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The Little Tech Agenda

3 points by klelatti 2y ago

talldayo 2y ago
TL:DR - Regulation is bad, but not because it regulates big companies but instead because it somehow disrupts the opportunity these small companies have to disrupt big companies.
bearjaws 2y ago
I generally agree with a16z here, "regulations" are becoming really difficult to deal with. However I find their complaints about government regulation weak compared to what I've seen at most startups. The contractual requirements and vendor selection process at most small cap+ companies is beyond arduous. Due to the litigious state that America operates in now, the check lists have become expansive and completely hostile to new software vendors. It started in Healthcare around 2015, we would maybe get 10-20 questions. Today the standard vendor audit will consume 100+ hours of a startups time, per customer (of course depending on the customer). Even if you don't plan to have PHI / PII, they don't care anymore. This is even BEFORE redlining on a contract... Their examples start off actually quite weak, Blockchain and AI? So far it seems like the wild wild west to me? Crypto got regulated after a decade of rug pulls and inside hacking. AI has copied the entire internet and there's pretty much nothing stopping anyone from generating deep fakes, impersonating people. Even "The Pile" which contains copy righted material is still right there on Huggingface. Granted I've worked in Health tech for the past decade, so my experience may be too narrow.
minimaxir 2y ago
I'm not sure how a16z's recent full-support for Donald Trump's reelection ties into this agenda: his platform favors Big Tech far, far more than Little Tech.
klelatti 2y ago
> Regulatory agencies have been green lit to use brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries, such as Blockchain. "New industries such as Blockchain." > Regulatory agencies are punitively blocking startups from being acquired by the same big companies the government is preferencing in so many other ways. So Big Tech is bad except when it gives us a lucrative exit.

3 points by klelatti 2y ago

TL:DR - Regulation is bad, but not because it regulates big companies but instead because it somehow disrupts the opportunity these small companies have to disrupt big companies.

bearjaws 2y ago

I generally agree with a16z here, "regulations" are becoming really difficult to deal with. However I find their complaints about government regulation weak compared to what I've seen at most startups. The contractual requirements and vendor selection process at most small cap+ companies is beyond arduous. Due to the litigious state that America operates in now, the check lists have become expansive and completely hostile to new software vendors. It started in Healthcare around 2015, we would maybe get 10-20 questions. Today the standard vendor audit will consume 100+ hours of a startups time, per customer (of course depending on the customer). Even if you don't plan to have PHI / PII, they don't care anymore. This is even BEFORE redlining on a contract... Their examples start off actually quite weak, Blockchain and AI? So far it seems like the wild wild west to me? Crypto got regulated after a decade of rug pulls and inside hacking. AI has copied the entire internet and there's pretty much nothing stopping anyone from generating deep fakes, impersonating people. Even "The Pile" which contains copy righted material is still right there on Huggingface. Granted I've worked in Health tech for the past decade, so my experience may be too narrow.

minimaxir 2y ago

I'm not sure how a16z's recent full-support for Donald Trump's reelection ties into this agenda: his platform favors Big Tech far, far more than Little Tech.

klelatti 2y ago

> Regulatory agencies have been green lit to use brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries, such as Blockchain. "New industries such as Blockchain." > Regulatory agencies are punitively blocking startups from being acquired by the same big companies the government is preferencing in so many other ways. So Big Tech is bad except when it gives us a lucrative exit.