Philly Fighting Covid Scandal: How the Vaccine Distribution Partnership Failed - Bloomberg Seems like a lot of attitude akin to what ET sees. Overconfident "it is easy" thinking, trashing anything established before understanding and then blame when it is "too hard".
This is just start up culture. This Bloomberg article paints this like a new and especially evil development but this is the model Silicon Valley is built on. Promise to save the world, deliver almost nothing.
It really depends upon the principles. It seems the principle in this case was a poser. A poser just saying the words. Startups I have seen personally delivering: SONUS , MSFT Azure, ADBE digital publishing, Windows 1.0 desktop, Phoenix BIOS. Waiting for this one to deliver: Home - Lensvector. Not so sure...
That's an unfair statement to the thousands of startups being created in the Silicon Valley and elsewhere in America that are doing their best to be something, first of which is a valid business. It's not easy. Certainly there are lots of individuals like this guy who think confidence and smart talk is all it takes to be successful. That says more about American culture than startup culture. It says more about general gullable mediocrity in government and private enterprises who entrust people like that guy with serious responsibilities despite no experience. It demonstrates how education and experience is so devalued in America while media savvy fluffers gain all the attention.
I work in the industry. I can assure you that every single Silicon Valley startup I've consulted for follows that plan. You sell a dream to VCs, you implement just the easy parts, then you dump on people. When they complain, you patch some stuff (just enough to get more funding). Rinse, repeat until you get acquired or fail. I'm just happy to take my vig off the industry while the gettin's good. Startup CEOs are on average sociopaths. I can assure you the highest skill grifters are not in America. Ukraine, China, and India come to mind.
Sounds like there's some adverse selection involved in the startups that choose you to consult for them, curious what your consulting field is? I've started two companies, the first definitely in and of the Valley and the second a spinoff from the first. The first is still around doing what they first set out to do 12 years later, and the second is coming up on 7 years of success. I personally know dozens of similar Silicon Valley startups both large and small that have built good products or services that have stood the test of time that you haven't heard of and of course there is pretty much every big tech company that exists out there which was once a startup. Fake it till you make it is definitely a thing, and there are the Elizabeth Holmes of the world who don't get the limits on the "fake it" part, but overall it's a model that is responsible for a good portion of our GDP so while not perfect it's better than any alternatives.