been heard, and we haven\u2019t been good at retraining or them or integrating them into the success of this country. We need to focus on opportunities to refocus the education system and retrain them and that\u2019s the message that\u2019s been sent and maybe it\u2019ll force us to get our act together.<\/p>\n

TC: Should the country, including investors, be more focused then more on educational reforms, education platforms? Where are the biggest opportunities here given the shifting tides?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FG: I think there are things he could do well. The U.S. hasn\u2019t had a good infrastructure program for years. To create jobs, the easiest way isn\u2019t to block technology but to build better roads and bridges and airports and the things that are needed and create lots of jobs. The reality, too, is that we\u2019re crumbling under red tape. We have an outrageously ineffective corporate and personal tax system that are both ineffective and run inefficiently. And we\u2019re under a mountain of regulations. If you\u2019re in the offline world for example, the burden for construction alone is limited to an insane degree by nimbyism<\/a>. If he could do these things, we might be able to make the best of a bad situation. I know I\u2019d feel better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Connie Loizos from Techcrunch yesterday. Unsurprisingly the conversation rapidly veered towards discussing Trump’s surprising win. I am reproducing our discussion below for … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-musings","category-interesting-articles"],"acf":[],"contentUpdated":"Some thoughts on Trump\u2019s surprising win. Categories - Personal Musings, Interesting Articles. Date-Posted - 2016-11-10T17:41:43 . I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Connie Loizos from Techcrunch yesterday. Unsurprisingly the conversation rapidly veered towards discussing Trump’s surprising win. I am reproducing our discussion below for your reading pleasure.\n You can find the original article at:\n https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2016\/11\/09\/a-serial-founder-on-trump-hes-a-startup-that-disrupted-the-establishment\/\n Fabrice Grinda, a longtime New Yorker, has helped create hundreds of jobs for Americans and others. Among the companies he has started is OLX, one of the largest free classifieds sites in the world \u2014 one that was acquired over time by the African conglomerate Naspers for $250 million.\n Grinda more recently co-founded Beepi, the peer-to-peer used car marketplace based in California; Rebagg, a New York-based platform that buys high-end luxury bags from their owners for cash; and Instacarro, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based car-buying service that will buy individuals\u2019 cars for cash in an hour\u2019s time.\n Grinda and longtime business partner, Jose Marin, also plug between $15 million and $20 million of their own capital into startups each year through their joint vehicle, FJ Labs.\n But though he sounds it, Grinda isn\u2019t American. He doesn\u2019t have dual citizenship. He\u2019s \u201cpure French.\u201d He just happened to head to Princeton at age 17, and he hasn\u2019t much wanted to leave the East Coast since.\n So what does this European make of a new U.S. president who has Silicon Valley on edge? Because he\u2019s a global operator and because he doesn\u2019t live in the Bay Area, we talked with Grinda earlier today about President-elect Trump and whether he\u2019s concerned about what comes next.\n TC: How did the U.S. election just change the picture?\n FG: Public market investors, limited partners in venture funds and private equity firms \u2014 they don\u2019t like uncertainty. What they don\u2019t know is the actual set of policies coming down the line that could impact them going forward. What will be his tax policy? What will his administration regulate and deregulate? It\u2019s not like [Trump\u2019s team] came forward with a well-thought-out set of policy proposals. It was all kind of vacuous. So I think investors will be more cautious until they understand what a Trump presidency means.\n TC: Do you think it could impact you personally?\n FG: I don\u2019t spend much time thinking about politics. I\u2019m not sure it has a real impact on day-to-day life. It\u2019s a large part of the reason I\u2019m on the internet. I like its deregulated, fast-moving nature.\n TC: Yet there could easily be consequences. People worry, for example, that for the sake of creating more American jobs, Trump might somehow slow tech, including self-driving technologies.\n FG: There\u2019s no hard data regarding what is going to be done. My only concerns are around the uncertainty.\n TC: What do you make of Trump, the candidate, and soon, the president?\n FC: I dislike the guy. I dislike populism and most of the things he said and much of what he stands for. I\u2019m pro immigration and probably more socially liberal than anyone I know. But look, he\u2019s a startup who has disrupted the establishment. He used a lot of the same tactics that a startup would use to get free press, frankly. He created a story that was compelling enough that he garnered press all the time and so had much lower acquisition costs than the other candidates. Jeb Bush was paying something like $5,000 per voter in the GOP primaries, where Trump was paying about $300.\n In startup terms, he had an effective distribution and a marketing strategy and messaging that people found compelling. I think he proved the adage that any press is good press. And the establishment only realized this was dangerous once it was too late.\n By the way, I think the same is true of jihadists; all the media attention that ISIS receives makes it easier for them to get recruits.\n TC: Let\u2019s not go there. What do you think Silicon Valley does now to turn this situation into a win instead of something to suffer through?\n FG: Clearly, there\u2019s a percentage of the population that\u2019s been left behind and not listened to and we need to find a better way to deal with that. I am an optimist. I do believe the tide of history is toward more liberalism and the quality of life improving. Sometimes, you have pushback, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn\u2019t seem to matter. As horrible as the Great Depression must have been to live through, it barely registers in the bigger picture. I think the next four years will be a blip, too.\n Has globalization had some losers? Absolutely. If you\u2019re a high school dropout, your relative job position in the job market hasn\u2019t been great over the last 30 years. It\u2019s a class of people who haven\u2019t been heard, and we haven\u2019t been good at retraining or them or integrating them into the success of this country. We need to focus on opportunities to refocus the education system and retrain them and that\u2019s the message that\u2019s been sent and maybe it\u2019ll force us to get our act together.\n TC: Should the country, including investors, be more focused then more on educational reforms, education platforms? Where are the biggest opportunities here given the shifting tides?\n FG: I think there are things he could do well. The U.S. hasn\u2019t had a good infrastructure program for years. To create jobs, the easiest way isn\u2019t to block technology but to build better roads and bridges and airports and the things that are needed and create lots of jobs. The reality, too, is that we\u2019re crumbling under red tape. We have an outrageously ineffective corporate and personal tax system that are both ineffective and run inefficiently. And we\u2019re under a mountain of regulations. If you\u2019re in the offline world for example, the burden for construction alone is limited to an insane degree by nimbyism. If he could do these things, we might be able to make the best of a bad situation. I know I\u2019d feel better.\n ","Category":["Personal Musings","Interesting Articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21696,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions\/21696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}