Tom Mueller is a good example to pick and has had a great career path. The author I think is right that more focus should be put on hard working talent than on celebrity CEOs in culture. It might help more people from remote places to move up in the world.
That said it also is depressing how concentrated and closed up networking circles are, how important signalling from prestigious schools still is, and how little diversity there is in where capital goes. I can't remember the exact number, but almost all VC in the US goes to just a handful of counties.
It should be the task of all institutions, from government to business and think tanks, to open up these spaces to talent from all over the place.
> I can't remember the exact number, but almost all VC in the US goes to just a handful of counties.
Fair enough, but to play devil's advocate people from all over the world flock to these counties, and places like YC exist specifically as an entryway to this otherwise closed network. Musk himself has spoken at length of why he came to the US, and the Stripe cofounders have a similar story.
The word "celebrity" has negative connotations but Elon is famous for very good reasons: he gets results and he helps other people get results.
Tom Mueller and Gwynne Shotwell could have worked at other more traditional companies but it is thanks to Elon's leadership and aggressive business tactics that they achieved far more at SpaceX. This is not just Elon being rich: space history has plenty of well-capitalized failures.
The article presents a story of very successful vertical mobility from people who received relatively little outside help, it's not clear how this makes a case for various forms of affirmative action. If anything it shows the system works reasonably fine.
>The word "celebrity" has negative connotations but Elon is famous for very good reasons: he gets results and he helps other people get results.
I didn't want to deny that Elon is an exceptionally hard working individual as well, but I honestly think it would help both Elon and people like Tom Mueller if the attention was more evenly distributed.
We have seen the downsides of the media attention, drama and inflated egos that are produced by the focus on founders or CEOs.
That said it also is depressing how concentrated and closed up networking circles are, how important signalling from prestigious schools still is, and how little diversity there is in where capital goes. I can't remember the exact number, but almost all VC in the US goes to just a handful of counties.
It should be the task of all institutions, from government to business and think tanks, to open up these spaces to talent from all over the place.