Reactions to President Trump’s executive order placing a three-month ban on entry to the U. S. from seven majority Muslim countries have been rippling out across the Atlantic over the past 48 hours — with figures from the U. K. tech industry adding their voices to a general chorus of dismay .
In comments to TechCrunch, Passion Capital partner Eileen Burbidge expressed her own misgivings about the policy — branding it “unconstitutional, unethical and immoral.” The U. S.-born investor has become a lynchpin of the U. K. tech ecosystem since arriving in London as an immigrant from the U. S. more than 10 years ago to take a job at Skype.
“As an American, born and raised in the States by immigrant parents, I was incredibly shocked and saddened to see the executive order issued — and the haste and disarray with which it was implemented the following morning,” she said via email when asked for her thoughts.
“Being in the States these last few days has given me a firsthand view of how tremendously people have rallied to exercise their first amendment rights in expressing their objections to this unlawful, unconstitutional, unethical and immoral order — and seeing that gives me hope. It reminds me that we each have a voice and our collective voices can make a difference. It also reminds me that silence can be deafening, so I hope people and leaders all around the world will continue to make their views known whatever those may be.”
In the U. K. the perception among some in the tech industry is that Prime Minister Theresa May’s desire to cut a post- Brexit trade deal (following last summer’s referendum vote for the U. K. to leave the European Union) is overriding all other considerations — leaving her biting her lip rather than condemning an inhumane policy toward refugees, as other heads of state have .
“The simple truth is it’s important for the U. K. to get a trade deal with the U. S., and right now that looks like a sure thing,” said one London-based tech manager who works for a company with offices in both countries, and who reached out to us with details of how the ban is affecting team morale.
“They can’t and won’t jeopardize that unless there is a cast iron case that Trump is really being a fascist… If we had three to four solid trade deals in place for post-Brexit I think it would be a different story.”
The source went on to describe their team members’ opinions on the immigration ban as ranging from “I’m so worried I can’t focus on work” to “It’s very targeted, precise and temporary, so I’m not worried,” adding: “There are still lots of people who are “prisoners of hope.” Saying things like “I hope he isn’t as bad as he seems — let’s wait and see.” They also noted some staff are voicing concerns about traveling to the U. S.
“The executive order stops travel for three months while ‘proper policies are put in place’ — it’s those policies that will be the super interesting ones,” they added.
While Burbidge wouldn’t be drawn into criticizing U. K. government policy vis-à-vis Trump — perhaps unsurprisingly, given she remains an advisor to the government on tech policy, including serving as a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group — she did call for U. S. allies to hold Trump to “regular account.”
Her Twitter account also records her liking a tweet by London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling for Trump to be denied a state visit to the U. K. until he lifts the ban.
“President Trump didn’t win the popular vote but that’s not even the point. Even a popular vote or a president elected by the will of the people can make poor decisions from time to time,” she added. “We, the people he has been elected to serve and those around the world who are friends, allies and trading partners with the United States, need to stay informed and hold him to regular account.”
One founder likely to be directly affected by the ban, Cloud 66’s Khash Sajadi , has been explicit in calling out May for failing to condemn Trump’s action loudly enough. He was born in Iran but has British citizenship (and currently works in the U. S.), and argues the policy has rendered him a “ second class citizen .”
“What makes me feel like this today is how my country, Britain, responded to this decision: with silence,” he writes in a Medium blog post . “While other world leaders, like Justin Trudeau the Canadian Prime Minister was quick to seek clarification from the US authorities and insist on all Canadian citizens being treated equally and without prejudice about their place of birth, my Prime Minister is willing to indicate I am a second class citizen in my country.”
Last week May became the first international leader to meet the newly inaugurated President Trump, with the stated aim of getting the prospect of post-Brexit trade talks on his radar, and renewing the terms of the so-called “Special Relationship” — the phrase that’s traditionally used to distinguish diplomatic relations between the U. S. and the U. K.
But she has had little to say publicly since Trump’s entry ban was announced, despite apparently being aware the policy shift was incoming since Friday — telling reporters that U. S. immigration policy is a matter for the U. S. government.
Under increasing pressure for not condemning the policy, May expanded her comments slightly on Sunday, saying she does “ not agree ” with the ban. She also said the government would help any U. K. nationals affected by the policy. But she remains under fire for a tepid and reticent response.
There has also been confusion about whether the ban applies to dual U. K. nationals who also hold citizenship in one of the listed countries — as, for example, Sajadi does.
An update on the U. K.’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office website yesterday suggested such individuals would not be denied entry to the U. S. However, advice from the U. S. embassy appeared to contradict that until earlier today.
In comments to TechCrunch, Sajadi gave a personal flavor of the impact of this confusion. “There was and still is, confusion over this as the US Embassy in London had a page with a warning about dual nationals and their visa appointments which is now taken down. So I believe things are not yet clear and if I were to travel to the US there is a good chance of me being tangled up in some administrative confusion which could cost myself and our business dearly.
“On the visa ban issue, I would expect May’s government to be transparent and upfront about this with the public and those affected,” he added, when asked for views on the U. K. government’s position. “There has been way too much confusion, costing small businesses like us a lot and plenty of anxiety on a personal level.”
“As for the government response to the ban in general, I feel she has put her political interests before basic human compassion (and perhaps international conventions) by not taking a firmer stance. Following her logic can we assume she might one day say it is up to the US to change its position and restate slavery but we are going to have our own policy? There are some lines that our government should not cross and one in this case is the terrible situation of the refugees from Syria.”
At the time of this writing a petition on the U. K. parliament website calling for the forthcoming state visit of Trump to the U. K. to be called off until he rescinds the ban has passed 1.5 million signatures.

