What is with the Messages about Biden

Is this real? I need an explanation to explain why this was received by our VP. Was it an email hack, or authorized by your company. I have to provide an explanation, our executive team is having a big issue with it. Please provide an explanation, information, an apology, but a reply is necessary.
Thank You,
Mark
From: David Barrett <[email protected]>
Reply-To: David Barrett <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 7:42 PM
To: Troy Moran <[email protected]>
Subject: [Expensify] Protect democracy, vote for Biden.
I know you don’t want to hear this from me. And I guarantee I don’t want to say it. But we are facing an unprecedented attack on the foundations of democracy itself. If you are a US citizen, anything less than a vote for Biden is a vote against democracy.
That’s right, I’m saying a vote for Trump, a vote for a third-party candidate, or simply not voting at all -- they’re all the same, and they all mean:
“I care more about my favorite issue than democracy. I believe Trump winning is more important than democracy. I am comfortable standing aside and allowing democracy to be methodically dismantled, in plain sight.”
If the polls are accurate, there’s a roughly 50% chance that you agree Trump needs to go. You know what to do: show up on November 3rd and vote for Biden. Or even better, don’t wait until then: vote today. Go to Vote.org if you need help figuring out how.
The rest of this email is intended to address the concerns of those who disagree, and I’ll try to take the most likely questions in turn:
Q: Why do you care so much about democracy?
Democracy is core to our business success, in a variety of ways. Internally, we are a famously “flat” organization -- nobody reports to anyone else, and advancement is the result of meeting well defined criteria as judged by the vote of those who have already advanced. How we compensate each other is left up to a team vote as well. Even our external business model depends on individual employees “electing” to adopt Expensify as individuals, and then “campaigning” internally to get it adopted companywide. At every layer, democracy is our core competitive advantage -- both as a company, and as a nation. But that advantage is only as strong as the clarity of our rules and the fairness of their application. Any attempt to disrupt the rules or apply them unfairly is a direct threat to the strength of our company, and the strength of our nation.
Q: What gives you the right to tell me what to do?
The first amendment. To be clear, you don’t need to listen. But the first amendment exists to encourage people like you and me to find some way to talk about the issues that matter, set aside our differences, and find a common ground on which to collectively govern 331 million citizens. Yes democratic self-rule can be inconvenient. But a burden of democracy is that this is literally our job, so I’m asking all of us to take it seriously.
Q: But you’re a company, shouldn’t you remain neutral?
Expensify depends on a functioning society and economy; not many expense reports get filed during a civil war. As CEO of this business, it’s my job to plot a course through any storm -- and all evidence suggests that another 4 (or as Trump has hinted -- 8, or more?) years of Trump leadership will damage our democracy to such an extent, I’m obligated on behalf of shareholders to take any action I can to avoid it. I am confident our democracy (and Expensify) can survive a Biden presidency. I can’t say the same about Trump. It’s truly as simple as that.
Q: Don’t you think you’re… exaggerating a bit?
I truly wish I was. I wouldn’t be sending this email if this election were just about “normal issues” -- taxes, legislative priorities, healthcare, etc. But it isn’t. This election is a referendum on what limits, if any, we place on our elected leaders to govern us in a fair and representative way. This election will decide if widespread voter suppression is an acceptable governing tactic.
Q: Doesn’t everyone suppress votes?
Not like Trump. This is the most heavily litigated election in history, with over 300 lawsuits rushing through the courts before election day. And in every case, Biden is pushing to enable voters while Trump is pushing to suppress them. The trend couldn’t be more clear: Biden wants democracy, Trump does not. A vote for Trump is to endorse voter suppression, it really is very basic. This isn’t about party politics: if Biden were advocating for half of the voter suppression that Trump is actively doing, then I'd be fighting against Biden, too. This is bigger than politics as usual: this is about the very foundation of our nation.
Q: Isn’t Trump just trying to prevent voter fraud?
Voter fraud is virtually nonexistent, as overwhelmingly shown by data showcased by the White House itself. That data comes from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank counting every single known case of voter fraud since 1948, which adds up to only 1,290 distinct votes over 78 years. In 2016 alone there were 138 million votes. There is just no credible argument that voter fraud is significant, even based on Trump’s own data.
Q: Isn’t Biden just using more widespread voting to get elected?
Absolutely. This is the heart of the issue. Biden believes that enabling more people to vote will help him win. Biden wins by promoting democracy; Trump wins by suppressing it. A vote for Biden is a vote for democracy.
Q: So what if Trump gets elected by voter suppression, all’s fair right?
Well that’s what we’re going to decide, on November 3rd. Do you want your elected official to win based on the merits of their ideas? Or based on the ruthlessness of their voter suppression? And if you’re ok with “just a little suppression” -- where do you draw the line?
Q: Why send me this when the polls say Biden is going to win?
