Posted on 08/11/2022 1:12:04 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
SAN FRANCISCO — The young kings of Silicon Valley are dismounting their unicorns.
They’re writing sentimental blog posts that outline their legacies. They’re expressing hope for their companies’ prospects. They’re quitting their jobs leading the startups they founded.
In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as CEO; Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of home rental company Airbnb, announced his departure from the company’s leadership; and Apoorva Mehta, founder of grocery delivery app Instacart, said he would end his run as executive chair when the company went public, as soon as this year.
The resignations signify the end of an era at these companies, which are among the most valuable and well-known to emerge from Silicon Valley in the past decade, and of the era they represent.
But when the stock market fell dramatically this year, hitting money-losing tech companies especially hard, this approach began to change. Venture capitalists pulled back on their deal-making and urged Silicon Valley’s prized young companies to cut costs and proceed cautiously. The industry began to talk of “wartime CEOs” who can do more with less, while bragging about lessons learned from previous downturns.
Patience for visionaries wore thin. Founder-led companies started to seem like liabilities, not assets.
“All of that changed in the last 90 days, and it’s not coming back anytime soon,” said Wil Schroter, founder of Startups.com, an accelerator program for young companies. The “we’ll figure it out later” story is no longer attractive to investors, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Heading for their bunkers in Switzerland or New Zealand?
When the creators raise capital to go big, they turn a lot of control over to venture capitalists and investors. Sometimes they hang around for a while trying to continue exerting influence. But when the companies mature, they usually are moved out the door.
Exceptions to that rule are Jobs and Bezos...and, of course, Musk.
Creators are great at giving birth but they are awful at management.
You can see this illustrated at Twitter and Facebook.
Hopefully, the H1Bs are on their way out as well.
RoosterRedux, no argument here. My only thing to add to the conversation is that we are ill served by access to unlimited Government provided capital. That is the recipe for our destruction and an open door for government fascism. A boon for the ruling class. Give the producer a pat on the head then take control of the means of production. When the fed pumps, investment bankers hunt. If they are politically reliable they have access to an unlimited supply of capital. Most of these companies begin to decay within a couple of years.
Not one of them produces or manufactures a viable, tangible product.
They can only attract suckers with more money than brains.
They ain’t driving off into the sunset in their Cybertrucks.
“Founder-led companies started to seem like liabilities.”
True. When Edsel Ford died in 1943, Henry Ford took over the company at age 80 and did a poor job of leading. In 1945 Clara Jane, Henry’s wife, told him to please step down and to stop destroying the company. Finally, the stubborn Henry stepped down but the damage was done: Chevrolet learned how to introduce new car styles every year before Ford.
Nothing new
Take the money and run. It’s the way of the valley
No. That ain’t gonna happen
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