Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has been approaching other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in an attempt to form a “brain trust” to help President-elect Donald Trump.

Although Thiel, a member of the Trump transition team, declined to comment to the Washington Post when approached, The Post reports that Thiel has struggled to find members for the group. Thiel was lambasted prior to the election by many people working in the tech milieu after he made a $1.25 million donation to the Republican candidate.

According to the report, Thiel has been carrying around with him an iPad with a list of potential candidates. When approached, the report says, these candidates have been asked to add other people to the shortlist.

Thiel did not make any of this public, the report assumes, because of the pervasive dislike of Trump in Silicon Valley. It states that Thiel wants to be in a good position to influence a new administration on tech policy. It has also been reported that Trump himself is not exactly tech-savvy.

The new administration will indeed have to face many issues relating to transforming and emerging technologies. One will be issues such as net neutrality, which some presumed Trump appointees appear to oppose. Another will be artificial intelligence and how it affects the way we live, something Barack Obama this year showed he was concerned about. With the expected rise of drone technology, self-driving cars and virtual currencies, the new administration will soon have to get its fingers firmly on the pulse of tech.

The report states that Thiel has had some success in finding members for his team, people who form a “tight-knit group of conservative and libertarian-leaning entrepreneurs.” These people reportedly felt ostracized in Silicon Valley for the views they held.

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