World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

創業投資的思維與運作模式如對市場與經濟帶來破壞性的改變

World Eaters提供了急迫且深刻的觀點，揭示了創業投資（VC）思維如何進入並影響我們生活的各個領域，從醫療、食品、娛樂到勞動市場，並在其後留下毀滅的痕跡。

創業投資的運作模式正在對社會造成無法挽回的傷害。在World Eaters中，Catherine Bracy為我們揭開了創業投資的陰暗面，展示了它們如何滲透到所有行業，破壞勞動和住房市場，並對整體經濟構成威脅。創業投資的行為帶來了深遠且強大的影響，影響的不僅是投資者和企業家，普通消費者同樣未能倖免。

Bracy在研究本書過程中，訪問了創業者、基金經理、零工經濟中的合同工和臨時工以及有限合夥人，發現當前的風險投資模式並不適合大多數創業公司，但又缺乏足夠的早期資金選擇。儘管有一些可持續、負責任的增長替代路徑，但如果沒有監管機構的幫助，風險投資這種賭場式的模式就很難改變。

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.