Really enlightening post from Katryna Dow on Ello and the evidence for a major shift in the tech industry:
As Ello states, they don’t have an exit strategy. Maybe we are returning to the days when the journey can be as important as the destination? Were the great inventors and founders of the past only concerned with flipping everything they invented? Might changing the way society functioned, creating new forms of value or championing rights have motivated them? There is an amazing reward in seeing what you create find a place and purpose in the world.
Not everything can be reduced to monetary binary value. What about the public good or greater good? What about the generations to come? If we only ever considered the return on investment for everything then would we risk falling in love, or having a family? We don’t do these things because they make a lot of economic sense; we do it because the experience is the reward.
Katryna mentions a list of people and organisations that validate this trend:
It is people and thought leadership that is forging the architecture, prediction and practical application of the shift that is happening. People and organisation that inspire like the following:
I really do believe that Katryna is onto something here, and that the ‘Greed is Good’ approaches of the 80s and 90s should be something of the past for at least the majority of startup organisations. That’s not to suggest that I’m naive enough to fail to recognise that there will always be startups and funds that are purely motivated by making a buck as they are floated. However, as we’re finding in all areas of this industry, the treatment of users as products and shareholders as customers are not the only, or indeed the best ways forward.
