Podcast > Unscaled > EPISODE 2

Scaling the Truth

There’s been a big change in the way businesses are built: they no longer need to have sky-high valuations and thousands of employees before they can make an impact. “Scale” as we know it has run its course, leaving a wide-open pasture where startups can focus on building products that matter instead of getting big fast. What lessons should entrepreneurs take from this shift? And how does it influence how success should be measured today? Join Phil Libin, Hemant Taneja, and Ronda Scott to find out.

Episode Links

Show notes

Hemant Taneja’s book Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts are Creating the Economy of the Future

Venture capital firm General Catalyst

Hemant Taneja bio

Ronda Scott bio

What went wrong with the world wide web (2:01)

The problems with moving fast and breaking things (2:21)

The original goals for the Internet (3:08)

Hemant’s first internet job (4:05)

Ronda’s first internet job (4:45)

The difference between being right and being statistically right (6:30)

The biggest problems online today (7:55)

Governance doesn’t exist (8:13)

Current environment won’t support new businesses trying to do good (9:44)

Ronda’s 1972 GMC truck, “Kitten” (10:55)

Siloing has created deep divisions and polarization (11:30)

Do San Francisco’s problems reflect those of the tech industry? (12:20)

Is education better or worse today? (13:45)

Khan Academy (15:50)

Three classes of problems online (17:15)

Unintended consequences (17:25)

Intended, legal consequences (17:31)

Intended, illegal consequences (17:41)

Scale makes consequences more damaging (19:25)

Problems are the same as the 1990s, but the audience is orders of magnitude larger (20:41)

It’s time to rethink the concept of scale (22:03)

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