Mike Solana

Michael Solana is an American writer and conservative commentator. He is the Chief Marketing Officer of the venture capital firm Founders Fund and the founder of media company Pirate Wires.

Early life and education Solana attended Boston University, graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Solana said he had been interested in libertarianism since high school, but briefly embraced left-wing policies during college before becoming an anarcho-capitalist. He is a founder and host of Hereticon, a conference discussing ideas not talked in the mainstream. criticizing the city’s alleged leniency on crime. Solana is a critic of the Abundance movement coined by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's 2025 book, commenting that the center left viewpoints espoused by the pair would have difficulty overcoming the "Luigi Left".

In the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal referenced Solana's comments about the "challenge that moderate Democrats face in trying to persuade the extremists in their political coalition to appreciate the virtues of liberty and open debate".

Pirate Wires

In 2020, Solana founded Pirate Wires, a newsletter-turned-website focused on technology. Solana's piece "Extract or Die" characterized San Francisco's government as mismanaging the city, and would be better run by tech entrepreneurs. An October 2024 profile in The Atlantic described Solana as "The most opinionated man in America" for his writings in Pirate Wires.

Personal life

Solana lives in Miami, Florida. He is openly gay.

Publications

Citizen Sim: Cradle of the Stars (2014)