#this idea that you're not a successful business owner unless you're some kind of sweatshop running billionaire is also a lie btw

[ongoing-catastrophe]

ok but seriously can we talk about how the very basics of modern business launching go against every tenant of a healthy economy that even the most beginner of economics students are taught. in order of what you're taught in econ class - supply and demand work in tandem, graphs are great, monopolies are bad.

guess what the modern marketplace teaches tho? NOT basic economics. most people going in to the startup ecosystem, trying to build their businesses, tragically dont know shit about macroeconomics. they know (basic) stock market stuff, some accounting, and some business sense, but none of the young people being sold on the startup millionaire dream seem to know what they're creating. let me help you out with that.

incase you dont know the very basics, startups work with 3 main forms of investors: seed funding, venture capitalists (VC's), and angel investors. Seed funding is money from friends and family, bank loans, your own savings, etc. Any business has all of that. Angel investors are essentially rich people who keep businesses as sugar babies because they believe in them, and ask for a pretty bare minimum in return. The VC's are where it gets messy.

See, if you've ever watched something like Shark Tank, you'll know that VC's take a share of your company to help you grow it. They'll provide advice, outreach, pull strings, all that jazz. But thats not the end of the story. Yes, they want your small business getting huge and profitable, because having shares in it makes them money. But more importantly, they want it to grow big enough that a big market competitor out there looks at it and thinks "i want that" and buys it from you at a price you can't refuse.

This is where the understanding of macroeconomics becomes important. Someone started a business because existing megabrand wasn't catering to an existing demand, and they fill the gap in the market either based on price, quality or product. Basic econ, right? Well, they grow big! because they have a good product, there's more competition in the market than there was before. Competition is good! it keeps prices low and quality high, because businesses have to compete more for the same market share. Basic economics! Theres variety in the market, theres well matched supply and demand, theres good healthy market competition. The economy is healthy, the customers are happy. And then the VC's decide they want their money.

See, most of these small businesses wouldnt be able to scale up without the additional investment VC's provide. They cant afford the infrastructure, or they cant cross a certain manufacturing threshold before they start losing money. The VC's make them grow from local businesses to industry competitors. But the VC's dont make (in their perspective) enough money from owning shares of a profitable business, so once they've decided the business is profitable enough, they put pressure on the leaders to sell it. If the VC's own a large enough share and/or the original owner cant afford to buy it back, what they say goes. The business sells.

What happens then? more often than not, the original owner and much of the team leaves with a payout that would have them set for life. But the market is one competitor poorer. There is less incentive to maintain competitive pricing because there's simply more available market share. Quality drops. Prices rise. Customers get the illusion of choice but no true choice, because the small business they once trusted is now just another mask for the same old megacorp. A monopoly starts forming.

Thats what the modern startup ecosystem is. We're amid the creation of an invisible monopoly. They sell this "build your own company, become Jeff Bezos" dream to startup creators, but most startup leaders arent going to get to keep their company. They'll sell out, because its an offer they cant refuse, because they cant afford not to, because they simply dont have enough stake in their own company to have much of a say. And megacorps get to essentially outsource all the expensive R&D, brand imaging, advertisement, and trust building that is the most complicated part of launching a new product, and then swoop in to buy a well established well trusted brand once theres essentially no effort they'll need to put in.

Monopolies are bad. We learned that from the coal companies of the past, we are learning that from the entertainment industry of the present, and it never ever ends well. Workers rights decrease, wages fall, quality plummets, prices soar, no innovations are made, and the wealth disparity grows. And that dream of entrepreneurship? of self sufficiency and being your own boss? in a startup, its a lie. You will answer to your investors like you do to your boss, you will be at risk of getting fired like in any other job.

The startup ecosystem sells this idea of creating a healthy market rich with competition and self-employment, and it delivers rapidly monopolizing international economies and increasingly fragile global supply chains.

might go on a huge rant about macroeconomics and the horrificness of the startup ecosystem. prepare yourselves.