An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns

Why isn't Twitter doing more to get bots off their platform? Why
isn’t Uber taking better care of its drivers? 


What if...they can't?


Venture-capital backed companies like Twitter and Uber are held
accountable to maximizing returns to investors. If and when they
become public companies, they become accountable to maximizing
returns to shareholders. They’ve promised Wall Street outsized
returns — which means Twitter can't lose bots if it would
significantly lower their user count and in turn lower
advertising revenue, and Uber can’t treat their drivers like
employees if it competes with profits.


But what's the alternative? What might it look like to design an
ownership and governance model that incentivizes a technology
company to serve all of its stakeholders over the long term – and
primarily, the stakeholders who create value?


This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with
two experts on creating the conditions for humane business, and
in turn, for humane technology: Mara Zepeda and Kate “Sassy”
Sassoon of Zebras Unite Co-Op. Zebras Unite is a member-owned
co-operative that’s creating the capital, culture, and community
to power a more just and inclusive economy. The Zebras Unite Coop
serves a community of over 6,000 members, in about 30 chapters,
over 6 continents. Mara is their Managing Director, and Kate is
their Director of Cooperative Membership.


Two corrections:


The episode says that the failure rate of startups is 99%.
The actual rate is closer to 90%.

The episode says that in 2017, Twitter reported 350 million
users on its platform. The actual number reported was 319 million
users.



RECOMMENDED MEDIA 


Zebras Fix What Unicorns Break


A seminal 2017 article by Zebras Unite co-founders, which kicked
off the movement and distinguished between zebras and unicorns
— per the table below.


Meetup to the People 


Zebras Unite’s 2019 thought experiment of exiting Meetup to
community


Zebras Unite Crowdcast Channel


Where you can find upcoming online events, as well as recordings
of previous events.

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/29-a-renegade-solution-to-extractive-economics


Bonus — A Bigger Picture on Elon & Twitter:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bigger-picture-elon-twitter  


Here’s Our Plan And We Don’t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza
Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know


Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for
Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_