Let’s make capitalism more human

Four months ago, I wrote Do or Die in 54 Days as open letter to Team Wefunder. We didn’t die, so let’s continue the tradition.

Dear Mike, Greg, Dylan, Linlin, Omar, Jiwon, & Theresa:

We’ve dominated the opening act and stand alone at the top. Those we expected to be tough competitors turned out to be paper tigers. Yet, this is bad for America. Competition is good. It forces everyone to be better, faster.

If we’re going to fix capitalism, we need to compete with ourselves: with who we are now, versus what we can become. We’ll have to reach down deep to meet our unrealized potential — not only for what we aim to achieve with Wefunder, but for ourselves: we get out of life what we put into it.

But above all, we have a responsibility to do so. We have the talent to improve the lives of millions. Failing to do so, in my view, is immoral. We’ve been given great advantages. Now is the time to give back.

Let’s remember what matters: people

Right now, we’re measuring success by investment volume: we’re 5x over every other competitor combined. But let’s remember this is a short-term yardstick. It’s not what truly matters.

We are not fixing capitalism by pumping more money into businesses. We’re fixing capitalism by making it more human.

Our institutions, regulations, and bureaucracies were designed in the industrial age, when people sacrificed some measure of freedom, uniqueness, and creativity in exchange for efficiency and scale.

The previous generation concluded that a few gigantic banks on Wall Street should fund businesses, not their neighbors. They concluded that multinationals like McDonalds — staffed by powerless employees with little autonomy— should run rampant over local business. They decided that the pursuit of short-term returns to shareholders should trump investment in a living wage, local communities, or R&D.

We ended up with a system that is literally inhumane. The human connections between customers, owners, employees, and investors frayed over time. The systems stifled us. And now they hold us back.

That world is coming to an end. Thanks to software and networks, power is being transferred from bureaucracies back to humans. Best yet, when we have more freedom and autonomy, our productivity and happiness is increased. We can have our cake and eat it too.

Houston, we’ve got a problem

Yesterday, I stood in awe in front of a Saturn V in Houston. I soaked in the power of the place. I felt the optimism and can-do spirit of a time when our country could say, “Let’s go to the moon!”, and then do it. On schedule!

It was also a relic of command and control planning when it worked best. When, faced with the Soviet threat, 400,000 Americans came together and spent $100 billion in today’s dollars to accomplish something amazing… so amazing that 20% of today’s Americans don’t even believe it happened.

At first, I was saddened by our decline, by the failure of our institutions. But as I stood there reflecting — staring at that giant-ass rocket — I was struck by a thought: perhaps we are in the middle of a transformation, feeling the drawbacks, but still unable to see the light at end of the tunnel?

We feel the pain and culture-shock of our rapidly decentralizing culture… but perhaps, the major benefits are yet to come? When more small groups of super-motivated humans are empowered, will it become more common to outperform the greatest achievements of the industrial age?

We now live in a world where 4000 employees of SpaceX with $1.5 billion in capital can build a reusable rocket, something no government can do. Will SpaceX or NASA reach Mars first? I know where I’d place my bet.

Everyone need not be Elon Musk; the same principle applies for a rebirth of small business. Do we want more McDonalds workers serving sorta-beef-burgers, or more owners cooking healthy, well-loved food?

A better capitalism, a feeling of belonging

We aspire to belong to something greater — nation, cause, village, religion, family, company. We strive for meaning, for purpose, some greater thread connecting us together. Our modern world fails us. So many people, alone.

Yet, in our capitalist society, starting a company is one of the best ways to make the world a slightly better place, to improve how things work, to create ‘wealth’ in its most basic sense. And each company we help fund — no matter how small, local, or seemingly trivial at first blush— is its own social movement to do just that.

We help the humans in those social movements build stronger relationships. The stronger the community, the more shared the feeling of ownership, the more likely that company can succeed in fulfilling its vision. We help bring people together to accomplish amazing things. We help people belong to something greater than themselves.

Before, we could only buy stock in some huge public company like Chevron, a financial transaction devoid of meaning, impact, or connection. Now, we can invest in our friends and neighbors at the act of creation. When we walk into that brewery, we know that we had a small part in building it, in helping the owner reach their dreams, in helping those two drunk customers meet and fall in love. Likewise, when we invest in a biotech that helps kids with diabetes, we feel connected to something greater, more important.

Before, local bankers with little autonomy applied algorithms to judge the worthiness of an investment. Can a human truly be evaluated by a FICO score? Can bankers with no operational experience vet a business? Now, experts, friends, customers, and neighbors can look someone in the eyes — ask the hard questions — and decide whether or not to risk their money. What is more human then that?

Before, we were only customers. Now, we can be owners. How does this change how we interact with company whose product we buy, the places we visit, or the dozens of people we invest in? That, in a nutshell, is the core of our future. When we prove that sharing ownership within a social movement is powerful, we’ll know we’ve accomplished something. Providing capital is the easy part.

Onwards!

This is all within our grasp. The value of Wefunder is a secret that the rest of the world hasn’t quite figured out yet. But they soon will.

Our hunger, vision, morals, and experience give us an edge.

We need to be so good, that the world can’t ignore us.

Instead, the world will adapt to accommodate us.

So let’s get it done.