The San Francisco tech scene valorized founder wealth over genuinely disruptive cultural products.

Evidence

The tech scene assigned the highest status to venture-backed startups: capitalism was considered an agent of political change rather than something to be questioned. The web made possible genuinely innovative and potentially disruptive cultural products, but the San Francisco tech scene more often focused on the wealth and fame accrued by the founders of successful companies like Twitter, Digg, and Facebook (replace with “Instagram, Pinterest, and Quora,” or whatever startups are in fashion as you read this). Even as the mainstream media celebrated the presumed upheaval of the establishment, they made cover stars of tech founders and newly minted social media millionaires like Digg’s Kevin Rose, Twitter’s Ev Williams, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 53

Categorization

• XREF: Links to modern creator-economy criticism: platforms celebrated as democratic revolution actually produce celebrity founders. — connects to: Twitter’s early user base was a small San Francisco tech clique — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 207
• SEED: Angle: the myth of tech democratization vs. the actual celebrity-making of startup founders, traceable from Kevin Rose to modern founder-CEOs as influencer archetypes.

Broader Connections

• Twitter’s early user base was a small San Francisco tech clique #exemplifies (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 207