Hollywood, Drugs & MLM: the Shadow Side of Startup Culture

by Brett Borders on December 16, 2008

In theory, I love startups.

I’m an ambitious, non-conventional technology freak. An “idea” guy who can’t stand being slowed down by tenure, regulations, or precedents.

I got a firsthand taste of startup culture at Andrew Hyde’s Startup Weekend in Boulder. I sat down with 5 like-minded guys… and we cranked out more in 48 hours than I had in the previous 48 weeks at a traditional company. It was an exhilarating, empowering experience.

Austin Hallock, Gerhard Rivera, Harry Love, Cameron Roberston,
Elijah Chancey & Me @ Startup Weekend II Boulder

While we were busting out design drafts and hacking up code, I overheard another table nearby. A smug group of characters was sipping coffee, dropping names and taking turns alluding to how successful and important they were.

They were loud. And they didn’t seem remotely interested in participating or creating anything; they were just there to gossip and take in the scenery.

It was then that I started to notice a palatable shadow side behind the glitz and gloss of Web 2.0 / Twitter / startup culture. Sure, there’s some solid people and mind-blowing ideas backed by generous investors. But, clearly, some folks are just along for the ride: talentless hacks, hanger-on’ers, greedy moneylenders, narcissistic hipsters and douchebags.

Here’s why the ego side of startup culture reminds me of Hollywood, drugs and multi-level marketing…

Hollywood


Funded startups are big-budget productions. Many use stars, style, and talent in order to make a splash and gain critical mass:

  • Auditions in front of rich and powerful producers (investors)
  • Mega-budget blockbusters that bomb at the box office (marketshare FAIL)
  • Name dropping, status worshiping, and blackballing
  • Style over substance
  • Everyone is a superstar (or thinks they are)

Drugs

At a pre-Series A meeting for FleshOfTheStars.com, in the movie “Knocked Up“

Some startup ideas are genuinely inspired. Others seem “chemically” inspired:

  • Baked… oblivious to how useless their idea is %99.999 of humanity.
  • Tweaked out… obsessing on one technological facet, missing the big picture.
  • Coked up… so full of ego it stinks to be in the same room with them.
  • Drunk… in lust with a pretty idea that they’ll regret “the morning after.”
  • Turned on… inspired, like Jobs and Woz’s acid trip to the Apple II.
  • Addicted… couldn’t survive a day without their pimpdaddy (angel) or dealer (VC).

MLM

Funded startups have some striking similarities to a pyramid scheme. A “field of dreams” that isn’t profitable but oneday might be if enough people become true believers…

  • The dream… A non-existent or unsustainable business model.
  • The pitch… Doesn’t make logical sense without an immaculately-rehearsed explanation.
  • Get-rich-quick mentality… TechCrunch mention -> Google acquisition.
  • The pyramid funnel: Acquirers -> VCs -> Shareholders -> Employees -> Users.
  • Rich “mentors” and sponsors who want a big slice of your pie
  • Most fail or collapse, but quickly resurface under different names with similar pretenses

But what makes some people bite the hook and become true believers in startups and MLM… is good ol’ fashioned third-chakra greed. Material visions of multiple 30″ Apple Cinema Displays, hybrid SUVs, parking spaces in Vail or homes in the Valley make people fall in lust with far-flung ideas — that don’t make sense to normal people — and devote their whole life in pursuit of a technological “pipe dream.”

Some investors are in the game because they’re truly passionate about technology and want to help others – no question, they’d do it for free. But there’s another element that revolves entirely around money – treating web technology (and the people who love it) like sharecroppers or racehorses. The Donald Trumps clamor to get bought out by the Warren Buffetts and Microsofts… CEOs aren’t satisfied by complete control and high-salaries… they wanna be the Sultan of Burnei.

Valley Alchemy: From Silicon to Gold

Funded startups are a like material alchemists… refluxing intelligence and ambition with silicon vapors — hoping to yield mucho dinero.

“Visions of acquisition dancing in their heads.” image: Money Mind

This drive to create ’something out of nothing’ sometimes yields very great things:

Old startups like Google and Apple created the basic tools that my lifestyle and livelihood depend on. Napster, Digg, Flickr and Tribe.net have bestowed me with epic enjoyment, buzz and good connections. And new startups, like Boxee and Songbird, have got me stoked about the future of unlocked digital media.

It also can yield a whole lot of nothing:

At startup-related events… sometimes find myself in conversations that seem contrived or surreal. I go home and check out the sites on business cards I collected.. or I read TechCrunch… it feels like a dreamy Nintendo Wii game. It looks real on the surface: alpha invites, splash pages, quirky names and snazzy logos. But when I scratch deeper…. it’s Tinseltown. A “Second Life” world of digital illusions.

Splash pages and bling bling.

Cashing my Reality Check

When I got to an SEO conference or a developer meetup… I find that people behave differently. Most people there either run a “real” business that generates a sustainable income – or they work for a company that does. A real, economic market (not investors’ dreams) keeps them in business… and it also keeps them humble. While less glamorous than startups, I find the humility and pragmatism refreshing.

