Why tech leaders don’t understand power, politics, and government
Tech leaders wear blinders — they are trained to ignore politics and government. It's time to change that.
“We must free ordinary Americans from the constant surveillance and manipulation of the tech giants.”
― Josh Hawley
“Big Tech thinks they're too big to be held accountable — and with gutless antitrust enforcement, they are. If we want to fully expose the manipulative, anti-competitive business practices of 4 companies worth over 1/5 of the US economy, we need to haul each CEO in individually.”
― Elizabeth Warren
There is an old adage in politics: “if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu.”
Tech is firmly on both Democrats' and Republicans' menus right now, which is an impressive bipartisan achievement. Lobbyists, government employees, and political leaders all chuckle at how much “tech just doesn’t get it.”
But “not getting it” goes both directions. Tech is a total mystery to leaders in politics and government.
Why? Because most government leaders have zero friends or policy partners from tech. This is mostly our community’s fault — we rarely show up in politics and government apart from sending emissaries from ‘Government Relations’ to weigh in on regulation that affects our core businesses.
Political leaders don’t understand why this is. “Tech leaders don’t have a civic bone in their body,” as more than one legislator has told me.
Around $5 trillion of market cap has been created by California tech companies, most of it in the past decade. Much of that wealth is in the pockets of tech leaders living within a 50-mile radius of San Francisco.
With that stunning amount of wealth being created, the public — and public leaders — are asking “What exactly are you doing with all of that money and power?”
The truth is, tech leaders don’t know what they are going to do with all of that money and power, because fundamentally tech doesn’t understand how power works.
Tech leaders wear blinders because they are taught above all else to focus
Here is roughly the experience of running a venture-backed company:
“Here is $1M — Now if you hit this target we won’t shoot your company in the head.”
80-90% of venture-backed CEOs then fail to hit the target, rendering their companies “unfundable”.
Then the winners are told:
“Congratulations! Here is $10M. Now hit this target or we shoot your company in the head.”
About 50% of venture-backed CEOs then fail to hit the target.
This pattern repeats. Ultimately the failure rate approaches 95%.
Founders that emerge from this crucible may have entered as bright-eyed product leaders with innovative ideas, but they leave as world-class executives and operators, who are hellbent on hitting targets. Above all else, they are taught to focus. They are trained to maniacally hone in on building and delivering a great product and delivering value for their customers and market.
They effectively wear blinders that keep them away from anything that feels slow, bureaucratic, complex, and political. And so they are literally trained to stay away from the table of politics and government.
This blindness has grown into a warped understanding of how the world works. For example, most tech leaders believe that the only way to impact public problems at scale is by starting a technology company. This is great for VCs who would love to finance your next company, but it’s simply not true.
The biggest public problems are not going to be solved by software startups
Software isn’t going to fix Climate Change.
Software isn’t going to solve Megafires.
Software isn’t going to defeat Putin.
Software isn’t going to solve the Housing Crisis.
Yes, it’s time to build, but we can’t because it’s illegal.
Even through the lens of venture tech, the industries in the most need of innovation — healthcare, decarbonization tech, education — are stymied not by the venture model of innovation, but by government and politics. Software ate the world until it ran aground on government.
Techno utopians want to believe technologies like the blockchain can enable an end-run around the government. But all tech platforms we create run on the ultimate platform of the state. And tech does not control the state. The public controls the state by electing leaders who write laws that are interpreted by the courts and executed by the world’s largest bureaucracy running a centuries-old operating model.
The current trajectory of U.S. Democracy is towards failure. You may be surprised how easily and quickly democracies can crumble, as they are protected only by a thin envelope of norms.
The long-term effects of democratic failure would be catastrophic. Case in point: try building a business in Russia. Putin gets 40%, and if you don’t like it, he chucks you out of a window.
You can't hide from these public problems anymore, no matter how much market cap you’ve created. Congratulations on winning at startups — but what are you going to do when your Tahoe house turns to charcoal?
So when the public asks “Just what are you doing with all of that power and money?” while the world burns, we should have an answer. We need to take this feedback to heart, start showing up at the table and start helping.
Bringing tech optimism to politics and government
NIMBYs, Republicans, and many Democrats have been selling a sad politics of scarcity in a world that’s happily positive-sum. And when government is made to be ineffective it becomes entirely rational for factions to warp government towards their own self-interest.
For California to show that abundance is the answer — abundant housing, energy, and economic opportunity — government must be made effective. The only antidote to self-interested, zero-sum politics that leads to nihilism is to prove government actually works.
We have found that leaders in government and politics are fundamentally (though not universally) good. But most are trapped in a zero-sum mentality at a time when the most pressing public problems are getting worse, not better. At this time more than ever, government leaders need optimism, innovation, and real partnership — they need us to come to the table and help.
Tech carries a mindset, born out by experience, that the hardest problems in the world can be solved. The gnarliest, most challenging issues we face can be broken down into actionable steps and crunched through deliberately over time.
Tech knows that almost anything we put our mind to — limitless energy, interplanetary space travel, universal access to knowledge and education, cures to all diseases — is not only possible but on its way. Nowhere is this optimism needed more than in government, politics, and the wielding of public power.
And we have found that the core approach of tech entrepreneurs can be magic when applied to public problems in partnership with leaders in politics and government:
Apply the vision, ambition, and conviction required to solve the biggest problems
Understand and synthesize incredibly complex constraints and operating environments
Break down difficult problems into a deliberate roadmap and carefully stage capital behind it
Build teams capable of achieving the outcomes
Set smart goals and align teams to reach them
Execute relentlessly, prove value, and scale into the opportunity
There are no founder shares available for this work, but the upside of effective government is massive.
For the past few years, tech has been on the menu. It’s time to come to the table, and it’s time to get to work.
Our goal with Modern Power is to accelerate this by explaining how power is exercised in America, and how leaders from tech can (1) show up and (2) help political and policy leaders solve our most important pressing problems. Please share with anyone you think would benefit.