World Eaters - by Catherine Bracy (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An urgent and illuminating perspective that offers a window into how the most pernicious aspects of the venture capital ethos is reaching all areas of our lives, into everything from healthcare to food to entertainment to the labor market and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

The venture capital playbook is causing unique harms to society. And in World Eaters, Catherine Bracy offers a window into the pernicious aspects of VC and shows us how its bad practices are bleeding into all industries, undermining the labor and housing markets and posing unique dangers to the economy at large. VC's creates a wide, powerful wake that impacts the average consumer just as much as it does investors and entrepreneurs.

In researching this book, Bracy has interviewed founders, fund managers, contract and temp workers in the gig economy, and Limited Partners across the landscape. She learned that the current VC model is not a good fit for the majority of start-ups, and yet, there are too few options for early stage funding outside of VC dollars. And while there are some alternative paths for sustainable, responsible growth, without the help of regulators, there is not much motivation to drive investors from the roulette table that is venture capital.

World Eaters is an eye-opening account of the ways that the values of contemporary venture capital hurt founders, consumers, and the market. Bracy's clear-eyed debut is a must-read for fans of Winners Take All, Super Pumped, and Brotopia, an appealing "insider / outsider" perspective on Silicon Valley, and those who are fascinated to look under the hood and learn why the modern economy is not working for most of us.

Review Quotes

Praise for World Eaters
"One of the most important and insightful books about venture capital I have ever read. A clear-eyed and illuminating examination of VC's peril and possibility. Bracy's call to action to reimagine what VC can be is one we should all heed."--Ro Khanna, Member of Congress from Silicon Valley and author of Dignity in a Digital Age

"World Eaters is a compelling account of the grift that so much of Silicon Valley VC has become, and a vision of what a more equitable and equity-enabling VC industry might look like."--Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media

"Persuasively demonstrates how VC's prevalence has created a startup monoculture."--Bloomberg Business Week

"Community organizer Bracy debuts with a bracing takedown of the venture capital financing model... It's a convincing call for change."--Publishers Weekly

"Bracy's study adds up to an important analysis... An informative look at an industry that values 'hyper maximalist growth at breakneck pace.'"--Kirkus

About the Author

Catherine Bracy is a civic technologist and community organizer whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and political and economic inequality. She is the Founder and CEO of TechEquity, was previously Code for America's senior director of Partnerships and Ecosystem, and founded Code for All. During the 2012 election cycle she was director of Obama for America's Technology Field Office in San Francisco, the first of its kind in American political history. She is a prolific public speaker for places like Axios and the Personal Democracy Forum. Her TED Talk "Why Good Hackers Make Good Citizens" has almost one million views. Her work has been highlighted in the LA Times, New York Times, and NPR.