Entrepreneurs: Startups — 4000 Years Ago
by Miki Saxon
It’s funny how things we read decades after a minor happening will bring that memory to the fore.
In the 1990s, when I was a tech recruiter and the original net was booming with startups, a young man asked me if I worked with startups, because he wanted to join one. I told him that startups had been my main market since the late Seventies (when I went to work for MRI).
He scornfully informed me that was impossible, since there weren’t any startups before the Internet and he wanted a recruiter who understood what he was looking for.
I was grateful, since I didn’t have any clients interested in his combination of arrogance and ignorance.
That memory was triggered when I read The VCs of BC and learned just how wrong he was — entrepreneurs were alive and well 4000 years ago; I think anyone who toils anywhere in the startup ecosystem will also enjoy reading it.
These letters survive as part of a stunning, nearly miraculous window into ancient economics. (…) during one 30-year period — between 1890 and 1860 B.C. — for one community in the town of Kanesh, we know a great deal.
And the parallels of today, including a vibrant entrepreneurial approach complete with venture capital, Wall Street-style players, esoteric financial instruments and risky deals.
The traders of Kanesh used financial tools that were remarkably similar to checks, bonds and joint-stock companies. They had something like venture-capital firms that created diversified portfolios of risky trades. And they even had structured financial products: People would buy outstanding debt, sell it to others and use it as collateral to finance new businesses.
There are a lot more fun details and interesting stories — the kind that are great to share over a few beers or a bottle of wine.
Hopefully it will encourage you to enjoy a bit of downtime — you’ll be more creative and productive for doing it.
Guaranteed!
Flickr image credit: Carole Raddato
