Fixing the Future

The Current System of Funding the Future is Broken and Corrupt and It Needs Changing

There’s a problem in America.  It lies in how we fund our future.   We’ve turned our future over to a few excessively greedy and unenlightened individuals and corporations, none of whom appear to have ever heard of this, single indispensable piece of wisdom: “the secret in life is to not be too greedy”, but even if they had, they’d sneer and scoff at it.
Here are some of the results or symptoms of that problem:
The excesses of unrestrained capitalism – One example, for instance, is that of the venture capitalists who take enormous risks with “other people’s money”, and, in particular, the trend in the VC industry in recent years where they are now taking those types of risks with non-accredited money (i.e., in the form of the Fidelity’s and Schwab’s of the world who invest in the Uber’s and Lyft’s at the much later-stage stratospheric valuation levels on behalf of their non-accredited institutional (i.e., read here “mutual fund” clients).  And, to add insult to injury, this is occurring at the same time the law prohibits these same non-accrediteds from taking that risk on their own by investing directly into the startup companies at a much earlier, much lower, valuation stage.  And, this is only one such example; the newspapers, magazines, TV and radio broadcasters, online blogs and newsletters are replete with many more such examples.  
The great divide between the “elites” and the rest of the U.S. societyIt is commonly conceded that both the traditional “mainstream” Democratic Party and the traditional “mainstream” Republican Party have abandoned the vast majority of those folks living in the U.S.  Estimates have put that abandonment at a 99% level for the Republican Party (i.e., it is argued that the representatives in Congress live to serve the top 1%), while the same estimates put abandonment by the Democratic Party at 90% (i.e., they live to serve the top 10%, the so-called “elites” and they’ve abandoned everyone else).  The fact that you’ve seen fringe elements on both the right and the left emerge as potent competitors for the nation’s attention (and possibly, control) is a constant reminder of this fact.
The coming “unemployment epidemic”  What are all those people in this country to do when human labor is reduced in value to just above “zero” and only the most destitute and deprived country’s workers are able to compete in the global marketplace?  All those people in this country need something to do, and the next “fun” electronic gadget, app or “cool” website-based business, won’t fill the bill.
So, what’s the answer? Let’s explore that; here are some things to think about:
  1. America’s greatness in the past stemmed from one place: its ability to innovate. And its ability to innovate was dependent on one type of person: the independent inventor.  All the true innovators, all the great inventors of the past, started out as independent inventors.
  2. True innovation (new inventions, not startups) is the only real hope for any kind of future for the U.S. and its larger economy, i.e., the millions and millions of people who will otherwise be unemployed when AI finally kicks in bigtime (and this includes code writers and software architects as well).  That is, if the U.S. has any future at all.
  3. Startups are simply not the solution; too many fail and those that don’t, and finally make it to the bigtime (with very few exceptions) get acquired and their engineers are redeployed in the acquirer’s business elsewhere. In fact, there’s even a new phrase in the law’s M&A lexicon for this development; it’s called “acquir-hire”.  The value of the business is determined by how many quality engineers the target business employs in crucial roles and how much each one is worth; the purchase price for the business is then computed on that basis.  Everyone else gets fired.  Any millennial who loves startups and doesn’t know this simple truth is merely uninformed.
  4. So, this leads us to a foundational principle: if we want to save this country, the way to do it is to encourage more innovation by individuals who might actually have “the right stuff” (i.e., to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe) to become successful independent inventors.
Now, we know from studies and the resulting statistics, two important things:
  1. There are millions and millions of “would-be” inventors in this country
  2. Most never try because of perceived limitations or obstacles, including:
    • No, or not enough, money;
    • No encouragement at home (e.g., a spouse) or among friends and families;
    • Fear of failure;
    • Ignorance and lack of education about the inventing process and how to be successful at it.
So, that leads us to a question:  What can we do about that problem?  How can we encourage more innovation among the American population at large; how can we turn more of these “would-be’s” into “newbies”
The answer is to create a business that ameliorates or eliminates entirely these perceived limitations and obstacles.  Create one that has or does the following:
  1. With a minimal investment on their part, provide these “would- be” inventors with enough money for them to try their hand at the inventing process;
  2. Replace the lack of encouragement they receive at the hands of family and friends, with enthusiasm and clearly-felt support for their undertaking;
  3. Subject them and their inventions to a thorough vetting process by people who live inside the inventing “beltway” and know what they’re doing.  That will ensure these “newbies” that their chances for significant success increases exponentially while the probability of complete failure is reduced to virtually zero;
  4. At the end of the day, make sure that the process you create educates the inventors and makes them wise in ways that, traditionally, only a substantial investment by them in themselves, followed by either the complete failure or significant success of their project, could have provided.
Well, the good news is that there is such a business: it’s called Archimedes’ Offspring™. Taking its name from the famous Greek scientist, mathematician and, most importantly, inventor of antiquity, Archimedes’ Offspring offers the independent inventor (or “would-be” inventor) a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to get the money, assistance and access that traditionally only a few lucky inventors were able to secure and which, in the current climate, is otherwise virtually impossible.
To learn more about this unprecedented opportunity, check out the Archimedes’ Offspring website at www.archimedesoffspring.com.  You’ll be glad (… and so will we!) that you did!
Ray Burrasca is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Archimedes’ Offspring, an unincorporated “umbrella” organization whose mission is to make “reasonable returns investing” affordable for the ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s and, in the process, to reinvent innovation in the America.He can be reached at ray@archimedesoffspring.com or by phone at (720) 535-5219.