Written about this twice before — here and here — and I won’t belabor this point that much, because I’m not an active part of Silicon Valley and, with the way brains and biases work, no one really cares about criticism of their spot in the world unless it comes from someone they feel similarity with.
This is a decent article (mostly a series of book reviews) about founder myths, and near the end, this part is interesting:
The authors argue that while tech stars hog the spotlight, small-business entrepreneurs — especially Black, brown, female, and older founders — make up a significant portion of the U.S. economy and run companies that operate in and benefit their communities. And yet “our systems of finance and mentorship have failed to keep up,” so entrepreneurship and economic opportunity are declining.
Would agree with this. All the economic oxygen — and business journalism — goes to about 25 “unicorn” companies at a given time, and that makes it hard for someone hustling and striving in Topeka to get some more capital. Obviously capital is limited, and we should all get that, but banks and other hustlers buy into these “tech-only” narratives, and homophily happens at networking events and meetings, where everyone gradually gets on the same page that we all need more tech and apps and disruption, and if you can’t…
