The writer is founder of Sifted, an FT-backed site about European start-ups
In these grim times, the world could do with a shot of hope. Right on cue, up pops the irrepressible venture capitalist Marc Andreessen to shout about his latest techno-optimist manifesto. “Give us a real world problem, and we can invent technology that will solve it,” the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz wrote this week.
No matter the billions of dollars wasted on fruitless crypto and metaverse investments, nor the recent landslide in private market valuations, nor the still-chilly state of the public listings markets; the techno-capitalist machine that is Silicon Valley continues to hum with the conviction that it can build a better future. To the outside observer, it appears like “ideology as usual” in VC land.