Jeff Giesea
{{Short description|American venture capitalist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jeff Giesea
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = American
|alma_mater = Stanford University
| other_names =
| occupation = Entrepreneur
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Jeff Giesea is an American entrepreneur, communications specialist, and writer who was a business affiliate of several of Peter Thiel's companies and venture capital groups.
Education and businesses
Giesea attended Stanford University, where he edited Thiel's libertarian student paper The Stanford Review. Giesea worked for Thiel's first hedge fund, Thiel Capital Management, and Thiel later provided the seed money for one of Giesea's companies.{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=Rosie |author-link1=Rosie Gray |date=2 October 2017 |title=A New Pro-Trump Super PAC Takes Aim at the Republican Establishment |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/pro-trump-media-super-pac/541686/}}{{cite news |last1=O'Brien |first1=Luke |date=7 April 2020 |title=Far-Right Extremists Helped Create The World's Most Powerful Facial Recognition Technology |language=en |work=HuffPost |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-alt-right_n_5e7d028bc5b6cb08a92a5c48}} Between Thiel Capital management and his startup, Giesea worked for Koch Industries' public affairs office.{{cite news |last1=Schreckinger |first1=Ben |author-link1=Ben Schreckinger |date=January–February 2017 |title=The Alt-Right Comes to Washington |language=en |work=Politico Magazine |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/alt-right-trump-washington-dc-power-milo-214629/}}
Giesea founded FierceMarkets, an online B2B media company. He sold the company to Questex Media in 2008 and left the company in 2009.{{Cite web |date=2008-01-22 |title=Questex Media Group acquires FierceMarkets |url=https://adage.com/article/btob/questex-media-group-acquires-fiercemarkets/270112 |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Ad Age |language=en}} AdAge named him a top innovator the small business category for its 2008 Top Innovators list.{{Cite web |date=2008-05-05 |title='Media Business' names Top Innovators |url=https://adage.com/article/btob/media-business-names-top-innovators/271237 |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Ad Age |language=en}}
He co-founded BestVendor, a free recommendation site for business apps, in January 2011. It entered open beta in November 2011 and by December had over 4800 users. The business received $600,000 in seed money from Peter Thiel, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, and Softbank Capital. By December 2011, it had received $3.6 million from seed rounds and Series A funding.{{cite news |last1=Van Grove |first1=Jennifer |title=BestVendor grabs $3M to help professionals find great apps |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS373823565720111220 |work=Reuters |date=20 December 2011 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Chikodi |title=BestVendor is the utility belt for small business apps |url=https://venturebeat.com/2011/12/08/bestvendor-toolkit/ |work=VentureBeat |date=8 December 2011}} In 2013, BestVendor was acquired by Docstoc.{{cite news |last1=Pozin |first1=Ilya |title=Docstoc Acquires BestVendor: A Yelp For Business Tools And Vendors |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2013/08/26/docstoc-acquires-bestvendor-a-yelp-for-business-tools-and-vendors/#58ab45285aa0 |work=Forbes |date=26 April 2013 |language=en}}
Following the sale of BestVendor, Giesea did a combination of angel investing and executive coaching. He wrote several articles for Harvard Business Review, including a well-known piece among post-exit entrepreneurs, “Dealing with the Emotional Fall-Out of Selling Your Business.”{{Cite news |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2015-09-01 |title=Dealing with the Emotional Fallout of Selling Your Business |work=Harvard Business Review |url=https://hbr.org/2015/09/dealing-with-the-emotional-fallout-of-selling-your-business |access-date=2022-07-13 |issn=0017-8012}}
NATO and national security writings
Giesea has written several papers for NATO, mostly on the topic of information warfare. In early 2015, he published “It’s Time to Embrace Memetic Warfare” in NATO’s peer-reviewed Strategic Communications Journal.{{Cite web |title=StratCom {{!}} NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Riga, Latvia |url=https://www.stratcomcoe.org/jeff-giesea-its-time-embrace-memetic-warfare |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=www.stratcomcoe.org |language=en}} In 2017 he published “Hacking Hearts and Minds,” about the need to allocate more resources to countering foreign information warfare.{{Cite web |last=Publications |first=OPEN |date=2017-04-06 |title=Hacking Hearts and Minds |url=https://medium.com/@OPENpubs/hacking-hearts-and-minds-55a09692634 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Medium |language=en}} He spoke at NATO's Stratcom event in Riga that year as well.{{Cite web |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2021-02-02 |title=Jeff Giesea's Remarks At NATO's StratCom Dialogue |url=https://jeffgiesea.medium.com/global-non-linear-memetic-warfare-is-here-practical-recommendations-for-nato-countries-50cf68d84d43 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Medium |language=en}} In 2019 he wrote “Alliance Cohesion in the Age of Populism,” which aimed at helping NATO adapt to the rise of populism while strengthening its original mission.{{Cite web |last=Publications |first=OPEN |date=2019-11-29 |title=Alliance Cohesion in an Age of Populism |url=https://medium.com/@OPENpubs/alliance-cohesion-in-an-age-of-populism-91bb100db124 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Medium |language=en}} In 2021, he published an article in American Affairs on "The Terrain of Discourse."{{Cite web |date=2021-05-20 |title=The Terrain of Discourse |url=https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/05/the-terrain-of-discourse/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=American Affairs Journal |language=en-US}}
