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None of this is going to change unless capital miraculously grows a conscience. As an entrepreneur seeking funding you can't afford to solve problems for the p

None of this is going to change unless capital miraculously grows a conscience. As an entrepreneur seeking funding you can't afford to solve problems for the poor because there's no way to raise money for that, and there's certainly not a lot of disposable income available to bootstrap from. The problem with this type of article is that it conflates all the struggling little startups with the unicorns who are actually making a lot of money. These big companies probably should grow a conscience, but it's not really in their DNA, because if they had been socially conscious from the beginning they never would have succeeded. Meanwhile, all these little companies are in a life or death struggle on a daily basis, so they have to do the thing which gives them a chance to survive til tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I recognize the privilege of people who get to join a high-risk startup, but just because they are individually privileged with that freedom does not mean that they have the power to actually push our culture to a more socialist mentality. I don't use the word "socialist" as an epithet here BTW, despite American political dog whistles, I think the growing income gap is evidence that we have a real lack of social conscience throughout society.

nickff 10y ago
One of the reasons few 'startup' businesses target the needs of the poor is that many (especially among venture capital and government regulators) are uncomfortable with doing business with (or 'making money off') the poor. Marc Andreessen commented that a partner at A16Z has veto-d at least one funding proposal because of this discomfort.
- matt4077 10y ago
  There's a difference between predatory lending and tackling actual problems. And a16 actually has a few serious companies in its portfolio such as opengov.
jdoliner 10y ago
There are plenty of companies who raise money to solve problems for the poor. Although if you want to be cynical you could dismiss it as them just trying to make money off the poor, they are businesses after all. Lendup is a good example of this, their goal is to provide loans to poor people that are better than pay day loans. Pretty impactful stuff if you ask me, but it doesn't seem to count in this article or in your comment. The article would much rather focus on an incredibly narrow band of startups that are easy to poke fun at and prove the point.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  I counterpointed this comment, too, but you might be going too far here: "The article would much rather focus on an incredibly narrow band of startups that are easy to poke fun at and prove the point." The article does narrow it a bit but it's overall claim appears to be true. Most startups seem to target either frivilous stuff, stuff useful for businesses, or stuff appealing to middle class and up. That's almost everything I see here and with other sites. That poor are a smaller, troublesome market might be decent reason for many to focus on another segment. It seems that they do from what sample of startups I've seen. I don't have hard data on the subject, though. I'm not sure how I'd even measure it outside maybe a survey of various startups' demographics of customers tracking what percent sell significantly to the poor. Success might be that hitting a certain percentage or going up over time.
  - jdoliner 10y ago
    > Most startups seem to target either frivolous stuff, stuff useful for businesses or stuff appealing to the middle class and up. This is drifting pretty far from the article in my opinion which focussed almost entirely on frivolous stuff. The article only obliquely lamented that lower classes don't have enough focus put on them. It mostly seemed to be claiming that it's all frivolous stuff, these last 2 categories are the things I think the article narrowed it's sites to avoid.
nickpsecurity 10y ago
" As an entrepreneur seeking funding you can't afford to solve problems for the poor because there's no way to raise money for that, and there's certainly not a lot of disposable income available to bootstrap from." You could and there is. The poor still have disposable income they spend on same kinds of things as the middle class. They just collectively buy less of it. Gadgets, apps (esp mobile but also desktop), tax preparation, car work, house-hold appliances... quite a lot of startup potentials. The thing is the product/service has to have marketing or options for that demographic, it has to be good (esp convenient), and has to be affordable. Affordable, not cheap, as they buy both. ;) That there's products that form in these spaces for the poor show me people are willing to do it and they make money. There's just rarely Silicon Valley startups targeting it. Also rarely best and brightest in general targeting it. Often average bootstrappers or startups putting together whatever they can once they know a problem exists. Sometimes it's an existing company doing a profitable side-project like one, tax service that cost about $25 a year but was owned by a solar company (?!). In that case, software worked like what H&R block people use but simpler with many, local users. SV could've easily made that.

nickff 10y ago

One of the reasons few 'startup' businesses target the needs of the poor is that many (especially among venture capital and government regulators) are uncomfortable with doing business with (or 'making money off') the poor. Marc Andreessen commented that a partner at A16Z has veto-d at least one funding proposal because of this discomfort.

matt4077 10y ago
There's a difference between predatory lending and tackling actual problems. And a16 actually has a few serious companies in its portfolio such as opengov.

jdoliner 10y ago

There are plenty of companies who raise money to solve problems for the poor. Although if you want to be cynical you could dismiss it as them just trying to make money off the poor, they are businesses after all. Lendup is a good example of this, their goal is to provide loans to poor people that are better than pay day loans. Pretty impactful stuff if you ask me, but it doesn't seem to count in this article or in your comment. The article would much rather focus on an incredibly narrow band of startups that are easy to poke fun at and prove the point.

nickpsecurity 10y ago
I counterpointed this comment, too, but you might be going too far here: "The article would much rather focus on an incredibly narrow band of startups that are easy to poke fun at and prove the point." The article does narrow it a bit but it's overall claim appears to be true. Most startups seem to target either frivilous stuff, stuff useful for businesses, or stuff appealing to middle class and up. That's almost everything I see here and with other sites. That poor are a smaller, troublesome market might be decent reason for many to focus on another segment. It seems that they do from what sample of startups I've seen. I don't have hard data on the subject, though. I'm not sure how I'd even measure it outside maybe a survey of various startups' demographics of customers tracking what percent sell significantly to the poor. Success might be that hitting a certain percentage or going up over time.
- jdoliner 10y ago
  > Most startups seem to target either frivolous stuff, stuff useful for businesses or stuff appealing to the middle class and up. This is drifting pretty far from the article in my opinion which focussed almost entirely on frivolous stuff. The article only obliquely lamented that lower classes don't have enough focus put on them. It mostly seemed to be claiming that it's all frivolous stuff, these last 2 categories are the things I think the article narrowed it's sites to avoid.

nickpsecurity 10y ago

" As an entrepreneur seeking funding you can't afford to solve problems for the poor because there's no way to raise money for that, and there's certainly not a lot of disposable income available to bootstrap from." You could and there is. The poor still have disposable income they spend on same kinds of things as the middle class. They just collectively buy less of it. Gadgets, apps (esp mobile but also desktop), tax preparation, car work, house-hold appliances... quite a lot of startup potentials. The thing is the product/service has to have marketing or options for that demographic, it has to be good (esp convenient), and has to be affordable. Affordable, not cheap, as they buy both. ;) That there's products that form in these spaces for the poor show me people are willing to do it and they make money. There's just rarely Silicon Valley startups targeting it. Also rarely best and brightest in general targeting it. Often average bootstrappers or startups putting together whatever they can once they know a problem exists. Sometimes it's an existing company doing a profitable side-project like one, tax service that cost about $25 a year but was owned by a solar company (?!). In that case, software worked like what H&R block people use but simpler with many, local users. SV could've easily made that.