First off, I know this is a development blog. I am a developer too, and I know the culture many of you guys are in. We live in this modernist world, but many people have no idea what the future holds. In an ever growing ramp of innovation, we have the disrupters. We have those in secret who still go around making noise. However, amongst a group of innovators are ever growing problems in certain industries. One of those industries, is Venture Capital.
Lots of times, the VC industry have been hurdled by people who aren't willing to take risks in disruptive tech. The type of disruptive startups that could be solving new approaches to computationally driven medicine, bringing portable Quantum storage to the masses, try bringing us a step closer to harnessing Nuclear Fusion, are the types of startups that will have trouble getting funding in comparison to quick apps and SaaS companies.
I see it all the time. People don't seem to be willing to take risks in the next SpaceX when they see "me to" products that are just apps similar to what is in the market with fancy UIs. Even looking at hackathon, innovation competitions, and pitch fests, many seem marketing and presentation centered rather than actual innovative impact.
Yes, there are still many VCs who look after disruptive tech. However, not enough. Many VCs are also hurdled with fake ICOs, and the whole let us make the next Uber or Airbnb needs to stop. Nothing wrong with Uber or Airbnb, but why focus on being the next Uber rather than focusing on, "Let us push humanity forward by doing x". Uber was innovative in what they did, but in all honesty the stereotypical let us be the next Uber person usually isn't. That is because they seem more interested in Uber because it was a unicorn, rather then interested in peer-to-peer ridesharing technology.
There are 100s of startups you will find that are basically the exact same thing. There are 100s of people getting funding for products that are absolutely worthless and no use cases. When someone has a subscription based app, it is easy to present it from a marketing, growth and sales perspective. However, when someone wants to reinvent the way we communicate, or build something truly disruptive, most investors see risk. Very few investors seem to be willing to look into the future with what some of the crazy geniuses are making.
You have people in maker-spaces, small labs, storage units, and garages building flying machines, next generation computers, making cubesats or quirky little RCs. These are the people that are our future. You have people writing down solutions to unsolved problems on whiteboards and being unknowns. These unknowns are our future.
Don't get me wrong. This post isn't about bashing apps or saying apps aren't innovative. There are tons of apps that are innovative and disruptive. This post is to bash the whole, "me to" culture in Silicon Valley and the basis that many people are still reserved on highly disruptive, theoretical or innovative technologies.
This is especially true given the old investor's mindset. The worst thing for a startup founder is if they have an innovation that can disrupt multiple industries, and an investor pulls the, "you aren't focused excuse". When someone builds a messaging app vs. someone making a data transmission protocol that spawns a new form of computing, do you expect them to be judged by the same standards? Many great innovators of our time are ignored and the intellectual diversity bubble is slowly decreasing.
I unironically felt the same. This brings me to my next point. If you are okay with companies that may be too ahead of their time, I might have a solution. I myself, while building lots of tech of my own, also want to support other founders. I've considered starting a venture capital firm of my own. For what it is worth, if you are an investor wanting to be a part of the future or a startup founder, I have a beta sign up. This isn't launched yet, and I am trying to see what interest I garnish. If many are interested, maybe we can all push for the next milestone in human ingenuity. That being said, the current VC mindset needs to change.
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