|
Well, not originally. Disruption isn't always a good thing. Established newspapers getting squeezed out by unreliable and biased sources like blogs isn't a good thing. Both sources of information have their place, but we don't want to live in a world where people can't tell the difference between the New York Times and Breitbart. At this point, most VC-funded startups are audition projects for product managers who'd rather manage up into investors than corporate executives. If they succeed (get bought on favorable terms) then they skip a couple rungs on the ladder and get to be executives at an earlier age than they'd otherwise get. If they fail, they either get acquired on worse terms (acqui-severance) or they have to suck up to their investors enough to get an EIR gig and repair their reputations. Established players in tech aren't "unnerved" by startups. They don't fear startups, and they don't fear mediocrity. They know that most startups can't threaten them, and the things that do threaten established players are "unknown unknowns" that no one even thought about. Companies aren't killed by competitors, but by an inability to adapt to new means of doing business (usually because upper management is afraid to compete internally with the existing company and factions). Besides, most acquisitions in the Valley are cases of favors being paid back. It's not that MegaCorp's CEO says "oh shit, we have to buy IUsedThisToilet before Google buys it"). It's that some VP in MegaCorp owes a venture capitalist a favor and is willing to spend $850 million of his company's money to clear the score. And most people who are involved in purchasing decisions get kickbacks, not of an overt monetary kind (because that would be illegal) but in terms of long-term career support and job placement. Often, the guy who decides to buy a dipshit startup for $2 billion will get, a year later, a VP-level position in a "unicorn" with 5% equity and zero responsibilities. Since the appearance is of an unrelated, merit-based job offer, all parties avoid getting in legal trouble for the kickback. |