SAN JOSE, Calif. — Many Silicon Valley tech leaders continue to challenge the man they never wanted to see in the White House, labeling his ideas — particularly last month’s travel ban — as bad for the industry and their bottom line.
Meanwhile, for a few other tech companies, President Donald Trump is a gold mine.
As a wave of civic activism sweeps through the country, startups using technology to address issues of social justice, government accountability and health care have seen business boom since Trump’s election.
“A typical day before Trump was elected, we might have 5,000 or 10,000 unique users a day. Now we have roughly 100,000 to 200,000,” said Bart Myers, founder and CEO of Countable, an app that connects people with their congressional representatives. “It’s a radical change. And it’s not slowing down.”
Startups like Countable and CrowdJustice, a crowdfunding platform for social justice lawsuits, are harnessing both the outrage and jubilation Americans are experiencing in the wake of the election, by giving users a way to speak out on divisive issues. Others, like birth control delivery app Nurx and immigration aid app Arrived.us, cater to users’ fears of what might happen under a Trump presidency.