Incubate This

No startup began at a meetup. You are not going to build the next unicorn with your new cofounder Alex. The startup industry is multi-level marketing for tech bros. Sure, give that incubator your money; I am sure they have finally figured out the lean startup method.

I was recommended a list of videos explaining the lean startup approach earlier this month. The videos are 8 years old. The idea is simple, so simple that the person presenting now works at a bank. Since before I made it to university, I was told that being an entrepreneur is how you succeed at life. My university mandated that we take a course in our final year on how to launch a startup. I studied mechatronics engineering. Half the meetups in Berlin are about startups; cofounder meetup here, pitch speed dating there.

You know where the real people building things are? Not at meetups. They are holed up in their rooms, 10 energy drinks deep and haven’t seen the sun in four weeks. They aren’t building it for generational wealth. No, they are tired of JavaScript being slow, and have decided they are going to do something about it, if it is the last thing they ever do.

But Sylvan, surely this whole industry wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t leading to some successful startups? Of course, it would, because they are selling dreams, and the problem is that all Western governments are funding it. Some guy built a browser 30 years ago, and now he gets to dictate the direction of an industry larger than the whole Global South. The Global South, by the way, is where Europeans go to sell their entrepreneurial “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” dreams.

You want to see some innovation? Go to any township in South Africa. There is more innovation going on in a square kilometre than in the whole of Silicon Valley. Why? Because these people need to survive. “Oh, but I am developing a new data pipeline so that we can train the next frontier model 0.1% faster.” How about you go develop a pipeline for some clean drinking water?

Innovation doesn’t happen in boardrooms or meetups or incubators; it happens out there. I know you are not going to build the next startup, because otherwise you wouldn’t be here.