Wire just published a 5,000word

investigation into something the Silicon

Valley has been whispering about for

years. Not only a secret mafia

controlling large swaths of the tech

industry, but a whole network of venture

capital parties in power that might

explain how money actually moves in

tech. This is something I suspected for

a while, but now we have proof.

The amazing reporting on this comes from

a journalist by the name of Zoe Bernard

for Wired. She talked to 51 people, 31

of them gay men, and uncovered what is

being termed the gay tech mafia. These

sources included investors, founders,

and other industry insiders. They named

names, and you're going to recognize a

lot of these. Peter Teal, Sam Alman,

Hellberg, who is now the under secretary

of state, and Dileian Asparov. And I

want to be clear about the framing in

this article. This is not a about a

scandal. This is just more reporting on

how power actually consolidates. One of

the sources said, quote, "Of course, the

gay tech mafia exists. This is not some

Illuminati conspiracy theory." This does

largely seem to make sense to me and

back with a lot of my observations. You

know, a fair number of people in the VC

space in the valley and this has been

something that people have quietly

whispered about for a number of years as

a number of these figures have gained

increasing eminence. And as with any

journalism that I report on, with

anything I talk about on this channel,

when it comes to working in tech, one of

the reasons I got into tech is because I

was so sick of what academia had become.

Around the time I finished up my PhD, it

was an echo chamber of sickopancy and

ideology. And if you didn't line up with

the party ideology defined by the

academy, then you were cast out. You

were discredited. Didn't matter what

kind of research you were doing. It

happened to me. I saw it happen to a

number of my other colleagues who had

the wrong political opinions or even

those who avoided politics and just

wanted to do work. And so it's really

important as we go through this video,

we don't vilify any person or even any

characteristic about a person. But I

will say what I do not tolerate. I

cannot stand is anything that gets in

the way of meritocracy in tech. And this

is clear evidence as we'll see as we get

through the findings. And if Zoe's done

anything with this bit of journalism,

she has now opened people's eyes to what

is going on in certain sectors of VC

funding in the valley, especially these

highly concentrated, very powerful ones.

And that awareness is the first step

towards moving back towards meritocracy.

We always take it back to stats and the

money on this channel. So let's start

there. Between 2000 and 2022, only.5% of

venture capital funding went to LGBTQ

plus founders. So, the gay tech mafia

isn't about gay people getting all the

money. It's about a specific tiny group

of very powerful men funding each other.

The key network, and I've touched on

this, you know, I hinted at it in the

Sam Alman video, but I I didn't get into

it. I felt like I don't know, maybe it's

a little politically incorrect. I don't

really have stats and figures on this.

That seems like a a bit of a an inferred

claim. I I had a gut feeling. I noticed

some things when I was digging into the

Sam Alman story, but I pulled punches

and I didn't say anything there cuz I

don't want to just haul off and just

spllay my opinion on this channel. I

want to have evidence for the claims

that I'm making. And we got it. And the

things that I noticed is that there's

kind of this origin story of this gay

mafia, which is just like a funny term.

I'm trying to not laugh every time I say

it. And so the key network is you have

Peter Teal dispersing cash to two

individuals. There's Rabois and there's

Sam Alman who you'll know if you go back

and watch my expose on Sam Alman. Peter

Teal was a very early and enthusiastic

investor in Sam's Ventures. I'll let you

read into that how you will. The plays

made by this original group of three are

quite broad. The two most major ones are

going to be Founders Fund and Y

Combinator. So you have Teal showing

what you might consider to be an unfair

hiring bias for gay men at PayPal as

well as Rabo hiring maybe unfair

preference for gay men at Square and

then Alman as he's the head of Y

Combinator and later on OpenAI

assembling a a large circle around him.

