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> “I mean, I would probably argue that venture capitalists are not good for society regardless of what they’re investing in.” Definitely. Personally, I have __never__ purchased anything from Amazon, looked anything up with Google, shipped anything with FedEx, gotten somewhere with Uber, received a COVID vaccine from Moderna, used an iPhone or Android cell phone, played an Atari or EA video game, used a Mac or Windows computer, used any program that relies on NVIDIA GPUs, sent money via Paypal/Venmo/CashApp, contacted someone using a Cisco phone or router, found a job or closed a sale via Linkedin, watched a video with YouTube, shared a file with Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive, stayed in an Airbnb, booked travel with Kayak/Expedia, bought a home that I found on Zillow, bought anything online via Stripe/Shopify, bought anything in-person via Square terminal, looked a Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter post, bought groceries with Instacart, ordered food with Doordash, hosted code on Github, made a video call with Zoom, looked at a Figma/Sketch design for work. It was, in any case, of course certain that all of these things would exist. > For all the talk of unbridled innovation, venture capital services only very specific types of innovation: those that stand to produce large exits for investors, and with relatively low risk, regardless of whether the business itself holds much promise or provides any societal benefit. Yes. Anyone who has ever worked for or invested in a startup can attest to how low-risk and predictable they are. If only they were more volatile: then my life would be more interesting. 3% of seed-stage startups eventually exit? If only I could count on success like that each time I drive my car, take a flight, or cross the street. |