If an embattled North Carolina law stands, businesses might stop holding events there, freeze hiring and even pull offices out of the state, a technology CEO told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" Wednesday.
"That's a lever that companies with a conscience have," said Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box, an enterprise cloud storage and security company. "And I think it's moving the needle."
The tech sector is one of many to join the growing opposition to a law in North Carolina they say slashed non-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley are among the more than 90 executives that have slammed the law aimed at enforcing separate-gender bathrooms, according to a statement from the Human Rights Campaign.
The North Carolina law is the just the latest to draw ire among business leaders. Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff threatened to divest from Georgia over a proposed religious freedom law there, vetoed Monday, that would have limited same-sex marriage.
To be sure, while the technology sector is anchored in the progressive hotbed of California, it has wrestled with its own discrimination concerns. Gender bias and sexism suits have been filed by female technology investors, while Google, Apple and Facebook have faced calls to step up diversity in hiring.
Still, Levie said the a boycott is an important step for companies to be taking.
"Some of the world's largest technology brands are saying, 'We will not stand for any form of discrimination in the states that we do business in,'" Levie said.