An insider went on record saying that

the biggest benefit you get out of this

group is its crossgenerational

networking. This source said quote gays

are crossgenerational. I can hang out

with someone who is 18 and Peter might

also be there. Again, I'm not making

erroneous claims. These are

sourcebacked. You can go check out Zoe's

original research if you really want to

delve into it. I just have the

highlights here for you. And like I

said, but back up from my experience uh

seeing what I've seen in tech. Couple of

driveby examples. Locky Groom, who's

Alman's ex, raised a $250 million solo

fund in his 20s. An investor source

said, quote, "He is in the network and

he is Sam's ex-boyfriend." But the

connections spread outside of tech into

the personal as well. Rabois's wedding

actually was officiated by Sam Alman.

And if you're wondering the guest list

on that wedding, the who's who of tech

primo networking event. And again, I

would be remiss if I did not reiterate,

only.5%

of funding of VC funding goes to LGBTQ

plus founders. So this is not like a

widespread it's controlling the whole

industry. It's a very small intentional

coordinated group that hold a lot of

power in the valley. The thread that I

hope to weave through this video is the

question of how does funding actually

work? How does VC funding actually work

in the valley? I think everybody at this

point knows that a lot of it is based on

personal connections instead of

technical acuity. But when you start to

see investigative journalism like this,

you really it makes your stomach flip

because you you realize, you know, how

deep this goes and how coordinated it

can be. Maybe maybe how deep this goes

is not the right phrasing for a segment

on the gay mafia. And so you might be

saying, Dr. J, you're twisting the words

of this report. What are you talking

about? You have like some axe to grind.

um you know, we've called you

misogynist, racist, and now you're

you're gayist because remember this guy,

this is a gay mafia. This is not a

lesbian, bisexual, trans mafia. This is

this is gays only. This is men only.

Okay? And I'm not I would respond to you

that there is actually a gay VC mafia

group chat. And that 60% of that group

chat is business, but 40% is what one

source calls quote he he haha. I would

be very curious to know in this context

what he he he haha means. And as

somebody who's been to a couple of

socialite events in the valley, I can

back this up. This also makes an

appearance in the research. If you are a

straight founder who happens to show up

at a gay tech event, the gag is just

don't tell anybody that you're straight.

So again, a gay VC mafia group chat

exists. Multiple members confirmed that.

They also confirmed that there are

regular parties in San Francisco where

quote girls are not present. They are

just not there. And we even have a

location for where the deals go down.

It's Berries in Castro, which is a

neighborhood in San Francisco. It's a

gym and that's where the funding deals

get made. One of the sources says,

quote, "All guys, all gays, everyone has

abs." The biggest issue I take with

this, I am very socially open. I don't

really care much what other people do

socially. But the reason that this bugs

me, it bugs me a lot and it bugs me more

than a lot of other discrimination in

text is what is implicitly or explicitly

going on are a couple of things that I'm

I'm very uncomfortable with and I'm very

concerned about. The first is that there

is a crossover between the he he haha

let's say in business and I've always

been of the mindset that business is

business personal is personal and

absolutely you don't want anything kind

of work inappropriate or like of the he

he haha variety in your business it's

generally a bad thing it's generally a

bad thing and the fact that I even have

to say that it's like there's literal HR

trainings about this when you join any

company and these guys seem to be

totally just skirting that. So, it's

rules for thee but not for me. And it

seems like you're not really allowed to

criticize it, but here we are talking

about it. I'm uncomfortable with that. I

don't like the he he hha being brought

into the workplace. I'm a professional.

The other thing that I don't like is

that this is inherently sexist as well.

I mean, even toss toss sexual if you're

having a problem with this, toss sexual

orientation uh out out the window, okay?

Uh, so get rid of the gay thing. And if

we just look at one of these quotes,

let's say, you know, I'm telling you

this story and I say, "Here's the here's

where all the deals happen. It's at this

gym and it's quote, "all guys, everyone

has abs." You'd be like, "That's sexist.

