VCs are leaving a lot of money on the table by only investing in people who look like them — mostly white men. Morgan Stanley estimates that VCs could be missing out on as much as $4 trillion in value by not investing in more diverse founders.
यो मेरो टेक ब्लॉग हो। यहाँ म पहिलो पटक नेपाली भाषामा लेखिराखेको छु। मेरो नेपाल ब्लॉग छ जहाँ मैले नेपाली मा हजारौं पटक लेखेको छु। तर त्यो राजनीतिक ब्लॉग हो। यो चाहिँ मेरो टेक्नोलॉजी र बिजनेस सम्बन्धी ब्लॉग हो। नेपालमा टेकेर ग्लोबल साउथ मा पस्रिने किसिमका टेक्नोलॉजी स्टार्टअप हरु बारे कुरा गर्नु छ। अंग्रेजी मात्र होइन, नेपाली पनि विज्ञानं प्रविधि र बिजनेस को भाषा हो। हामीले देखेको ईकॉमर्स को सपना मा देश र दुनिया को प्रत्येक भाषा बिजनेस को भाषा हो।
मैले केही महिना देखि यूट्यूब मा विडियो ब्लॉग्गिंग पनि गर्दै आएको छु। मुख्य रूपले नेपालीमा। तर मैथिलि र हिन्दीमा पनि बोलेको छु। विडियो ब्लॉग्गिंग को त्यो मजा हुँदो रहेछ। बोल्दा बोल्दै अर्को भाषा मा बोल्न पुगे फरक नपर्ने। मुख्य कुरा भाषा होइन, मुख्य कुरा हो कुरा बुझ्नु।
Charging Bull, a bronze statue by Arturo Di Modica at Bowling Green, Manhattan, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I met a friend for lunch today near the Charging Bull, Battery Park. I said, I remember this graphic from one of the textbooks in high school biology. It showed a few different species a few weeks after conception. They all looked the same. Early stage tech startups are like that. You don't know if you have a camel, or a human being, or a unicorn. Or a stillborn. Most early stage tech startups end up being stillborns.
English: Elon Musk at the panel Tribeca Talks: Revenge of the Electric Car, for the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There was that thing in Zuccoti Park. People rallied against the so-called 1%. That 1% supposedly has 40% of the wealth. Much of it is inherited.
And there is the Piketty book that drew a lot of attention. He says, if wealth will get an annual 10% return, but labor will see less than 3% annual growth, then the gap will never close, it will keep widening.
And then there is this: global companies are sitting on $7 trillion in cash. Just sitting. Not doing anything with it. This is not money on that 10% train. How about $18 trillion?
One, I think there is an economic case to be made that if the gulf between the top 1% and the bottom 10% is too wide, that society is not likely to be growing at its optimum. I am talking economic theory. As to how to go about remedying? That is a debate. I am for ordinary people owning equity stakes in many more companies, and not just post-IPO companies. Heck, I am not opposed to a slightly higher tax rate. And then there is choice, the Warren Buffett choice. He decided most of his wealth should not go to his children. It is bad for them. 90% of his wealth will not go to his children.
Two, a stagnant minimum wage is a bad policy choice. The minimum wage in America should be $10 right away, and in the big cities it should be $15. Urbanization is good for the environment. Go green.
Three, trillions sitting around is stupidity. $10 trillion will take care of a-l-l infrastructure needs across the Global South, and that investment will bring a guaranteed 10% annual return. Win-win. Heck, somebody put half a trillion in Elon Musk's internet access company.
But all that is wealth talk. I meant to talk entrepreneurship, especially high tech entrepreneurship. I once put out a blog post where I said, statistically speaking, being an entrepreneur is like being gay. It is about one out of 100. But then that is everyone. That is pizza store owners.
1% of that 1% might be in high tech. And 1% of that 1% of that 1% might be successful tech entrepreneurs. 1 out of 100 which is 1 out of 100 which is 1 out of 100. 1 out of 1,000,000. You are quite literally one in a million. In a country of 300 million, that would give us 300 such entrepreneurs. That is about right. Does this country have 300 self made billionaires? If not, there is something missing in the social/political/economic fabric. Maybe the 1% have too much wealth, maybe the minimum wage has been too stagnant for too long, maybe there are too many trillions just sitting around, having a negative gravity effect on overall growth and well being. Probably all of the above.
1% of 1% of 1%: self made billionaires are in august company.
When you are in the political mindset, you are trying to add your little energy to the larger collective energy which, you hope, is trying to move towards a more perfect union. You look at the large arcs of history.
But in the tech entrepreneurship mindset, you don't have the luxury of time, you have to execute, you have to move, you have to play the hands you are dealt with. I think for the most part it is about innovation and hard work, mostly just innovation. If you can take yourself to the cutting edges of innovation, you will, for the most part, win. If you have the stomach to take the risks, to make the jumps. But you don't really have the privilege of theory, or at least not as much. You don't have the privilege of the monk option, where you choose to live on little to give a larger push to the historic arc towards a more perfect union. You have investors, you have team members, you have customers to please. Money is as good a metric as any. You have to make the moves that make the money. Maybe there is not time to watch a change of heart unravel.
You have to move. For the most part you rely on innovation and hard work and charisma. But there are times when you just have to hit back. You might not be black, or Indian, or female, but maybe you are dumb, and fat, and lazy, and ignorant. And being dumb, you need to be called on it. Or maybe you just have a funny face. How about ugly?
You hit back hard and fast. You sting a quick sting. You take a quick bite. Everybody but everybody is at the receiving end of something or the other. You do that to clear up the deck a little so you can quickly go back to innovation and hard work. Innovation is its own sexy. A relentless push to the cutting edges of innovation allows you to wallow in the high clouds of the post-ISMs individuals. Because, we are relentlessly trying to move towards a meritocracy.
The best ideas could come from anywhere. The talent pool is global. If you don't cast your net wide, you lose.
Even without race and gender issues, tech entrepreneurship is plenty of fights. You have to take down an old building to build a new one in its place. That takedown process can feel like violence to some people. Feelings are going to get hurt. But that is how progress is made. The old has to make way for the new. And the new has colorful faces.
