MIKE SOLANA WANTS YOU TO COMMIT THOUGHT-CRIMES

The Hereticon organizer on deplatforming, tribalism, and why tech dudes and journalists are natural enemies

- PETER SUDERMAN

MIKE SOLANA IS a vice president at Founders Fund, a venture capital firm that has invested in a number of businesses that you probably know well, from Airbnb to Stripe. He runs the firm’s branding, working to attract young investors and companies. He’s also an outspoken critic of moralizing, pessimistic tech journalism, a theme he hits frequently in Pirate Wires, his irreverent, pointed Substack.

And he hits bigger themes too. “This whole entire question of what is true has really animated me for the last few years,” he says. “High-level, I care about freedom.”

“Libertarianism was the animating political philosophy in my life, starting in high school,” says Solana. His political journey included a drift into “scary leftism” briefly during college and a brief embrace of anarcho-capitalism, which is how he met Peter Thiel, his now-boss who created Founders Fund.

With some areas, such as foreign policy and concern about China’s sometimes opaque influence on tech companies, Solana deviates from traditional libertarian thought. “I don’t want [the U.S.] being the police of the world, and yet there is this, I think, very important question of what happens when America does stop being the police of the world,” he says. “I think you’re going to see the destabilization of power globally, the rise of powers in places like Russia and China. I’m not convinced that’s a better world.”

He also recently organized and hosted Hereticon, a conference focused on ideas and arguments that have largely been shut out of mainstream discourse. Conceived of more than two years ago, the event was repeatedly postponed due to the pandemic, which Solana says further proved the value proposition. It finally took place in Miami Beach in January.