# Ron Conway **Ron Conway** (b. March 9, 1951) is a Silicon Valley angel investor and the founder of **SV Angel**, which became a formal firm in 2009. For more than a decade he has been the tech industry's main power broker in San Francisco city politics, aligned with Democrats and with the city's moderate faction. ## San Francisco politics - **2011.** Raised about $600K in independent spending for Mayor Ed Lee. - **Breed era.** An early backer of [[London Breed]]. - **2024 mayor's race.** Gave $100K to the PAC opposing Aaron Peskin, the only progressive in the field, "tens of thousands" to [[GrowSF]]'s PAC, and $500 to Breed. No direct backing of the winner, [[Daniel Lurie]], was found. - **2026.** Runs a separate committee against the statewide [[California Billionaires Tax]], "Stop the Squeeze," which had raised about $400K and nothing since April *(SF Standard; single-source)*. ## The break with Benioff (October 2025) On **October 16, 2025**, Conway resigned from the Salesforce Foundation board, which he had served on for more than a decade. The trigger was [[Marc Benioff]]'s public support for sending the National Guard into San Francisco. His email to Benioff read: "It saddens me immensely to say that with your recent comments, and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired." He called the proposal "an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal troops." He also criticized Benioff's stance on ICE raids, gerrymandering and attacks on free speech, and suggested Benioff wanted the Guard so Salesforce would not have to pay for Dreamforce security. Benioff apologized the next day. Six days later, Trump called the surge off. See [[San Francisco Federal Surge Reversal]]. ## Why it matters in this KB Conway is the counterexample to treating the tech class as one bloc. He is a Democratic, pro-moderate, anti-progressive power broker who opposes the wealth tax. When a fellow billionaire welcomed federal troops into the city, he broke with him in public. ## See Also - [[Marc Benioff]] · [[San Francisco Federal Surge Reversal]] · [[GrowSF]] · [[California Tech Exodus Ecosystem]]