Broadband Breakfast on January 29, 2025 - The 'Little Tech' Agenda
Join us as we explore how a single document helped redefine the relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington.
"The Little Tech Agenda," a blog post from July 5, 2024, penned by Silicon Valley veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, created an unexpected bridge between the tech hub's innovation culture and Trump's political resurgence. What began as a modest proposal for startup-friendly regulations and cryptocurrency innovation has become a catalyst for a broader tech-political realignment, drawing prominent venture capitalists and tech leaders into Trump's orbit. Will this alliance between Silicon Valley disruptors and Trump's "Make America Great Again" political movement survive the realities of governing? How will the "techno-optimist" vision outlined in the agenda translate into effective policy?
Broadband Breakfast
Panelists
- Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Technology Association
- Will Rinehart, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
- Jennifer Huddleston, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
- Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast
Gary Shapiro is an acclaimed author, speaker, CEO and Vice Chair of the Consumer Technology Association which represents over 1200 consumer technology companies and owns and produces CES — the most powerful tech event in the world. In his 30-years plus heading CTA, Shapiro expanded the association’s influence and impact alongside the growth of the technology industry. Shapiro is active in policy, thought leadership, government, and community development alongside his position at CTA.
Will Rinehart is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the political economy of technology and innovation. His research covers policy areas such as diagnostic testing regulation, federal agency regulatory guidance, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the regulation of artificial intelligence. He also serves as an expert at the Federalist Society’s Emerging Technology Working Group, which is part of the Regulatory Transparency Project.
Jennifer Huddleston is a senior fellow in tech policy at the Cato Institute and an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Her research focuses on the intersection of law and technology including issues related to online speech, antitrust, and data privacy. She has a BA from Wellesley College and a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law.
Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.
If there was a defining moment in the 2024 election, in hindsight, it was not the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It was not J.D. Vance’s unverified claims about dogs and cats being eating by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. It was not the photo ops at McDonalds, Madison Square Garden, or the garbage truck.
It was, instead, an obscure blog post, “The Little Tech Agenda,” written by two wonky (if rich) Silicon Valley insiders, founders of their eponymous Venture Capital firm, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
The agenda, on the surface, is decidedly modest. Claiming not to support “Big Tech,” the authors want regulatory agencies to be more hands off to startup tech companies, specifically those innovating in cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence. And they wanted to stop a proposal to tax unrealized capital gains.
In many ways, “The Little Tech Agenda” has gone from being the tail wagging to the dog barking: Observers seeking to deduce how Trump will govern in his next administration will do better to study the Andreessen-Horowitz document than anything else said or written by Trump or Trump campaign officials.
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Drew Clark
