Ron Conway, founder of venture capital firm SV Angel, known for its early investments in Google, Airbnb and Meta, has resigned from the Salesforce Foundation. the New York Times reported. The resignation comes after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said last week that he “fully supported” President Trump and suggested National Guard troops patrol the streets of San Francisco to fight crime and homelessness.
In an interview with The New York Times last week, Benioff argued that San Francisco needed “a show of force” and called for the deployment of the National Guard to deal with what he described as worsening conditions in the city. He also praised the efficiency efforts of Elon Musk’s administration and said he has not kept pace with reports of immigration raids or Trump’s attacks on the press, despite owning the news magazine Time, which he bought in 2018.
Conway has been on the board of the Salesforce Foundation, whose mission is to support education and workforce development for disadvantaged youth, for a decade. The charity gave away $36 million in 2023 and ended that year with $400 million in assets, according to tax filings, the New York Times reported.
Benioff and Conway have been friends for 25 years and shared leftist political views for most of that time. But the Salesforce CEO’s current ideological views upset Conway.
“I am deeply sorry to say that with your recent comments and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize the person I admired for so long,” Conway wrote Thursday in an email to Benioff obtained by The New York Times.
A Salesforce spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that Conway has resigned. “We are deeply grateful for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation Board of Directors for over a decade,” the spokesperson said.
Benioff is one of several high-profile tech leaders and investors who, despite previously supporting the Democratic Party, have now expressed their support for Trump. The rift between Benioff and Conway unfolded during Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, one of the biggest events held each year in San Francisco.
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Neither Salesforce nor Conway immediately responded to a request for comment.
Update: The post has been updated with a statement from a Salesforce spokesperson.
