2 tech billionaires launch 'WTF' to save the Democratic Party with ... billboards
The cofounders of two tech giants have teamed up to rethink the Democratic Party. On the Fourth of July, they launched a project called WTF -- short for "Win The Future" -- that is virtually crowdsourcing a political agenda on Twitter, Recode reported.
No, this isn't the premise of the next season of HBO's Silicon Valley.
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus have been working on this project since President Donald Trump's victory -- for real. They are pushing out the campaign via an exclusive on tech news site Recode and with a marketing campaign on Twitter -- seriously.
On Tuesday, they launched the website and began inviting people to join the movement. One of their first efforts is to create and fund billboards with their particular policy positions.
WTF members, or anyone really, can tweet their own idea for a billboard with the hashtag #WTFAgenda. They can also endorse the crowdsourced billboards by retweeting or liking the tweets.
Pincus suggested free engineering degrees:
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Sen. Guy Palumbo of Washington, a Democrat, suggested all presidential candidates be required to disclose their tax returns:
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According to WTF, they need $5,000 to fund each billboard, which will be erected in Washington, D.C.
As for their mission, so far, it's centered around a pro-social, pro-planet, and pro-business ethos, according to the website. The rest is up to the people.
“My only agenda is, I would like to see mainstream America more empowered to set an agenda," Pincus said in an interview with Recode. “We wanted to move beyond just thinking about this moment of resisting and get to what comes next."
First, billboards.
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They tried working with the Democratic National Committee, at first, as revealed by Recode's profile. Pincus, for example, sent in feedback on multiple occasions, but he never heard back.
So, in part, they are putting their efforts behind WTF.
“There are some very great voices," Hoffman told Recode. "But as an overall whole, as a party, I think they’re, frankly, still getting their act together on presenting a coherent view of the future that they want to build to.”
Hoffman and Pincus are both experiencing in connecting people. Hoffman helped create the online network for connecting professionals. Pincus cofounded the company behind FarmVille and Words with Friends, those games your parents kept begging to play with you. If anyone can get people to inspire others to take action online, it could very well be these men.
For now, billboards.
Topics LinkedIn Donald Trump Politics
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.