One afternoon in late September, Jeff Lawson’s family was turned upside down: Barack Obama was coming to visit.
In their glassy, modernist home high above San Francisco’s Dolores Park, Lawson and his wife Erica moved around furniture to make room for the former president and three dozen other guests. Venture capitalist Ron Conway and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman were billed as co-hosts for the evening’s fundraiser, which benefited the Grassroots Democratic Victory Fund. Tickets cost $250,000 per seat.
“There’s a large percentage of people who no longer believe in elections — whether it’s through the big lie or January 6 or fraud,” Lawson told me a week after hosting Obama. “I think it’s really interesting that a lot of business leaders are saying, ‘I’m staying out of politics.’ Or, ‘I can run my company with anyone [party] on top.’ Well, I don’t think they really know what it’s like to try to run a successful business in a country that’s not a democracy.”
