| It's interesting that this is a parody, but that no real-world alternatives exist. Some come close, ranked from lowest to highest gatekeeping: - https://www.gofundme.com/ (personal / charitable) - https://www.patreon.com/ (ongoing creator subscriptions) - https://www.indiegogo.com/ (creative / tech / flexible rewards) - https://www.kickstarter.com/ (creative / rewards) - https://experiment.com/ (scientific research) - https://gamefound.com/ (tabletop games) - https://www.crowdsupply.com/ (hardware / tech) - https://www.kiva.org/ (micro-loans / social impact) - https://wefunder.com/ (startup equity) - https://www.startengine.com/ (startup equity) - https://republic.com/ (startup equity) - https://www.prosper.com/ (loan consolidation) Note how some like kickstarter.com and prosper.com should have been at the top, but sold out or lost their way to cater more to funders than entrepreneurs. The same problem happened with freelancing, where developers are force to apply to low-paying gigs so many times that it's perhaps no longer lucrative: - https://gun.io/ (premium developer-first matchmaking) - https://www.codeable.io/ (niche / premium wordpress development) - https://lemon.io/ (vetted startup matching) - https://www.toptal.com/ (premium / 3% elite tech network) - https://arc.dev/ (remote technical role matchmaking) - https://weworkremotely.com/ (high-quality remote tech job board) - https://www.turing.com/ (ai-driven technical matchmaking) - https://contra.com/ (commission-free portfolio network) - https://www.upwork.com/ (open marketplace formed from elance & odesk) - https://www.fiverr.com/ (productized gigs / digital storefront model) - https://www.freelancer.com/ (open bidding marketplace) - https://www.guru.com/ (legacy bidding marketplace ) I feel that both of these trends have combined to create the k-shaped economy of haves and have-nots that we have today. Imagine if a team of internet lottery winners formed an investment alliance (perhaps using AI) to compete directly with venture capital firms like Y Combinator, outside of the schmoozing and board micromanagement that come with having to network. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but that's why the startup ecosystem is so uninspired today vs its peak from 1995-1999, before the 2000 Dot Bomb which returned us to gatekeeping by the wealthy and powerful. In the early years, the academic/conceptually-correct solution tended to be the right one. Whereas today, winner-take-all effects and survivorship bias dominate, so that capital (unearned income) grows exponentially while wages (earned income) flatline or regress. Which results in high underemployment rates when workers tread water having to choose between saving 10% of their income to start a business or make rent. I'm having trouble finding statistics for it, but it tends to be about double the unemployment rate, hovering around 10-20%: https://www.newgeography.com/content/004016-underemployment-... Some demographics (like recent college graduates) are approaching 50% underemployment: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#--:... In other words, as many as half of the best and brightest minds in the US are trapped in dead-end or (multiple) part-time jobs, if they're lucky enough to have a job. Which seems odd at a time when there are so many trillions of dollars of investment capital with nowhere to go that they pump up the stock market's biggest companies instead of investing in the millions of people struggling to afford the endlessly increasing cost of living. |