Little Tech is our term for tech startups, as opposed to the legacy Big Tech players.
Little Tech has always been independent of politics. But, as the old Soviet joke goes: “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.”
We believe that bad government policies are now the number one threat to small tech.
We believe that American technological supremacy and the essential role that small technology startups play in ensuring that supremacy is as much a political issue as any other.
It’s time to stand up for Little Tech.
Our political efforts as a company are entirely focused on defending Little TechWe do not engage in political fights outside of issues directly related to small technology. But we will fight for small technology – for the freedom to research, to invent, to create jobs, to build the future – with all our resources.
We see that there are three types of politicians:
- Those who support Little Tech. We support them.
- Those who oppose Little Tech. We oppose them.
- Those who are somewhere in between – they want to support us, but they have concerns. We work with them in good faith.
We support or oppose politicians regardless of party affiliation or position on other issues.
We’re in it for the long haul.
America
America has been a leader in the 20th century because we are preeminent in three dimensions:
- Technology – America led the second industrial revolution in the 1930s, then the computer revolution since the 1940s.
- Economy – The American free market system has created enormous social wealth and dramatic improvements in the quality of life of ordinary people.
- Military – American military power led to victory in World Wars I and II, and then catalyzed the unilateral surrender and dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Each of these dimensions reinforces the other two:
- Our technological preeminence fuels our economy and our military.
- Our economic growth finances our massive investments in technology and in our military.
- And our military dominance protects us from foreign threats and hostile ideologies that could crush our technology, our economy and our people.
America’s success has positive repercussions for much of the rest of the world. American technology is the global standard. The American economy is the primary production and consumption partner of many other nations. And the American military has maintained global peace and prosperity since World War II at a level unprecedented in world history.
Skeptics argue that America’s best days are behind us and that the 21st century will see America play a diminished role in all three dimensions.
We do not agree.
There is without reason American technological, economic and military leadership cannot continue for decades.
There is without reason The 21st century cannot be a second American century.
Startups
America’s technological leadership is the result of a complex system built over the past 150 years that includes our pioneering spirit, our work ethic, our rule of law, our deep financial markets, our higher education system, and long-term public investment in scientific research. University, government, and private labs have all played key roles.
But the vanguard of American tech supremacy has always been startups. From Edison and Ford to Hughes and Lockheed to SpaceX and Tesla, the path to greatness begins in a garage.
A startup is what happens when a courageous group of outcasts and misfits come together with a dream, ambition, courage, and a particular set of skills – to build something new in the world, to build a product that will improve people’s lives, and to build a company that could go on to create many more new things in the future.
The huge advantage of any startup is that it gives you a blank sheet of paper – a single chance to imagine and realize a different, better world.
But startups face all the other disadvantages. In particular, they must compete against incumbents that have vastly superior brands, market positions, customer bases, and financial strength—incumbents that seek to strangle startup competition from the outset.
Incumbents often have another huge advantage: the ability to connect government against startup competitors.
Dominant companies don’t start out that way. In fact, they start out as startups, working their way up to a position of power where they seek to secure their gains, to pull the rope ladder behind them. They inject themselves into the political system and seek to regulatory capture – a wall of laws and regulations that protect and strengthen their positions, and which new startups cannot cross.
The historical result of regulatory capture in every market has been the emergence of government-imposed monopolies and cartels.
And the motto of every monopoly and cartel is: “We don’t care, because we don’t have to.”
When this cycle continues, when big business can use government as a weapon against startups, the result is stagnation and then decline.
There are many signs of stagnation and decline in the American economy today.
Economists measure the rate of technological improvement in the economy as Productivity growth. And productivity growth today, after 50 years of proliferation of extremely powerful computer and Internet technologies, is lower than before the 1970s.
The practical consequences are astonishing:
- Low productivity growth means low economic growth.
- Low economic growth translates into little improvement in the quality of life for ordinary citizens, if not outright regression. Examples include skyrocketing prices and stagnant quality in education, health care and housing, which are clear signs of regulatory capture.
- Low economic growth also means the rise of zero-sum, high-stakes politics, since gains for one group of people necessarily require depriving others of certain things.
- Zero-sum politics is leading to the corrosion of the national spirit of opportunity and growth. We can feel this corrosion all around us.
The best way to avoid this scenario is to encourage new startups – to drive innovation, competition and growth – and prevent big companies from using government as a weapon to crush them.
Issue
The US government is now far more hostile to new startups than before.
For example:
- Regulators have been given the green light to use brute force in investigations, prosecutions, intimidation and threats to hamper new industries, such as blockchain.
- Regulators are getting the green light in real time to do the same with artificial intelligence.
- Regulators are putting direct pressure on banks to exclude startups and disadvantaged founders from the financial system.
- Regulatory agencies are punitively blocking the acquisition of startups by the same large companies that the government favors in so many other ways.
- The federal government, as a customer in critical sectors like defense and intelligence, is more inclined than ever to favor big players over innovative startups.
- And the government is currently proposing a tax on unrealized capital gains, which would absolutely kill both startups and the venture capital industry that funds them.
The anti-startup bias that is increasingly prevalent within the U.S. government poses a clear and present threat to the health and vitality of American technological success—and therefore to the American economy, the American military, and the American people.
Why is this happening? Partly because of explicit decisions. Partly because of inertial drift. But also because tech startups as an industry do not have the presence in Washington DC and the political system that big companies do. As long as this imbalance persists, the war on tech startups and the resulting threat to America will continue.
Hence the need to politically defend Little Tech.
Opportunity
Reversing ruinous policies is only one side of the coin. One can also imagine positive policies that encourage tech startups to thrive – benefiting those startups and their customers, and forcing large incumbents to remain vital and dynamic due to competition among startups.
For example:
- Regulatory reform in important sectors such as health, education and housing, to deprive incumbents of their current regulatory grip and promote better quality at lower prices.
- Policies to rebuild American manufacturing around automation and AI, reshoring entire industries and creating millions of new middle-class jobs.
- Reinvention of the American military-industrial base by new companies building defense systems at the cutting edge of autonomy and AI.
- Environmental reform aimed at encouraging the development and deployment of nuclear energy for unlimited production of clean energy.
- Expanding high-skilled immigration to encourage foreign graduates from U.S. universities and other countries to create new businesses and industries here.
- And a whole-of-government program to help American tech companies succeed globally in the face of a hostile China and a regulation-obsessed EU.
We have without a doubt that a U.S. government that genuinely wants startups to succeed and new industries to flourish would lead to a huge increase in the standard of living for ordinary Americans and ensure many more decades of American technological, economic, and military power.
The glory of a second American century is within our reach.
Let us know how to seize it.
