Alexis Madrigal: Why Startups Need To Solve Real Problems Again
About this presentation
Alexis Madrigal thinks our modern entrepreneurial climate has a problem: we're not solving big problems anymore. The startup boom in the late 90s gave birth to revolutionary mobile devices. Now, the best we can do is Facebook.
Madrigal offers two solutions: stop the pervasiveness of "free" web apps and increase the diversity among founding teams. Fresh perspectives, he argues, will bring a new paradigm for startups -- and for creativity in general.
About Alexis Madrigal
The New York Observer calls him, "for all intents and purposes, the perfect modern reporter." Madrigal co-founded Longshot magazine, a high-speed media experiment that garnered attention from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
While at Wired.com, he built Wired Science into one of the most popular blogs in the world. The site was nominated for best magazine blog by the MPA and best science website in the 2009 Webby Awards. He also co-founded Haiti ReWired, a groundbreaking community dedicated to the discussion of technology, infrastructure, and the future of Haiti.
He's spoken at Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley, SXSW, E3, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and his writing was anthologized in Best Technology Writing 2010 (Yale University Press).
Madrigal is a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's Office for the History of Science and Technology. Born in Mexico City, he grew up in the exurbs north of Portland, Oregon, and now lives in Oakland.
0:25 - A challenge for the audience + a quick recap of his youth and college years.
1:08 - The ridiculous trajectory of social networking
2:15 - A snapshot of technology in 2004
3:33 - "We got the jetpack this time"
4:44 - A lot of people are still thinking of the world in terms of mobile and social ventures. "I kind of think that's over."
5:45 - There's not a fresh paradime for what it is we should be doing next.
6:03 - Two solutions to figure out what's next
7:02 - The problem with growing fast with a free "viral" product
7:50 - Your privacy is your friend's privacy
8:33 - Be a gut bacteria, not a virus
9:17 - The startup culture conquers all
10:12 - Startup Nation. The way to create jobs is to bring in startup infrastructure.
11:39 - The myth of the "wiz kid" in startup culture
12:25 - Young white guys, startups, and the lack of diversity in startup culture.
14:00 - 6 percent of VC-backed starts are founded by women.
14:30 - Don't ask "What's the next big thing?" Ask "What's the big culture?"
15:26 - "Why do we have thousands of apps that cater to 24-year old white guys?" The free and "viral" pressures reenforce that.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn’t get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.
Alexis Madrigal, speaking at this year's 99u Conference, thinks our modern entrepreneurial climate has a problem: we're not solving big problems anymore. The startup boom in the late 90s gave birth to revolutionary mobile devices. Now, the best we can do is Facebook.
Madrigal offers two solutions: stop the pervasiveness of "free" web apps and increase the diversity among founding teams. Fresh perspectives, he argues, will bring a new paradigm for startups -- and for creativity in general.