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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Monday that he’s filing suit in federal court against Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and select senior Trump administration officials, seeking a declaration that key portions of Trump’s Executive Order on immigration be declared unconstitutional. Alongside the lawsuit, Washington-based tech companies Amazon and Expedia are filing supporting declarations that outline how the order is negatively impacting their business, and their employees.
The Attorney General’s suit will argue that the order violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection to all, and the right of individuals to due process. It also claims that it’s in contravention of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, and that it violates the Establishment Clause, which prevents creation of laws that establish an official state religion, or favor one over another.
The declarations provided by Amazon and Expedia seem to focus on the potential economic impact of the executive order, rather than on its constitutional validity or lack thereof. The
“If successful, this would have the effect of invalidating the President’s unlawful action nationwide,” said WA State Attorney General Ferguson in a press conference Monday morning, at which Washington Governor Jay Inslee also expressed strong condemnation of the order.
In addition to its suit regarding the order’s constitutionality, Washington’s Attorney General is also seeking a temporary restraining order to” immediately halt” what it believes to be the unlawful action ordered by Trump.
“I also want to mention that In our complaint, we talk about the real economic harm to Washington state from the President’s illegal action,” Ferguson said. “Our complaint will be supported by declarations from entities like Expedia and Amazon, in which they lay out the significant harm that this executive order imposes on their business and their employees.”
Asked whether the AG’s office had reached out to other Washington-based businesses regarding support of the suit, Ferguson noted that “it’s been a busy 48 hours putting this together, so we reached out to just a couple of businesses that had some public statements around this issue, such as Expedia.”
Amazon has also shared with TechCrunch an internal email about the ban it distributed to staff , focusing on its efforts to support any employees who may be impacted. Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, himself an Iranian immigrant to the U. S., more strongly objected to the executive order in an email circulated to his company’s staff on Sunday .
We’ve reached out to Amazon and Expedia for details regarding their declarations in support of the lawsuit, but had not received response as of publication time.

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Today at an event in San Francisco in which it announced updates to its Paper app and its Smart Sync feature , Dropbox CEO Drew Houston talked up the company’s revenue growth and self-serve business model.
Houston claimed that Dropbox was on pace for a $1 billion revenue run rate and that the company was free-cash flow positive, which could bolster the company’s plans for a rumored late-2017 IPO .
To put things into perspective: 18 months ago, Dropbox said it had more than 400 million registered users and that users synced 1.2 billion files a day. Last summer, when it released its AdminX console , the company claimed more than 500 million registered users and more than 200,000 business signed up for Dropbox Business.
Dropbox has made plenty of incremental additions to its enterprise toolkit in order to woo larger companies like News Corp, Spotify, and Expedia. The sum of all these products is, in the end, an aspirational enterprise product that can transform its business into the one that investors thought it could be years ago.
Dropbox can likely thank smaller businesses that initially snapped up its simple online file-sharing tools and simply grew up with them. The company, however, will end up facing the perpetual problem of convincing those larger companies that it’s a grown-up enterprise company and get them off Microsoft’s tools.
To be sure, a $1 billion run rate would be impressive. Box reported in its last quarter that it generated $102.8 million in revenue. Box, from the get-go, gunned for enterprises and for the large part has built a brand around the company — and Aaron Levie — as one that specializes in enterprise software. That’s given it the capability of selling itself to larger companies over a company that has largely held a strong consumer brand like Dropbox.
But just having a $1 billion run rate doesn’t mean that Dropbox’s work is done. While it works to rapidly build a strong enterprise product, it has companies like Salesforce acquiring Quip for $750 million and placing it in a position to beat out its note-taking app Paper.
Google has started to aggressively expand its enterprise collaboration tools like GSuite, which is no longer just a pet project. And Microsoft has shifted under new CEO Satya Nadella has essentially pivoted its tools to a more cloud-based approach, moving Office onto a diverse set of platforms.
The main question for DropBox is whether it can continue to grab larger customers while also serving self-serve businesses with its new tools.

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