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Sunday, April 19, 2026

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End homelessness! There’s an app for that!

The new CEO of the company once run by Gregory Gopman – he of the now-famous homeless-hating rant – wants to solve the problems of homelessness and poverty with technology.

In a remarkable post on the company’s blog, Sabeen Ali apologizes for Gopman’s words and attitude, and then puts out about the most stunning example of tech-centered arrogance I’ve ever seen:

If the presence of the homeless and poverty bothers us (which it should because no human being should have to live in poverty) then we should do something about it.

I would like to call on my community of investors, entrepreneurs, developers to ban together to meet the issue with a solution. AngelHack events curate the world’s most talented developers and progressive thinkers and we challenge these folks to create solutions for real-world problems in less than 48 hours. I’ve seen people create flying drones that can identify missing people, robots that administer medicine to the elderly and apps that get left-over food from events to homeless shelters, so why can’t we take a crack at solving this issue with technology?

I welcome anyone with ideas on how we can collectively use our knowledge and resources to work toward a brighter future. AngelHack is already working on partnerships to help us create solutions to this issue as well as supporting entrepreneurs that create a positive social impact. If you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, developer, a non-profit or simply someone who wants to see a change in our beloved San Francisco then please contact me at sabeen@angelhack.com.

I’m glad at least she cares – but the idea that you can solve homelessness with a hackathon and some cool new apps is … bizarre.

Of course, I had a suggestion for her, which you can read after the jump.

Marke B.
Marke B.
Marke Bieschke is the publisher and arts and culture editor of 48 Hills. He co-owns the Stud bar in SoMa. Reach him at marke (at) 48hills.org, follow @supermarke on Twitter.

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