Documents released Wednesday show national tech execs are sending money to Baltimore, and press from the likes of Re/code and Fast Company are taking notice.
But instead of a big exit like when Groupon bought OrderUp, the money is flowing to a mayoral candidate.
The most recent round of campaign fundraising reports show #BlackLivesMatter activist DeRay Mckesson received donations from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Twitter executive chairman Omid Kordestan and Slack founder Stewart Butterfield. Each donated $6,000.
Mckesson also collected donations through Crowdpac, which was cofounded by Kordestan’s wife (another donor). Re/code has background on his connection to big tech companies:
Mckesson has previously met with workers and executives at tech companies like Google and Twitter, and he’ll be appearing onstage at this year’s Code conference alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and fellow activist Johnetta Elzie. Mckesson is running as a Democrat against more than a dozen others in the party primary.
In all, Mckesson raised nearly $225,000 since launching his candidacy just before the deadline on Feb. 3, and he has about $97,000 on hand. Policy-wise, Mckesson calls for integrating tech into city government by bolstering CitiStat, creating an online hub for “academic enrichment” and exploring “smart city” solutions to infrastructure.
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