About Ron Conway
Ron Conway, founder and managing partner of SV Angel, appeared on a podcast on March 25, 2026, where he discussed his approach to investing and his role in the tech ecosystem. He described his willingness to help founders he encounters, recounting an instance where Zoom founder Eric Yuan approached him in a parking lot for advice early in his career. Conway also noted that his three sons have entered the investing business, with each leaving jobs in Los Angeles to work alongside him in the same office.
During the podcast, Conway criticized a proposed state wealth tax, describing it as "one of the most onerous pieces of legislation" that would impose a 5% tax on assets and tax founders based on voting control rather than economic ownership. He also discussed his involvement during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, stating that he became "very firm with Washington" by Sunday morning because the government was not acting, and that guaranteeing deposits was necessary to prevent a worldwide financial crisis.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Ron Conway's recent appearances.
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Ron Conway0:00
Together our city, the entire city is in it together. Many SF City members are already stepping up and have stepped up personally and at the corporate level. People like Marc Benioff with the 1-1-1 effort, Jack Dorsey and the team at Square do weekly Clean the Streets where they pick up trash from 1 to 1:30 every week, and being good techies they measure the weight of the trash to make sure that they accomplish something. Zendesk is doing awesome things in the Tenderloin, and other companies like Yelp, Optimizely, Airbnb, Splunk (Splunk for Good, that event right there), Tag, Twilio, GitHub, and many, many more tech companies are already participating. But it's important for all of us to realize that you don't have to be Marc Benioff or Jack Dorsey to give back to the community. If you don't have a high net worth, you can start by volunteering service hours. Actions speak louder than words; we need to start acting now. Our goal with SF City is to contribute 1 million volunteer service hours in 2014 to give back to the community. It can happen. Salesforce.com alone is over 10% of that number with 125,000 hours. SF City is going to give you the platform to start organizing volunteer projects, like our Circle the Schools initiative, where tech companies can adopt a school in San Francisco, roll up their sleeves with the principal of the school, and do things that the principal wants accomplished. It won't be us telling anyone what to do; we'll let the educators tell us what to do. Another way we can lead is financially. By financially, all startups can adopt the 1-1-1 program that Marc Benioff founded, where you donate 1% of your equity that, when you go public, turns into a foundation. Yelp did this, and their foundation today is worth over $50 million. Your companies can do the very same thing. The other parts of 1-1-1 are donating 1% of your employees' time to volunteer hours and 1% of your product if it's applicable. Our goal is for 1,000 companies to adopt the 1-1-1 program. You can also donate in kind. Many nonprofits are being pushed out of their offices because of cost; many of you have excess office space, and SF City is going to set up a matching service where we can give nonprofits excess office space. We can also lead in social entrepreneurship causes like HandUp, which is a startup that lets you donate directly to the homeless in San Francisco. Rose Broome, the founder of that, is here tonight. So let's all focus on the need for us to get more involved volunteering in the community. We have faced challenges before, and in two years, I'm sure I'll be giving you another challenge. But let's prove that we are all in this together. Wouldn't it be great if there's a Twitter hashtag called #SFTogether? We can do this. After this presentation today, I'm going to be at the SF City table on the second floor at the top of the main staircase, and I want to talk to anyone who's interested. Let's get this done. Now I'm happy to introduce Teresa Preston Warner, who is a great example of volunteerism in action, and Teresa is going to tell you how you can help give back right now. Thank you.