The polls said Trump was going to lose last time, and he didn’t. But even if the polls can be trusted, that might still not be enough. Trump has stated repeatedly he will only honor an election that he personally feels is fair. So much depending on his personal judgement is worrying, because he has rejected the overwhelming expert consensus that voter fraud has been negligible historically, and has also said he believes it would be impossible to lose a fair election. Accordingly, the only way to ensure a peaceful transition of power is to ensure this election is an overwhelming, undeniable landslide in favor of Biden. Any excuse to question the election is an opportunity for Trump to refuse to leave the White House, plunging this country into a Constitutional crisis bordering on civil war. No matter how slight that risk might be, the consequences of it happening would be so catastrophic to society and the economy, we need to do all we can to prevent it.
So one final plea. As a fellow citizen, I fully support and respect your Constitutional right to disagree -- and as an avid supporter of democracy, I value that disagreement. Constructive, well-informed debate (hopefully using the most accurate, least biased news source available) is what makes this nation so exceptional.
But the Constitution is only as strong as the respect we give it. I’m asking you to cherish it close to your heart, and demand that those you elect do the same.
-david
Founder and CEO of Expensify
PS: Agree or disagree? Reply to this email to share your thoughts with Concierge, or hit me up on Twitter @dbarrett to discuss!
PPS: Want to do even more? Support the National Popular Vote to make every vote count equally toward the presidential election, even if you aren’t in one of the 12 states deciding this election.
PPPS: Are you annoyed that you received this as a non-US citizen? If you're lucky enough to live in a democracy, then I'd encourage you to protect it and be willing to do uncomfortable things -- like emailing millions of customers -- to defend it.
Sent by: Expensify, Inc. - 548 Market St #61434 - San Francisco, CA 94103
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Answers
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My VP of Finance and Director of HR also reached out and called me this morning to see if Expensify was hacked. I had to explain that sadly, no. Their CEO just does whatever he wants with little to no regard for his users or admins of the product they pay him for.
Our Chief Marketing Officer is working with our Executive team to send an email to all of our employees. Fun Friday.
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We are working on our internal email to apologize for Expensify's over reach as well. Shame on them for putting more work on our plates, when we pay them to make our lives easier.
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This idiot is destroying his company -- let the Beta Male do it -- USA is not a Democracy (Government by Mob Rule) the USA is a Republic (Government by Law) the law of the land is the Constitution..
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This is unbelievable. Expensify's actions specifically violated our policy prohibiting political lobbying using company resources. What a violation of our trust in Expensify to protect our company and our employees.
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Unbelievable the response from Concierge:
My reply to the email:
Ally Energy Solutions is over it and done
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Wow -- this should be posted on LinkedIn as an example of what to never do. They actually challenged your patriotism. Unbelievable -- I had a similar response via chat.
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I have serious data privacy concerns. If you are willing to violate your own privacy policy and the trust under which I have given you access my employees' personal information, for the purposes of pushing your political agenda, where do you draw the line?
While I'm looking for another vendor to migrate our expense management to, my finance team must now spend time processing manual expense reports for employees who, rightfully so, don't feel safe sharing personal information with Expensify.
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We're leaving as well, due to this blatantly unprofessional, biased, and irresponsible email. It says a lot about how the company is run and we aren't going to support it any longer.
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If this was a public company, shareholders would be outraged even if they 100% agreed with his sentiments. This now on top of the push to increase costs unless people utilize the expensify card. It's really tough to appreciate/refer a great product with actions like this. Essentially the CEO violated his own product community guidelines by posting this email and closing the discussion here in the Expensify community. Alas, flagging it won't do anything. They want to push for maintaining democracy at the government level (which in and of itself is actually really important) but then also don't really care what their "members" have to say about a few corporate oversteps centered around their use of product data to appeal to customers on a completely different level. I'm guessing they would probably deactivate our service immediately if we decided to mass email all of their employees with a similarly polarizing email.
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Contact Cole Edison (Compliance Officer) -- If they want to keep us, Cole needs to come out with an apology and corrective action
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No turning back, the tiger can't hide its stripes. The only appropriate corrective action would be to fire the CEO, and that's likely not going to happen. So, bye bye Expensify. We were more loyal to you than you were to your customers.
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No wonder Expensify is going down hill, with leadership like this its only a matter time until they lose all their customers.
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Agree 100%. I am currently working to move our company over to Divvy.
Did the CEO ever take a civics class? The United States is not a democracy.
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He’s very sad as is the rest of the organization. Your so right about the US being a Republic. Regardless, using our PII Informtation for his ignorant leftist political agenda violates most compliance programs. Expensify can’t be trusted. There were warnings though. The support of BLM on their landing page should have frightened most away.
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Expensify is a company with no integrity. I tried to cancel my account and they sent me this worthless response:
"Thank you for your patience.
The Annual Subscription is a commitment for 12 complete months and yours currently expires in July 2021. I'm unable to cancel this commitment before the expiration.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience here."
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Expensify violated everyone's privacy and will not let anyone out of their 12 month agreements. What a scam. This is the absolute worst company I have ever done business with.
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Since when can children become CEOs?