That's sexist. There's no women. There's

no women in this group chat. There's no

there's no women making deals in the

gym." And they have an equal seat at the

table in tech, too. Just like everyone

else, to the extent of where your merit

is, that is where you should land. And

this is being done on an identity first

basis. It's intermingling work and he he

hha and I'm just I'm very uncomfortable

with it on those two fronts. I don't

like this. It's not meritocratic. And we

even have uh straight men offering to

maybe do a little gay for pay to get

some of those sweet VC bucks. One of the

sources said that he kept RSVPing to gay

events for quote deal flow. Probably a

lot of other things flowing too, but you

know, sweet VC bucks, a little deal

flow. I guess that guy's got a price.

And I'm telling you, if we need to worry

about folks being predatory, it's the

it's the straight straight dudes you got

to worry about. At a founder event, a

straight founder literally put his hand

on a gay GP's thigh during a pitch.

There's a bunch of other weird stuff.

There's a Gary Tan sauna photo, the

current uh king and ruler of Y

Combinator. I'm going to do an expose on

him, too, because there's a lot of crazy

stuff in his background. And then there

was also

the naked Y Combinator application

photo. You even have one company, Rabois

company, Open Store, being described as

quote almost like a herum filled with

jacked white men. So you even have an

element of race coming into this. Again,

this is all sourced from wired

reporting, multiple named and anonymous

sources, and this is wired as tech

sponsored media. And even they are

talking about it now. It just seems to

me like another

old boys club or deal doing deals on the

golf course or like a fraternity

network, which are all things I have

like an extreme issue with. Again,

they're anti-meritocracy,

which is one of the things that again,

my argument is that's what makes tech

great. As soon as tech is not a

meritocracy, I don't want to do it

anymore. It's not just the straight guys

you have to watch out for, though. Nine

out of 31 gay men interviewed for this

article said that they had experienced

unwanted sexual advances from other gay

men in the industry. And one of those

believes that turning down a sexual

advance cost him the job. And multiple

sources describe quote unquote sex pests

sending unsolicited salacious nude

pornographic photos to venture

capitalists to try to secure some

funding. One source said that young

founders quote indicated that they were

open to whatever it takes to raise.

Funding is not going to be the only

thing getting raised if you're willing

to go to those lengths. You know what I

mean? One partner actually proposed a

meeting naked in his hot tub to discuss

funding. A lot of them don't see a

problem with it either. One source says,

quote, "Straight guys have the golf

course. Gay guys have the orgy. It

doesn't mean it's problematic. It's

consensual, but it's a way we bond and

connect. Another disturbing quote, "Sex

is devalued in gay male culture. Often,

it's just another piece of currency."

Guys, come on. It's like a handshake.

It's not even a big deal. Again, if you

are clutching your pearls again at this

part of the video, I'd urge you to take

the orientation out of it and just

consider it is a traditional, you know,

kind of sexist play. Think about a man

who is a venture capitalist inviting a

young because it's crossgenerational,

remember from the intro. So he's he's a

40-year-old 50-year-old venture

capitalist, right? He's got a lot of

money. He's got a big fund. It's the hot

fund in the valley. And you have this

18year-old woman who has a startup and

she really needs funding. She's got a

great idea. She really needs funding

because that's you die without funding.

And uh this 50-year-old VC fellow

invites her for a meeting to discuss

funding, but it's in his hot tub and got

to be naked. That's messed up, right? I

mean, that's front page news. That's uh

that's Harvey Weinstein. That's uh you

want to be famous, don't you? And so,

even if this is running well most of the

time, that's just that mixing of the

let's say business and pleasure that I

just do not I just do not like. I don't

think it has any place in this industry.

I don't think it has any place in any

kind of professional

workplace. It It really bugs me and it

makes me wonder, is Silicon Valley just

set up in this way to enable this kind

of power abuse regardless of sexual

orientation? The headline is awesome,

but this isn't really a story about gay

men. It's a story about how about 400

billion annually in venture capital gets

allocated. And the answer is through

personal relationships, group chats,

orgies apparently, and who you know,

merit is only the story that these guys

are telling publicly. And you'll see a

lot of them go on, they go on the Joe

Rogan podcast, they go on TV and they

talk about how, you know, you just got

to work hard. You just got to be better.

