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I think employees at companies that are backed by Saudi Arabia (via Saudi's Public Investment Fund or indirectly via Softbank's Vision Fund) should feel empower

I think employees at companies that are backed by Saudi Arabia (via Saudi's Public Investment Fund or indirectly via Softbank's Vision Fund) should feel empowered to push back against upper management and ask them to refuse further investment (easy) and/or work with other investors to buy out Saudi's share (hard). If you work at a company that's backed by Saudi Arabia, the proceeds of your work are funneling up into the hands of an increasingly autocratic and persistently repressive government. You have the power to do something about it. Disclosure: I work at Lyft, which has among its investors Al-Waleed bin Talal. Al-Waleed bin Talal is a member of the Saudi royal family but (apparently) does not have much influence in the current regime.

ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
Morality only exists once you have a comfortable life and your basic needs are met. When your life (and startup's) life depends on funding and you have spent all your life saving's in bootstrapping your startup let me know how much you would push back on Saudi money? And would you stop at Saudi but not Australia which has a worse human rights records for minorities, lesser women representation in parliament than even Saudi Arabia and much more xenophobic than even the middle east countries? (Fox news has minority viewership in US but Murdoch has close to 90% viewership in Australia) For what it's worth, the West always had a myopic and sledge hammer approach to solving these issues with threats and violence.
- KerrickStaley 8y ago
  People won't want to use products that are backed by shady investors. Employees won't want to work for companies that are backed by shady investors. It's in the best interests of both company leadership and shareholding employees to avoid affiliation with these bad actors. If the upper management doesn't recognize that, it's up to the employees to raise the concern.
  - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
    https://www.moral-relativism.com/ https://www.moral-relativism.com/ Moral relativism is the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves. You decide what's right for you, and I'll decide what's right for me. Moral relativism says, "It's true for me, if I believe it."

ganeshkrishnan 8y ago

Morality only exists once you have a comfortable life and your basic needs are met. When your life (and startup's) life depends on funding and you have spent all your life saving's in bootstrapping your startup let me know how much you would push back on Saudi money? And would you stop at Saudi but not Australia which has a worse human rights records for minorities, lesser women representation in parliament than even Saudi Arabia and much more xenophobic than even the middle east countries? (Fox news has minority viewership in US but Murdoch has close to 90% viewership in Australia) For what it's worth, the West always had a myopic and sledge hammer approach to solving these issues with threats and violence.

KerrickStaley 8y ago
People won't want to use products that are backed by shady investors. Employees won't want to work for companies that are backed by shady investors. It's in the best interests of both company leadership and shareholding employees to avoid affiliation with these bad actors. If the upper management doesn't recognize that, it's up to the employees to raise the concern.
- ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
  https://www.moral-relativism.com/ https://www.moral-relativism.com/ Moral relativism is the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves. You decide what's right for you, and I'll decide what's right for me. Moral relativism says, "It's true for me, if I believe it."