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Inventors Seldom Capture the Value of their Invention
anscript
00:02
hi everybody I’m Josh constant here at
00:05
TechCrunch Disrupt SF I’m here with
00:07
Peter Thiel of founders fund and Metro
00:09
capital now you’ve talked a lot about
00:11
how you need to choose companies that
00:13
might seem crazy at first to the average
00:15
person otherwise it would be an idea
00:16
that somebody already taken how do you
00:18
tell the difference between crazy and
00:20
crazy like a fox you’re something that
00:21
will actually pan out well you try to
00:24
you try to just always evaluate the
00:27
substance afresh so does the technology
00:30
work you can ask questions about what
00:33
what’s the prehistory of the founders
00:35
have they been working together for a
00:36
while are they are they going to give up
00:39
at the first sign of trouble so I think
00:41
you you want to always focus on the
00:43
substance there are no shortcuts so you
00:46
try to avoid you know coming in with
00:48
biases about what can and can’t work
00:49
ahead of time yet there’s always a
00:51
temptation to come with all sorts of
00:53
sort of one-sentence rules and we’re as
00:56
guilty of that as anybody but but I
00:59
think what’s what’s gone best is you
01:00
find something interesting about it and
01:02
then you try not to get to a yes or no
01:04
decision right away you try to really
01:06
understand the substance keep an open
01:08
mind and understand that so substance
01:11
over-over process every time so it’s
01:14
surely a hard question to answer because
01:16
it’s very generic and everyone every
01:18
startup is different but when you hear
01:19
an idea that you’re wondering if it can
01:21
really work what is it your go-to
01:23
follow-up question to ask an
01:25
entrepreneur pitching you about and what
01:27
is their their philosophy or their
01:29
long-term vision and how likely they are
01:31
to succeed at it well well there’s sort
01:34
of you always want to get the team the
01:36
technology and the business strategy so
01:38
you have to get all three of those to
01:40
work and so if people are if you want to
01:42
talk about the technology we’ll talk
01:44
about the people in the business
01:45
strategy so you go to you go to the the
01:47
other two topics if they don’t want to
01:48
talk about them that much so I wanted to
01:51
ask you a little bit about your
01:52
philosophy and the philosophy of the new
01:54
rich that’s come out of the technology
01:56
scene you know you’re known for having
01:57
very strong perspectives I personally
01:59
went to the seasteading festival of
02:01
ephemeral really fascinated by that way
02:04
of looking at things where we can solve
02:05
the problems ourselves we don’t
02:06
necessarily have to wait for somebody
02:07
else what do you think do you think that
02:09
there’s a different value system amongst
02:12
people who are becoming wealthy out of
02:14
the technology scene opposed to you know
02:16
industries of old it’s always hard to
02:19
generalize but it I I do think there’s
02:21
play something different whether you
02:22
made your money in computers or in say
02:25
resources in the Congo or something like
02:27
that so I do think I do think that
02:29
there’s something generally good about
02:31
technology and generally very positive
02:34
about this as an industry I’m obviously
02:35
a bit biased but I do really I do really
02:38
believe that I think I think
02:40
philanthropy is an area that deserves to
02:43
also be rethought and I always like
02:45
asking these contrarian questions and so
02:46
if the contrary in question businesses
02:48
what great companies nobody’s starting
02:50
in on implants would be the contrarian
02:53
question I think is always something
02:54
like what great cause does nobody want
02:57
to support and and so I always uh I one
03:01
of the questions I always like to ask is
03:02
why is it cause unpopular I don’t want
03:04
to give money to popular cause I feel
03:05
those are well enough funded I think the
03:07
unpopular causes that deserve to get
03:09
more its me it seems like when people
03:11
come up so quickly in the technology
03:13
world because of the way that you know
03:14
equity structures work and how quickly
03:16
you can get to market and make something
03:18
really big with the modern distribution
03:20
channels that you know if somebody
03:22
becomes rich in five years it feels like
03:24
maybe that money doesn’t really belong
03:25
all in my bank account like it’s kind of
03:27
belongs to the world it was kind of
03:28
random that it ended up with me opposed
03:30
to somebody who maybe came up through a
03:31
more hierarchical world worked every day
03:33
for twenty years and when they get to
03:34
the end of it they say this money really
03:36
is mine do you see any of that
03:37
perspective that people feel like they
03:39
don’t really have a right to the money
03:40
that they’ve earned in technology and
03:42
that it’s better for them to give it
03:43
away or like what is the philosophy of
03:45
people who are taking the giving pledge
03:46
or making those really big donations
03:48
well I think I think in general it is um
03:52
it is that that they they want to give
03:55
something back to society I’m not sure
03:57
they I think that mostly do think that
03:59
they actually deserve all of it but I
04:01
think these are some of what they got I
think the reality is that what’s unusual
about the tech industry in Silicon
Valley
is that the inventors are capturing
anything at all the history of
innovation has been one where most the
people who invent things get nothing at
all and so the Wright brothers came up
with the first airplane but didn’t get
rich or you know even the original
Edison versus Tesla you say Tesla is the
greater in
and that was the better way to go but
somehow Edison edged out Tesla and so
most of innovation has actually not not
gone to the people who came up with
things you have to to make money you
have to do two things number one you
have to create something of value for
the world and number two you have to
capture some fraction of the value you
create and and often people have
completely failed of doing the second so
I think Silicon Valley is very unusual
04:51
in that there’s this large class of
04:54
innovative people that are actually able
04:56
to capture some fraction of the value
04:58
they’re creating that’s great so now
05:00
that we have founders who are making a
05:01
fortune by making something everyone in
05:03
the world wants hopefully they can make
05:05
some difference for the better in the
05:06
world as well yes yes and I always I
05:09
always would say that you want to make a
05:11
difference for the better in a way
05:12
that’s not just looking for status not
05:14
just in a respectable way but people
05:17
should try to be courageous in their
05:19
philanthropy
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