Trump affiliations
Giesea supported Trump in 2016 and was an organizer in the early Trump movement. Buzzfeed credited him with being one of the minds behind the Trump meme army.{{Cite web |last=Bernstein |first=Joseph |date=2017-01-19 |title=This Man Helped Build The Trump Meme Army — Now He Wants To Reform It |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/this-man-helped-build-the-trump-meme-army-and-now-he-wants-t |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=BuzzFeed News |language=en}} Additionally, he helped organize a "Gays for Trump" party at the 2016 RNC following the Pulse nightclub shooting and was alleged to have been involved with the October 2016 pro-Trump art show where Milo Yiannopoulos bathed himself in pig's blood as a performance art piece commemorating victims of undocumented immigrants and Islamic terrorism.{{Cite web |title=LGBTrump rally at #RNCinCLE |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/videos/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/07/21/87410566/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=The Clarion-Ledger |language=en-US}}
Giesea was one of the organizers of the Deploraball, an Inauguration party celebrating the election of Trump in January 2017. He gave a speech there entitled, "A New Type of Republican," explaining that Trumpism was based on three principles: sovereignty, economic nationalism ("in particular a focus on making life better for the middle and working Americans, not just the top one percent") and putting America first.{{Cite web |date=2017-01-23 |title=Jeff Giesea's Speech at the DeploraBall › American Greatness |url=https://amgreatness.com/2017/01/23/message-deplorable-america-hearts-full-not-going-away/ |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=American Greatness |language=en-US}}
In October 2017, Giesea formed a Super PAC called #Rev18 alongside Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec. Giesea described the PAC's goal as to promote anti-establishment candidates "who support American sovereignty and prosperity and who put the American citizen first".{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Ed |date=5 October 2017 |title=Super PAC formed by 'Alt Lite'-labeled bloggers backs Mandel |language=en |work=Cleveland Jewish News |url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/super-pac-formed-by-alt-lite--labeled-bloggers-backs-mandel/article_5e2c92e2-a9db-11e7-be47-df2dd93514b3.html}} They closed #Rev18 the following month, explaining that they did not have enough time to devote to it.{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Ed |date=14 November 2017 |title=Mandel-supporting Super PAC formed by 'alt lite' bloggers shuts down |language=en |work=Cleveland Jewish News |url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/mandel-supporting-super-pac-formed-by-alt-lite-bloggers-shuts-down/article_69427be0-c97c-11e7-871d-ab967588f704.html}} The Atlantic noted that this Super PAC was among the first examples of Trump supporters—a mostly online, Trump-centric group—venturing into electoral politics outside of support for Trump himself.
Post-2020 political involvement
Giesea was not publicly involved in the 2020 election and has since denounced Trump. Reflecting on his past support for Trump, Giesea wrote in a 2022 blog post that, "By the 2020 election, I had lost passion for Trump and didn’t participate" while advocating that the American Right break from Trump.{{Cite web |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2022-04-28 |title=Why the American Right Should Break from Trump and Trumpism |url=https://jeffgiesea.medium.com/why-trump-supporters-should-break-from-trump-and-trumpism-ef25c2092629 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=Medium |language=en}} In another post, he described January 6 as a "coordinated attempt to interfere in the electoral process" and described how this realization impacted him personally.{{Cite web |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2023-06-06 |title=Facing the Truth About Trump's Electoral Interference, and Ourselves |url=https://jeffgiesea.medium.com/republicans-must-face-the-truth-about-jan-6-43b5890a5d81 |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Medium |language=en}} In June 2023, he endorsed Biden in an article titled, "The Trumpist Case for Biden." He wrote that "President Biden is more authentically pro-America than any of the leading Republican candidates including Trump or DeSantis."{{Cite web |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2023-06-09 |title=The Trumpist Case for Biden |url=https://jeffgiesea.medium.com/the-trumpist-case-for-biden-276e7a1c37eb |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Medium |language=en}} In August 2024, he endorsed Kamala Harris for President, writing that "Trump is fundamentally unfit."{{Cite web |last=Giesea |first=Jeff |date=2024-08-21 |title=Coming out of the coconut closet |url=https://jeffgiesea.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-for-president |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Jeff Giesea}}