Venture Capitalism Shift from Value Creation

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The evolution of the startup culture saw a shift towards prioritizing financial gains over value creation. Initially, startups were created by software engineers focusing on innovation and cool ideas. However, over time, venture capital became too powerful, leading to startups aiming to attract funding rather than creating value. This resulted in startups shaping themselves to cater to investors rather than customers, ultimately deviating from the essence of tech innovation. The system became about building companies to sell them to venture capitalists, who in turn sold them to big tech firms, leading to a disconnect from genuine value creation and customer satisfaction.

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Zitron to discuss the public’s growing disillusionment with the tech industry as it pivoted to chasing profits instead of providing us with anything useful.

Ed Zitron is the host of Better Offline and writes the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter. He’s also the CEO of EZPR.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

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