Member-only story
Solving the Venture Capitalist Superhero Complex
This is the second half of a Two-Part Series.
In the first section of this series, I discussed some of the things that we need to confront as an industry: the gist is that venture capitalists have outsize influence on the direction of a sub-economy that drives incredible dialogue, but that doesn’t mean that we should have unchecked, outsize influence on how we think about everything. Following VCs as if we are sagely guides is dangerous, especially given our propensity for bad behavior and erroneous perspectives on the human side of society.
In this section, I bring it full circle and discuss some ways we can solve this issue — and I’ll bring to light some of the people and efforts doing good work.
Then again, if the internet was good for anything, wasn’t it this? Transparency in action; access to the minds of the industry elite….How else to know which members of the venture class defended megalomaniac founders as entrepreneurs who couldn’t scale, or mistook criticism as harassment and perceived themselves as victims of digital mobs? How else to understand the deliberately amplified identidies, ideologies, and investment strategies of the people transforming society — the people I was helping make rich?
— Also Anna Wiener, also Silicon Valley (P.S. you really should read this book)
