Entrepreneurs often tell people to go start their own companies, that it’s the only way to go if you want your big dreams to become bigger realities.
Fact is, it sucks in all the ways capitalism sucks, but with way more pressure & anxiety.
Unless you’re a White dude who gets VC.

VC is more than money. It’s support & a network of fake-ish to real-ish customers from the VC’s portfolio. It’s a magical “valuation” that is entirely made up even though there’s allegedly due diligence done in finances that don’t at all need to show a viable profitable biz model

It’s news articles reinforcing the made up numbers, signaling to potential customers that your biz is legit, to investors that they made good choices, & without these accoutrements, bootstrapped startups lead by grit-fueled non-white non-men are patted on the head like we’re cute

Before a bunch of VC backed entrepreneurs get all outraged & put words in my mouth like I’m saying it’s easy for them - that’s not what I’m saying & if you’re honest, you know it. It’s hard in different ways, got it, go make your own thread, homey. This thread is just not for you

So should you become an entrepreneur?
Sure.
Just know that this game, like all of them in life, can be played in “normal mode” (VC backed) which has its challenges, but is still orders of magnitude advantaged compared to “pure grit mode” which is how marginalized people play.

Don’t want to become an entrepreneur, not in a position to be a VC to change things, but think this system of an economic engine fueling more terrible brogrammed tech is not a world you want to contribute to?
Buy more bootstrapped solutions. Buy tech’s equiv of non-Walmartazon.

VC backed entrepreneurs wanting to help spread their privilege around to those who don’t look enough like you to have our ideas blessed the same way you did - send referrals to your bootstrapped cousins.

We’re the ones who can bail you out when your startup fails, as most do.

Because we had to build something profitable with our own money.

With all the startup friends I have, in the nearly 5 years I have run my own company, I have referred biz to many.

Not a single business referral or even an intro has ever been made by a VC backed company to ours.

We get plenty of referrals - it’s why we’ve never spent money on sales/marketing - all from individuals. Bootstrapped even in lead generation.

Other founders like me won’t be profiled in biz mags, because they only care about the hare of big market valuations. Not the gritty .

If you want tech & biz to continue the trickle-down exploitation of workers for the outsized profits of the mostly already wealthy & privileged, keep reading those breathless profiles in Forbes or Fast Company.
If not, use your power to boost signal for pirate entrepreneur radio.

Or, you know, start your own company.

Just know which mode you’re playing in, & if you fly the VC skies, don’t forget your bootstrapped pals in the margins.

We’re the ones building enough profit to buy your startup if the VCs tell you that you’ve taken too long to blossom.