When Teresa Carlson was running Amazon’s public sector cloud business in the 2010s, she said she tried to get venture capital engaged in Washington policy conversations. After all, VC invested in the tech that would work on the cloud to serve the government.
“They didn’t really back then,” Carlson told us recently. “It was like, ‘Really? Why?’”
It’d be hard to argue that’s still the case.
VC is undeniably having a D.C. moment. Key VC figures, including Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, have turned into vocal backers of President Donald Trump, with Sacks being among the VC alumni staffing the administration.
Even Vice President JD Vance spent time in VC, and recently rolled out some tax priorities at a summit convened by Andreessen’s firm, a16z. The VC firms are staffing up in the capitol too.
“We are excited,” said Carlson, who recently launched an “institute” within the VC firm General Catalyst to focus on policy. “When you say, ‘Hey, why are you here? And is it good timing?’ It’s great timing!”
There are a couple of reasons for the VC moment besides the affinity on the personnel level. Trump’s administration wants to spur American tech startups and bring them into government work. Indeed, Carlson said the Ukraine war spurred interest by defense-related startups even before Trump was reelected.
Venture itself has also grown its influence on the economy, and tech startups are increasingly focused on areas like health and energy that are much more highly regulated than social media or enterprise software.
“If you’re building a photo sharing app, you don’t need a lobbyist,” said Zak Kukoff, a former VCer who now chairs the tech and venture practice at the lobbying firm Lewis-Burke Associated. “But if you’re building a defense weapons app or space company or a nuclear fusion business, you do need a lobbyist and you probably need more than one.”
Not everything, to be clear, is rosy and unanimous. Sequoia Capital is pulling out of Washington. Some VC firms invest in startups that want to clamp down on digital gatekeepers like Apple, Kukoff said, while others in the venture sector see Big Tech as providing access to millions of customers instantly.
As in Trump’s “America First” coalition, high-skilled immigration is an issue too.
There are some people who “think that America First means Americans First… and a very large component of folks who think that America First means bringing the best team of people possible to America,” Kukoff said. The latter is especially common in VC, he added.
And then, of course, there’s DOGE. Theoretically, bringing on more tech is a way to get greater government efficiency. In reality, though, Elon Musk has been more of a contract-cutter and skeptic of government software procurement.
“We have had some companies say they’ve gotten contracts pulled,” Carlson said. “When you’re trying to drive innovators and transformative tech into government… you don’t want them to have bad experiences when they’re early into getting contracts.”
Overall, as important as it is to talk to the Hill, VC has to make sure it’s chatting with administration too, Carlson said.
“You cannot ignore the executive branch, clearly, right now, because they’re making so many moves and changes,” she said. That’s a task that’s made harder as the sector waits for Senate confirmations and the subsequent hires of lower-level officials, she added.
When the time comes, though, we expect VC will at least be able to get its voice heard.
