The Rise Of The Rock Star Entrepreneur

These past few years I’ve noticed, as I’m almost certain all of you have as well, a surge in the popularity of entrepreneurs, especially in tech. At one time, those who struck off on their own were labeled as simply being incapable of handling a “real” job. This couldn’t be further from the truth as many have now learned. Today it’s as if seeking a corporate career has generally fallen out of favor, especially amongst so-called Millenials (Gen Y). This is a good thing, but is comes with some drawbacks.

One such drawback is the subsequent rise of institutions and organizations purported to “support” entrepreneurs but often do much less than advertised to say the least, leading to inadequate guidance, underperformance and mediocre financial support, if any. This is most pronounced right now as everyone looks to jump on the bandwagon and make a name for themselves by any means possible. The problem is made worse when the the best institutions, run by experienced entrepreneurs and which are well capitalized and willing to risk substantial amounts of that capital on worthwhile people and projects, get drowned out in all the hype and noise.

For example, a recent trend in some areas has been organizations that make entrepreneurs leading new startups spend weeks of their precious time prepping for an event to publicly pitch for a chance to win at most a couple thousand dollars, or even worthless “virtual” currency in some cases (think Shark Tank on a far smaller scale minus the experienced investors). This is hardly a worthwhile capital injection or significant boost for a fledgling business when compared to the labor hours required to prepare for the event, let alone the issue of the very public spectacle being performed for such little gain on the part of the entrepreneur. The only real value here is entertainment.

These types of events may generate a good amount of media attention for the institution, which many times appears to be a primary goal, but what proven long-term value does it create for the entrepreneur who is jumping through all these hoops? I tend to see this type of thing as being comparable to one of those old game shows where someone is locked in the “money booth” on stage and told they have 10 seconds to grab as much cash as they can. Our reality television culture has somehow convinced people that making hardworking business owners do a very public song and dance for cash is a good way to build sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Problem is, this kind of behavior typically only serves to convince high-potential entrepreneurs to move elsewhere in search of better professional support and more workable amounts of capital investment.

Another issue is that so many of these institutions could care less about “uncool” service businesses, even though they generate a substantial portion of all revenue across many sectors of the economy and can sometimes become profitable much, much faster, not to mention they generate far more high-paying jobs. Too many of these groups want software products so bad they don’t care if your 12 year old niece or nephew built a half-baked app last weekend in their parents’ basement — as long as it’s using some technology they read about in a recent TechCrunch article, they’ll consider it and immediately book you for their next function to dance for funding in front of the cameras. This seems especially true for institutions run by non-technical and non-entrepreneurial leadership. This isn’t to say that all such organizations are bad, or that the products they take on are all bad. A portion of them are great and have immense potential but, again, it all gets drowned out in the hype of the latest tech startup fad and it is the entrepreneurs who end up suffering the most.

There are other issues to be sure, such as the underrepresentation in some of these institutions of women, minorities and veterans, even though those categories of people start businesses at a statistically higher rate than the rest of the population. But I could fill a whole other post with that. The key here is that as entrepreneurs achieve rock star status in society, there will be people and groups legitimately trying to help them succeed, but also many that just want to make a name for themselves on the back of the entrepreneur at all costs by chasing the latest fads and holding “competitions” that provide little more than entertainment value.