Venture Capital Is Built on Serendipity

Software has as much potential as electrification or steam power, but instead the industry ignores markets and whole classes of people, which stunts how much it can affect our world

The venture capital ecosystem bills itself as a meritocratic miasma of genius, with smart founders getting smart money from smart investors. In reality, there is an overwhelming reliance on privileged people bumping into each other at just the right time. This serendipity has spawned some great companies:

• Warby Parker was started because someone in an elite graduate program lost an expensive pair of glasses.
• Apple was started by a couple of guys who met at a hobbyist group in the computer heartland.
• Google’s founders met when one of them toured the other around Stanford for a CS graduate program.

But how many great problems are being ignored because we didn’t get that lucky alignment of particles?

The remodeling industry is a perfect example. It’s an $83 billion market, yet it’s only now starting to see software solutions. The industry itself bemoans neglect by the software industry. The article linked above has some impressive stats about how much…