A spoken essay arguing that technological advances—affordable computing (Moore's law, smartphones), off-premise/cloud infrastructure, open-source software, and massive open online courses—have dramatically lowered the cost and barriers to launching startups worldwide. The speaker calls this shift the "democratization of opportunity," saying it enables anyone with an idea and modest resources to build impactful companies and urges investors to embrace broader, more diverse founders.
Chapters
Once upon a time, people were born successful. Their parents attended the right schools, had the right jobs and knew the right people. Sure, people still achieved the American dream. But kids with silver spoons had so many more open doors. But now more than ever, anyone anywhere who has a solid idea, the ability to execute and a small amount of cash can build a world shaking company. I call it the democratization of opportunity. First came faster, affordable computers. In the 1970s, Moore's law predicted that computing power would double every two years. Moore was spot on a great example of how this has played out in reality. The software that powers Angry Birds is more powerful than the software that landed astronauts on the moon. And now smartphones are making the PC obsolete. Over a billion people connect to Facebook every day, often in third world countries using smartphones. So potential entrepreneurs everywhere now have in their hands computing tools more powerful than the Apollo mission systems at an affordable cost. Next came off premise open technology. They didn't need to build a server farm to scale out their ideas. And that may not sound like much to you, but not too long ago, just testing product market fit might cost you $5 million. Now you can accomplish the same exact thing for only 5,000. Combine that with open source software, anyone can build on top of the work of others, including giants like Linux, Mozilla, Google and many more. And you're getting the expertise of thousands of developers for no cost. You like Apples? Now anyone can take a class from Harvard. How do you like them Apples? An Ivy League education doesn't cost hundreds of thousands of dollars anymore. Institutes like Stanford, Harvard and MIT offer massive online open courses or MOOCs to students all around the globe. Anyone who has access to the Internet can take a course at a top school learning from the best professors in the world. Plus you have tech platforms like Khan Academy, kotaCademy, Coursera and edX. All have brought world famous courses to remote corners of our globe. And let's not forget Wikipedia is pretty awesome too. The decrease in startup cost coupled with unprecedented access to knowledge hasn't just opened doors for people, it's blown the doors clear off. Not only can people leverage cheap hardware, software and computing power, they have access to all the knowledge they need through open source and open learning models. Successful entrepreneurs no longer have to be third generation Ivy legacies. It's time to get over the hump of the VC herd mentality and invest in these new and exciting opportunities. This added diversity will only strengthen the startup ecosystem.
