There are a lot of things to not like about the report in The New York Times today on Cory Booker, but the biggest is something the Newark mayor says deep into the story:
Mr. Booker said it was not hard to raise $1.75 million in seed capital “because of the power of the idea.”
“Power of the idea” or, perhaps, some other kind of power?
The story goes like this: Booker, with the help of Silicone Valley’s biggest players, starts his own tech company called Waywire. The company, according to the Times, was set up in 2012 with financing from Eric Schmidt of Google among others. Its goal is to make it simple to “’collect, curate and share’ videos from across the Web.”
Booker, apparently, does not have day-to-day responsibilities at Waywire, though he
received the largest stake because of his social media profile, his name recognition and his connections to investors, and he was not expected to run the company, Mr. Richardson said, though Mr. Booker has attended every board meeting, according to another investor. “Cory is the inspiration architect,” Ms. Ross said. “He really is the thought-leader soul part of the business.”
He’s also running for Senate and expected to win, meaning he could have something to say about how Silicone Valley is regulated — which the investors in his internet start-up no doubt have an interest.
That’s why the ease with which he was able to raise start-up cash sends up so many red flags. There is nothing illegal going on here, but these kinds of investments raise questions as to whether the mayor is cashing in on his political celebrity and, perhaps more troubling, whether the investors view their investment as being about more than the company. Do they see themselves as investing in the career of Cory Booker with an expectation of something in return?
These are just questions, but they are questions to which the voters deserve an answer.
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Hank Kalet 