Anyways… I’m not bashing startups or taking a piss at ambitious people trying to create something. I think some startups are way cool. The genuine entrepreneurs and innovators out there inspire me.

But I just can’t help but noticing that along with the hot ideas – there’s some noise & hot air wafting about… and some of it is the stinky kind.

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  • I totally agree.

    As I noticed at the startup weekend, listening to the 'big ego' table:

    The less skills someone has, the louder they feel the need to 'toot' their own horn.
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  • Brett Borders
    @Ingrid,

    I agree that there are poseurs in every crowd... but there's something about the promise of quick fame and easy money (funding, acquisition) that adds a dreamy, elitist, status-conscious twist to Startup Land...

    It's just a very different world that what I experienced in my hippie days or when I lived in rural Oregon - a culture shock I'm adjusting to and trying to make sense of.

    I definitely have some of these tendencies myself, or else I couldn't observe it in others - I want overnight fame and success too.. but part of me is pissed I (apparently am gonna) have to work really, really hard for it.

    I've also noticed that programmers (like you) make less noise than the marketers and "business types" (like me).
  • Wow, that was a very well-written post and I can definitely see a lot of that. But, I would argue that you get posers in any kind of crowd you're in. I think what makes it sad is that we expect this kind of stuff in the culture at large (recalling making social notes while watching "The Apprentice"), but not amongst the nerds who spent their lives growing up and being made fun. These nerds have now come to use the very same tools of the oppressor (If I can inject some of my grad school wisdom here).

    I have to say one of the most icky moments of my career in tech was when I got an exclusive ticket to a party from a friend (not the party host) and I was with a group of 5. I hope I never have to deal with that again, but I also feel lucky that when things get to socialitey for me, I can retreat back to my sanctuary of writing code.

    All in all, things tend to even out. If you want to try to live the fast life, you can and you may actually get somewhere, but for the most part, the folks that have a substance-less interior are not fooling anyone. But it doesn't mean they can't be useful for something--keeping folks distracting while the rest of us do the real work.
  • Brett Borders
    Nick Stamoulis,

    I totally agree.

    As I noticed at the startup weekend, listening to the 'big ego' table:

    The less skills someone has, the louder they feel the need to 'toot' their own horn.
  • Too bad everything comes down to being an ego war in any industry. The people that usually brag are just the sidekicks anyways.
  • Brett Borders
    @Bobby,

    Guitar Hero rules! That was a hugely innovative digital technology experience.... Home Entertainment Technology Rockstars ;) , for sure! I am personally waiting for them to come out with the DJ version of the game... mixing beats in crowded clubs... I heard such a game was in the works.
  • I agree with your thoughts and ideas emphatically. Hopefully the "solid people and mind-blowing ideas backed by generous investors" that are "truly passionate about technology and want to help others", are the ones that will ultimately (hopefully) see the greatest ROI.Not the Douchebags...

    Just as you mentioned Songbird or Twitter as useful web 2.0 tools, I look to Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy (two struggling M.I.T scholars addicted to good old fashioned Rock and Roll and Technology) for inspiration and hope. Guitar Hero is one of the most innovative ideas that I have seen in a long time. I guess that they're technology rock stars. Literally.

    It's great to see humble people (yourself included) succeed.
  • Brett Borders
    @Casey Quinlan,

    Thanks so much for your comments!

    I have a background in sociology so I am always fascinated by how tribes of people interact, structure themselves, etc.

    That's a part of social media and startup culture that's really cool and futuristic... giving people amazing new opportunities and connections... and there's a part of it that seems conducive to inflate or magnify our worst, most flawed human attributes.

    Trying to figure out how to embrace the former and minimize the latter. I see my own reflection in this blog post.. getting half baked ideas.. being drawn to style over substance... yearning for an easy retirement without a lifetime of grueling work... and thinking my opinions are better than someone else's.

    Social media is a very humbling learning process for me every single day.
  • Outstanding set of analogies - and spot on, IMHO at least. The pioneers in any area of endeavor wind up outnumbered by the thundering herd of follow-alongs, who trail in the wake of the self-tagged rockstars. The challenge for the pioneers is to avoid being hijacked.

    You, BTW, are not in the rockstar group I mention above - anyone with as strong a sense of irony as yours can't be lumped with that subset of lumpen bourgeoisie...!
  • Brett Borders
    @Nick C,

    I agree that you get the hanger-oners in a lot of scenes, but I think that funded startups attract an inordinately high concentration. As I said, much more than with SEO, graphic designer, programmer circles... because of the promise of free / easy money.

    p.s. Social Media Rockstar is all about examining and exploring fame and success on the internet (and the trappings of it)... that's why it exists ;)
  • Nick C
    Wherever there's anything happening, the hangers-on move in, hoping to catch a piece of the action - as you've pointed out, that's how it works for movies, music, neighborhoods, investment schemes, as well as start-ups... It's probably human nature then, but you're right that it sucks.

    And I suppose it's not at all ironic that you're making this type of criticism on a blog called 'social media rockstar' :-)
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