Tech Entrepreneurship and Shifting Sentiment
When I started Kapwing in 2017, it was cool to be a tech entrepreneur. People looked up to techies. How I Built This was one of Apple’s top podcasts. Stripe, then a tech industry darling, acquired IndieHacker, a popular website about resourceful entrepreneurship. In 2018, famous startup accelerator YCombinator allegedly got more than 10,000 applications.
Last weekend’s commentary on the SVB crisis showed us that is no longer true. On Twitter, peoeple seemed to ridicule the impacted tech startups. People thought depositors should lose their money because they made the “irresponsible” decision to bank with a large, stable, well-known public institution.
This confirmed a sentiment I’ve noticed in my personal life. In the last couple of years, I've felt embarrassed in some circles to tell people I’m a software founder/CEO, even though I’m extremely proud of Kapwing and the impact it’s had in the world.
IMO, people increasingly see the tech industry as a group of fraudsters rather than well-intentioned innovators. Here’s some reasons why I think sentiment has changed towards tech:
