Inside Silicon Valley’s free-wheeling sex parties

News

Because of Michael Kaplan

20 May 2023 | 7:51 am

After it was revealed that Bob Lee – the tragically murdered founder of Cash App – allegedly indulged in “underground sex (and) drug parties”, sources said he was just one of many Silicon Valley types to take part no one to a free-wheeling swingers’ scene.

Sources claim that the so-called “Lifestyle” – which is built around sexual openness, experimentation with drugs and a general sense of promiscuous behavior – is not unusual among a certain sector of tech executives and entrepreneurs in the Bay Area.

One Silicon Valley insider recalled attending a regular sex bash popular with the high-tech crowd. Held in what looked like a typical Bay Area warehouse, what went on there was anything but typical.

“On an upper level was a playroom with mattresses inside and towels outside,” the insider told The Post. “It was like going to a tech party, except everyone took their clothes off and went upstairs for sex.”

The insider explained that, for some attendees at least, it’s a whole new world.

“There’s a point of view that the geeks who turned into millionaires now have something open to them (opportunities for sex and drugs) in a way that it hadn’t been before,” the insider said. “A lot of these people were nerds.”

Now, the insider added, the one-time nerds are “rock stars” in their industry: “When there’s money and access and power, it all goes together.”

In her book, “Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley,” Emily Chang writes about a circuit of drugs and sex parties that lure the high tech elite — founders and early stage investors — to mansions and chateaus for bacchanal- worthy activities.

She describes bigshots who brag “about how they overturn traditional paradigms in their private lives, just as they do in the technology world they rule.”

Chang’s book shows that the frisky activities usually start with hug pools – groups of people lying in close proximity to each other, often with their inhibitions loosened by Molly. Eventually, she writes, people break up into groups of two or three to continue the activities in private rooms.

Other parties are not so discreet.

“There’s a public exhibition side of it,” Josh Powers, who owns a San Francisco fetish club called Power Exchange, told The Post. “Attendees may go there with another person and have other people look at them. There is a correlation between our true players and tech that expresses the culture in San Francisco. We attract people from the tech world.”

Powers said that some parties aimed at picky techies, the people who attend and are allowed to participate: “A lot of them will require you to submit photos that show what you look like and who you Some are status-based, targeting high-level individuals.

One of the top sex gatherings for those in the tech field is a recurring swingers-scene event known as the Bronze Party—which includes among its rules that voyeurs must whisper only or “not talk at all.”

The Bronze Party not only attracts people from Silicon Valley, but the company is a by-product of that world: Ben Fuller, the man behind Brûns, was once a tech entrepreneur himself. According to CNN, he sold his first company for “less than $5 million.”

Fuller did not return a call for comment.

Laurie Seagall covered the “Lifestyle” in her book “Special Characters: My Adventures with Tech’s Titans and Misfits.”

In the book, she recalled once encountering a sex-party tycoon who had a tech-heavy clientele—including, he boasted, a key member of the iPhone development team.

Additionally, he revealed, “The guy who made our check-in software basically built Oracle.”

As for drugs, Powers – who stated that they are not allowed on Power Exchange premises – confirmed that “some (sex party attendees) are drug-oriented. Some of them feel that they need it and that there is nothing will happen if people don’t use drugs.”

And it’s not all flashy luxury, as the insider recalled about one sex party that took place in a private home.

“There was porn on monitors in the hallway. It wasn’t a billionaire’s house. It was a mediocre house. It felt a little rough, kind of sketchy,” said the insider. “It was entirely women and men from Silicon Valley.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lee attended underground parties with Khazar Momeni, the sister of Nima Momeni – who is accused of Lee’s murder.

Sources told the Journal that Lee and Khazar were sleeping together and that it was feared that Lee had fallen into a dangerous crowd.

Nima allegedly confronted Lee about the party and his sister’s involvement in the early hours of April 4 when Lee was stabbed multiple times, prosecutors said.

Regardless of what may be taking place in the Lifestyle, the Silicon Valley insider told The Post that there is a higher calling for devotees that go beyond raw sex.

For some there is a mathematical approach. People who are engineers look at the number of relationships that fail and wonder how they can be optimized “- including by having multiple sexual partners. “That approach is unique to Silicon Valley: if something fails X number of times, let’s optimize it by doing Y. There is an element of people taking a data-driven approach to sexual relationships.”

And, the insider said: “It’s not like they’re partying continuously.

“They microdose with mushrooms and ketamine and go on ayahuasca retreats. It’s an intellectual approach to partying hard. It’s normal in Silicon Valley to experiment with drugs and sex. Going to sex parties is one of the things they do”—along with visiting exclusive wineries and attending raves.

Moreover, the insider said, “there’s no shame in doing drugs” in the tech world. “Silicon Valley is less judgmental (than New York) and that makes sense, because people there think outside the box. They still think about the future. These people have a propensity for risk. Burning Man is part of the culture.

“You can walk around naked, and run into a colleague who is naked and it wouldn’t be a big problem. A lot of people who are doing well in Silicon Valley are experimenting with all kinds of things.”