Michelle Venetucci - "Strong Opinions, Weakly Held": How Hype Shapes Narrative in Silicon Valley [ETAC6 presentation]

Strong Opinions, Weakly Held: How Finance Shapes Hype in Silicon Valley Michelle Venetucci, PhD candidate | Anthropology, Yale University The industry functions as one interdependent network almost entirely structured by the speculative financial models of venture capital •usinesses to make up f •usinesses to make up f VENTURE CAPITAL High risk, high reward through early stage investing (speculative) Exponential growth mandate: Needs “grand slam” businesses to make up for the guaranteed losses Needs an overall network with lots of startups to invest in Seed Stage (Pre ProductMarket Fit) Product-Market Fit High Growth Scale Time Growth VC Company Growth Trajectory “You’re right, the message changes. I’m always trying out a different narrative to see what sticks.”