1/ I'm joining @_TheFamily as a full-time Director and I'll be helping ambitious entrepreneurs across Europe build bold ventures. Here's a quick thread on my motivations for joining this pretty unique team.
2/ @_TheFamily's initial mission was to rid Europe of the toxicity that made building great companies complicated for founders: complex regulation, horrible termsheets and parasitic consultants and advisors, for instance.
3/ A lot of progress has been made in these past 5 years: best practices are much more accessible through free online content, financing terms have become much more favorable to founders and early stage funds and structures aiming to help startups are springing up daily.
4/ But it's still far from perfect. There are SO MANY people who could be launching companies or pursuing crazy projects and who aren't. I'm convinced complacent cynicism is one of the culprits and that it's taking a huge toll on innovation and growth.
5/ We've created an environment in which the radical optimism required for genuinely ambitious projects to take off is lacking. That has an impact that goes beyond what's happening in tech. The same cynicism that's killing the Apollo missions of today is muting the Bobby Kennedys
6/ And cynicism isn't a European problem. It's a form of cynicism that gets people to elect someone whose goal is to bring back coal jobs. I don't want to be part of the generation whose radically different future was the 1960s. Where's our much needed anti "Black Mirror"?
7/ So why do I think @_TheFamily is the best place to wage this war? Because by starting things from scratch entrepreneurs are able to completely change equilibria; they're not bound by the path dependency which makes big institutions immune to anything but incremental change
8/ Because successful startups can become cultural icons and play central roles in making us dream again. I think @_agricool, which is transforming the bases of agriculture, can be such a company. Allocating time and capital to this sort of venture can be hugely impactful
9/ Because Europe is actually a good place to be doing this. Despite it's fair share of shameful chapters, the Continent is still consistently home to the majority of the top 10 happiest countries. So we must be doing some stuff right.
10/ Because it's a false image projected by the backlash against companies like FB that the tech community cares about nothing but profits. It actually hides some pretty radical optimists. For example, The Family's @Nicolas_Colin even wrote a book about reinventing the safety net
11/ So whether you're a founder in the early stages or a student unsure about what's next or someone who's just tired of the cynicism with ideas to fight it, please reach out. We will be touring (thefamily.co/tour) to meet people across Europe so make sure to get in touch
End/ Here's the entire article that prompted this thread. Let the struggle begin. salon.thefamily.co/joining-the-fa…
@daedalium @pinverrr @Nicolas_Colin @ErikaBatista @HugoAmsellem @kmhall82 @sknthla @webdevMason @devonzuegel @patrickc @sarthakgh @impcapital
@daedalium @pinverrr @Nicolas_Colin @ErikaBatista @HugoAmsellem @kmhall82 @sknthla @webdevMason @devonzuegel @patrickc @sarthakgh @impcapital