You just got to study. You just got to

work 996. You got to work Chinese

factory hours in order to get ahead.

That's what I did. That's how I got

ahead. But they don't tell you the whole

story about how these people are getting

deals from their fund or from their

associates or what they're treating

their inner circle like at their big

companies that they run. And the real

takeaway about this is this is mostly

how Silicon Valley runs. These are the

companies that own most of the media one

way or another, own most of the

internet, own most of the narrative

control, and increasingly a large swath

of the politics in this country. And

it's run basically like if you take the

structure of like madmen, you know,

where it's just blatantly misogynistic.

If you take the misogyny about it and

just have it be ingroup outgroup

preferences, it's essentially still

being run the same way. You just have

increased tribalism with a lot of these

different groups as opposed to just like

men cutting everyone else out. Venture

capital has always been to some degree a

relationship business where intros and

connections matter more than business

acumen or technical ability. And the

meritocracy narrative that a lot of

these guys are pushing is a myth and it

always has been. The fact is just like

when I was in academia there was an

incumbent network right they had to be

very vocal about their political

opinions I did not line up with a lot of

those political opinions on a lot of

things I was apolitical just don't care

don't really want to get involved in

that just business want to show up want

to do a good job want to be better than

I was yesterday

want to compete and it turned out when I

tried to compete against that incumbent

network and I saw my friends and

colleagues try to compete with that

incumbent network they were not a part

of the ingroup, they were at a massive

disadvantage, an an unbridgegable

disadvantage. And I hate to say it, but

this is the way that the tech industry

is functioning lately with a lot of

venture capital. I'm not saying merit

doesn't matter. You should improve

yourself, but that should be for you.

That should be for you. Hopefully, it's

job security. Hopefully, it helps you

improve, but the only way you're going

to get into the top 1% is to be in one

of these networks. There are just a

handful of exceptions to this, a handful

that I have seen over my whole career

through friends, sources that talk to me

as well as my own experience. And if you

want to break into that top 1% in tech,

you got to mob up. You got to mob up.

You got to join a gang. It's just like

prison. It's no different than prison.

They just wear Patagonia instead of

jumpsuits. And uh instead of working out

in the prison yard, they turn into

longevity wackos like Brian Johnson.

It's the same thing. It's the same

thing. It's just different clothes, new

words, bigger words, more polish. Same

thing. Tribalism. I have no tolerance

for it. And I've seen companies succeed

that do still believe in meritocracy.

There are still a few. There are still a

few. But it's increasingly hard to find

them. And I fear that this is going to

maintain the dominant way of doing

things in the valley, which is going to

determine VC funding, which might seem

like a totally separate world from you.

If you're watching this and you're not a

techie, you know, maybe you don't even

work in tech or maybe you do, but you

don't work at some West Coast, you know,

uh, high-end tech company, something

like that. And it has trickle down

effects though, right? Because like I

said, these companies are controlling so

much of the modern narrative. And I'm

not even saying intentionally, just by

default, because of the fact that they

own a large market share. They own media

companies. I mean, even the tools we use

on the dayto-day affect how we think.

And most of those are be designed by

venture capitalbacked companies, the

cutting edge ones right now at least. I

hope that you take this information

again, separate the person from the

consolidation of a power structure.

Again, this isn't about gay men, just

like my H1B video isn't about Indians.

If you are nasty in the comments, I will

ban you. So, keep it civil. The

discussion is around the meta structure

of power consolidating into small groups

where there is a lot of money or power

to be gotten. I hope this opens your

eyes to that phenomenon and with your

eyes open, we can start to move towards

a more meritocratic tech industry again.

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