Fighting Tech
by Miki Saxon
Maybe it takes tech to beat tech.
Or founders who plan to walk their talk even after them become successful, unlike the “don’t be evil” guys.
More entrepreneurs are pursuing social or environmental goals, said Greg Brown, a professor of finance at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina.
Companies like Toms, Warby Parker and Uncommon Goods have pushed this concept into the mainstream by creating successful business models built around helping others. This trend has led to the rise of B Corporations, a certification for companies that meet high standards of social responsibility. The program started in 2007, and now more than 2,500 companies have been certified in more than 50 countries.
Including Afghanistan.
Not all these startups make it and many are choosing to do it sans investors who often start pushing for growth and revenue, social mission be dammed.
And they are slowly succeeding.
Companies like Moka are a reflection of how consumers think as well, Professor Brown said. As people’s wealth increases, they think more about quality and less about quantity. They also consider the social context of what they’re buying.
Others are developing tech to defend against tech.
The “bracelet of silence” is not the first device invented by researchers to stuff up digital assistants’ ears. In 2018, two designers created Project Alias, an appendage that can be placed over a smart speaker to deafen it. But Ms. Zheng argues that a jammer should be portable to protect people as they move through different environments, given that you don’t always know where a microphone is lurking.
These may not be the solution, assuming there is one, but this definitely isn’t.
Rather than building individual defenses, Mr. Hartzog believes, we need policymakers to pass laws that more effectively guard our privacy and give us control over our data.
You have on to consider tech’s actions in Europe to know that laws don’t stop tech.
There’s another potential positive brewing in tech — actually a disruption of sorts.
That’s the long-time coming move away from current ageist thinking.
As brilliant as young coders are, though, the industry can’t survive on technical chops alone. Last year, Harvard Business Review shared that the average age of a successful startup founder isn’t 25 or 30—it’s 45 years old.
Call it a miracle, but investors, the majority over 40, are starting to value the experience that comes with age.
Hopefully, in the long-run, the potential for success will outweigh the hang-up on age.
As a whole, entrepreneurial communities also need to do more to bring diverse groups to meet-ups, panels and speaking engagements. The importance of having more voices at the table can’t be diminished.
Let’s just hope it isn’t too long.
Image credit: Ron Mader
