Post-Capitalist Entrepreneurship: Startups for the 99%

The Occupy Movement with the ‘We are the 99%’ slogan, emerged as a reaction to a perception that the market-based form of capitalism employed in the US, and to differing degrees in democracies around the globe, is beyond broken. The average citizen has grown increasingly convinced that the system is set up to help the rich get richer. Data on income inequality, such as the Gini Index, suggests that the public perception may be an accurate one. In recent years we have seen a growth in calls for a new economic model, some refer to as post-capitalism.

Proponents of a post-capitalist society see greater changes needed. Rushkoff, for example, explored how the knowledge society is not leading to greater income distribution and the rising of all boats, but actually exacerbating the wealth accumulation in the hands of the one percent. Both Rushkoff and Mason (2016) lament the emergence of megaplatform digital peer to peer (P2P) ‘monopolies’, like Airbnb and Uber which seek global domination at all costs arguing that P2P platforms owned by ambitious, venture capital-backed corporations do not necessarily lead to further equality and amount to what my colleague and founder of Shareable, Neal Gorenflo, calls ‘platform deathstars.’

Yet Rushkoff refuses to actually blame executives and investors in Silicon Valley for the crisis of capitalism. Instead, he argues that they ‘are themselves caught up in a winner-takes-all race for dominance against all other other digital behemoths. It’s grow or die (pp.3-4).’

If we may in fact already be in the transition to a post-capitalist society, than what does this mean for entrepreneurs, not just in Silicon Valley but globally? This book is about understanding the implications of the post-capitalist society for our knowledge about entrepreneurship around the globe and challenges many of our underlying assumptions about how entrepreneurs form startups, with what objectives and the role, or lack thereof, for startup investors in a post-capitalist society. Furthermore, the book will have a strong focus on exploring real emerging stories and thinking about different forms of post-capitalist entrepreneurship (PCE) with chapters dedicated to subjects such as alternative currencies (local, crypto and time banking) and the emergence of Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), leveraging the blockchain. It will also explore some hybrid approaches which are on a continuum between market capitalism and PCE, such as platform coops within the sharing economy and benefit corporations (e.g. B Corporations).