The Danger of Celebritizing Entrepreneurship
There's no doubt technology entrepreneurship is becoming its own kind of celebrity. Here is a quick rundown of its appearances on the national stage:
The story of the founding of Facebook receiving a feature-length Hollywood portrayal in The Social Network; Hollywood celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Justin Timberlake, MC Hammer, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber investing in technology startups and making their presence known in Silicon Valley; the rise of initiatives like the White House-endorsed Startup America Partnership, due to the starring role technology startups in job growth;
Bloomberg creating an American Idol-esque TV showbased on the the New York City session of TechStars; Bravo creating a full-blown reality TV showcalled "Silicon Valley"; and a surge of new technology companies offering their stocks on the public markets, from Facebook to Zynga, Groupon, Pandora and LinkedIn.
As a result of all the attention, we have a phenomenon TechCrunch has dubbed "The New Silicon Valley Douchebag." Everyone and their mother is now an angel investor, and it is safe to say the celebritization of entrepreneurship is only going to get stronger.
注目を多く浴びることになった結果、TechCrunchが「The New Silicon Valley Douchebag(新シリコンバレーの役立たず)」と呼ぶ現象を引き起こした。皆が、そして皆の母親までもが今ではエンジェル投資家で、アントレプレナーシップのセレブ化現象は今後さらに強みを増していくと言っても過言ではない。
このようなすべての注目をあびた結果、TechCrunchが「シリコンバレーの新たな嫌な奴」とあだ名をつけた人がいる。今は誰も彼もがエンジェル投資家で、起業家のセレブ化は増すばかりだと言っても過言ではない。
We need to start the conversation now about how to handle this double-edged sword, so that the soul of Silicon Valley doesn't get vaporized from the heat of the limelight.
Why is it a double-edged sword? On one hand, celebritization will attract a huge new wave of talent from around globe to Silicon Valley and inspire many impressionable young people to aspire to become an entrepreneur rather than a Wall Street banker or a Hollywood actress. This undoubtedly is a very good thing.
The Silicon Valley ethos is a lot more empowering than the narratives most young people are being told around the world. A few months ago, we had a group of Danish Entrepreneurs over at our startup house who told us that when young people in Denmark talk about changing the world, most people tell them, "Who are you to try to change the world? Sit down. Go to school. Get a job. Learn your place."
I hope we abolish that narrative completely. But let's not swing the pendulum too far in the other direction and spread the delusion that starting a company is something anyone can do to get rich and famous quickly. Eric Ries has recently become fond of saying, "Entrepreneurship is not cool, it's not sexy and it's totally uncomfortable. It's boring and grueling, and that part is never part of the movie." And I don't expect it to be part of the Bravo Reality TV show either.
The celebritization effect has caused a meteoric rise in the type of person we are calling the "Starstruck Entrepreneur." This rise is actually dangerous to the health of the startup ecosystem. A few months ago, College Humor released this brilliant caricature of the Starstruck Entrepreneur that sadly hit a little too close to home.
These creatures seem to come in two types. The first type is an "idea guy" who saunters over from Hollywood ready to wow with you a next-generation social media analytics platform. Or maybe he's a self-proclaimed "business model and monetization expert" fresh off the MBA assembly line. This type has an annoyingly loud mouth, but is relatively harmless.
「スターに憧れる起業家」には2つのタイプがあるようで、1つめはハリウッドから来た何もしない「アイデアマン」で、次世代のソーシャルメディアアナリティクスプラットフォームでびっくりさせようとする。あるいは、MBAを取得したばかりの自称「ビジネスモデルとマネタイズのエクスパート」なのかもしれない。このタイプは嫌らしいほどほら吹きだが、害は比較的少ない。
数か月前、カレッジユーモアは、えらくヒットした、スターの世界に魅せられた起業家のこの光り輝くカリカチュアをリリースしました。
これらの作品には、2つのタイプがあります。一つ目のタイプは、あなたと次世代ソーシャルメディア解析論プラットフォームを圧倒する準備ができているハリウッドをぶらつく「アイデアマン」です。もう一つは、恐らく、MBA組立てラインから新鮮な自ら宣言した「ビジネスモデルおよび通貨制定エキスパート」です。このタイプは口がうるさく大きい。しかし比較的無害です。
The second type of Starstruck Entrepreneur is far more dangerous. This type includes engineers and designers who have a lot of talent for building technology products, but, because they've been infected by celebritization hype, limit their ambitions to being able to say, "Hi, I'm the Founder and CEO of Self-Aggrandizing Apps." So instead of applying their talents to a company that is actually poised to solve an important problem and become a transformational company, they build another vapid iPhone app that nobody wants. As a result, many potentially transformational startups are inflicted with dysfunctional teams as a result of the depleted hiring pool.
このタイプは、建築技術製品のための多くの才能がいるが、それらがセレブ化誇大広告によって感染したので、その病気によって「やあ、私は自己拡大を図るアップの創立者およびCEOです」と言うことができることができるエンジニアおよびデザイナーが現れます。
したがって、重要な問題を解決し、かつ自由な会社になるように実際に用意を整える会社にそれらの才能を適用する代わりに、誰も望まない退屈なiPhone アプリを作成します。
その結果、多くの潜在的に自由なスタートアップが消耗された雇用要員の結果、機能障害のチームになり果てます。
We need to quarantine the Starstruck Virus before it leads to an epidemic facepalms — or worse. The reason the Starstuck Virus is so deadly is that it ends up severely circumscribing both the economic potential and societal impact of entrepreneurship by suffocating the early-stage startup ecosystem with increased noise, increased distractions, corrupted motivations and misapplied of talent.
Fortunately both strains of the Starstruck Virus have a similar remedy. I advocate the dual pronged approach of sociological and methodological (note that the Starstruck Entrepreneur falls short on both economic impact and long-term societal impact):
幸い、2つの「スターに憧れる起業家」タイプには同じような治療方法がある。私は、社会学的で方法論的という2重の長期的アプローチを勧める(「スターに憧れる起業家」は経済的影響においても長期的な社会への影響においても何も達成していない)。
幸運なことに、どちらのタイプの「スターに憧れるウィルス」にも似通った治療方法がある。以下に、社会学的と方法論的な側面の2方向からの方法を示す(注:「スターに憧れる起業家」は経済的影響力と社会的に与える影響力の双方ともが不十分になる)。
One potent approach to eradicating the Starstruck Virus is to ignore the infected person. This deprives the Starstruck Narcissistic Personality Disorder of its lifeblood: your attention.
In more severe cases it may be appropriate to use a more vigorous approach: Take a page out of the book of paranoid conspiracists and fight back through the four-step approach of Identify, Vilify, Nullify, Destroy. When a Starstruck entrepreneur tells you their idea, don't smile and nod or (heaven forbid!) tell them their idea is awesome.
もっと深刻な場合には、もっと強硬なアプローチを用いる用がいいかもしれない。妄想的な陰謀者のまねをして、「確認」「中傷」「無効」「消滅」という4段階のアプローチを通じて闘おう。「スターに憧れる起業家」からアイデアを聞くとき、微笑んだり、うなづいたり、もしくは(たとえ冗談でも)「すばらしいアイデアだ」と言ってはいけない。彼らのアイデアはつまらないと言おう。もしくは、少しはっきり言い過ぎだと思うなら、少なくとも、取組みのなかでそれが本当に一番重要なことなのか、一生砂糖水を売りたいのか、それとも世界を変えたいのかと聞いてみる。