This systematic analysis of everyday life inside a tech startup
dissects the logic of venture capital and its consequences for
entrepreneurs, workers, and societies.
In recent years,
dreams about our technological future have soured as digital
platforms have undermined privacy, eroded labor rights, and weakened
democratic discourse. In light of the negative consequences of
innovation, some blame harmful algorithms or greedy CEOs. Behind
the Startup focuses instead on the role of capital and the
influence of financiers. Drawing on nineteen months of
participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley
startup, this book examines how the company was organized to meet the
needs of the venture capital investors who funded it.
Investors push
startups to scale as quickly as possible to inflate the value of
their asset. Benjamin Shestakofsky shows how these demands create
organizational problems that managers solve by combining high-tech
systems with low-wage human labor. With its focus on the
financialization of innovation, Behind the Startup explains
how the gains generated by these companies are funneled into the
pockets of a small cadre of elite investors and entrepreneurs. To
promote innovation that benefits the many rather than the few,
Shestakofsky compellingly argues that we must focus less on fixing
the technology and more on changing the financial infrastructure that
supports it.
