Failing Founders
hello Neighbors. Welcome to the Economic Empowerment Edition of Spread Love fm. Sponsored by the Freedom Market Dodge Shop. My name is Trevor Femm. I am the host and artist and an entrepreneur that founded the Indie mobile luggage storage Company, Free Your Homes, and I have spent the last two years spreading a message of economic justice on the streets of my hometown, Brooklyn, New York City.
In this episode, I wanna talk about how our big tech founders have failed us in the fight for economic. And closing the wealth gap and how we can't stop this from continuing to happen. Enjoy the show.
Reason why Spread Love was [00:01:00] Born was so that we can amplify this message of justice or equality or love, but not do it in a way that's talking down or that. Dabbles in hate or that disparages, um, we wanna do it. So we wanna spread the message of love, of empowerment, and without embracing the other side of that coin, which is hate and the vision, what is it that we can't do to work together as a community, and two, help close the wealth gap to help bring economic justice.
The thing that we don't realize, and this is where I'm going to, More into the message that I told when I was in New York, six 30 every day on my, um, at McLaren Park spreading this message with the music. We don't have the music now, but we have the message, which is this message that we are all in this together.
Uh, black, [00:02:00] white, indigenous, uh, Asian, uh, Pacific Islander, uh, Latin. You think of it, you. Uh, we are bonded by a greater thing than, uh, what you look like or your gender or who you love. Uh, the thing that I want to connect with together as a community is that we are bonded together through our struggle in terms of our sustainability, in, in terms of sustaining the planet, environmental, economic, and social justice.
And how do. Spread this message of economic justice. And, um, there's one thing that I would love to touch on specifically today and in this, this message of, um, how are founders and how are the people who consider themselves, [00:03:00] some of them, I would say, considered themselves allies. Social, economic and environmental justice and specifically economic justice.
How is it that they can say that they're here to support us? When they founded, started their companies, that they really started them on a foundation that amplifies and promotes the wealth gap. And what do I mean by that? Basically what you have is a founder who is looking for venture capital, who's cap, you know, he's tapping into this capitalistic system that says that you have to go this certain route.
And it is a narrative that's been amplified over centuries that, that you need to succeed at all [00:04:00] cost, that it's survival of the fit. That greed is good. You tap into this narrative and you now are looking for the best and fastest avenues to achieve and to become a part of this narrative and not realizing that this narrative of what you may see as economic empowerment for you as an individual is economic.
Oppression to the people who are on the margins, not even on the margins, the people who are in the 99% or the middle class, or however you wanna define it, that you making a deal with a venture capitalist when you sign your term sheet, that you are now signing over your wealth, that you are now saying that when we, if we.[00:05:00]
A million, billion, whatever dollars it is that that money all funnels up to the shareholders, to the 1% to Wall Street, and. I want to talk about why is it that this continues and this recycles and this happens over and over and over again. And then when these founders, and again, we wanna keep this message, I don't wanna disparage anybody.
I'm saying this because these founders who may be well intended, may simply not be aware of the harm and the damage that they. in terms of increasing the wealth gap. These founders who go into this with this one narrative that they need to fulfill of keeping up with the billionaire Joneses, how is it that they have no, there's no accountability for the fact that when they sign these term sheets that [00:06:00] they are signing over the power that they have to.
Have more wealth equality to have a more evenly distributed economic, uh, a dis distribution of wealth. How is it that nobody's holding them accountable? We hold the, the, these companies accountable, the s the, the, the Twitters, the apples, the Googles, the whatever. We are very. It is very easy for us to hold them accountable once they make their billions, and I could see why, because now we know who they are as opposed to when they are.
The idea is being born in a garage or uh, in a coffee shop that these ideas, which are great ideas, that we do not educate these aspiring [00:07:00] founders. The power is in your hands to say that if I am finding founding Airbnb b or I am founding, um, Spotify, or where I am founding Google, you name it, you name the unicorn that they are not made aware of the fact that.
By signing, signing a term sheet, us saying that I am looking out for myself and my shareholders, and I am okay with amplifying and with perpetuating the economic injustice. That will become a result that I will be a part of this narrative, that I am happy to be a part of this narrative. And why are we not educating our founders that there.
If you wanna fight and if you, uh, after you become a billion dollar company, uh, kind of, um, standing up for, for fighting for justice and for environmental justice and you donate a per a [00:08:00] portion of your revenue to X cause and B cause and when that really doesn't have an effect, not the type of effect that you can have.
If as a founder you said, In this term sheet, if you want my great idea that is Airbnb, or if you want my great idea that is Google, that here are the terms and that the founders who get a lion share, and we know you're taking risk. But guess what, As a founder, it's your idea. It's your, uh, intellectual property that you haven't been taught a narrative not to be.
So readily open to buying into this narrative that we are gonna sacrifice justice for wealth, and that's what it is. We need to make it clear that you are basically signing over economic justice that you will now, [00:09:00] if you could look ahead in 10 years or five years, or Airbnb, you know, look ahead to, I dunno why I keep bringing up Airbnb, but.
Well, you could say that, see yourself five years later when we have a billion dollars that, Oh, now I'm gonna do the right thing. And it's not to blame them because I didn't notice when I, when I founded my company, I didn't know the damage that could be done. But I did have a moral compass. I said, I do not wanna work with.
Big venture capital, You plug in the name right here. I I, that's always been kind of my moral compass. Not to work with the people who are in it, just for the money, but there are people who they wanna sustain and they wanna buy into that narrative. But if we can educate them and let them know that this is a choice that you are making, and then if they go ahead and make the choice anyway, at least they were made.
Of they were enlightened. [00:10:00] The thing is, if you make that decision and you are okay with it, that's one thing. But if you weren't made, were not made aware of that, and you went into this buying, into this narrative that's been taught for hundreds of years that you need to filter. Channel your wealth up and that it will trickle down to the masses, which is basically the narrative that's being told.
And if you are educated on the fact that this narrative is being told, because if we were to fo, if we were to say that keeping the money in the community is. Up to you. If we were to enlighten or we were to, um, share the knowledge that this is where the rubber meets the road. [00:11:00] Once you sign this document that you have relinquished control, you can't really take a step back.
You can't put the genie back in the bottle. You know, years later when you see that this is doing so much damage that you cannot say later on that I can now tell my shareholders after you gave me a million dollars at a. Billion dollar valuation that, Oh, now we need to redistribute wealth to the community.
You can't, It's too late. Who's making that argument? Who's telling the community who, who's going into colleges? And I don't. Maybe they are. Maybe there's a course on business ethics that says this and, but I don't hear it and I think we need to make it. I think it is kind of the inflection point where, Decisions are being made on a regular basis.
Basically at every VC firm, every founder is thinking about how do I make it and not being taught that what [00:12:00] damage is being done if I accept these terms and what's an alternative? I understand it's tough and rough alternative that you can turn down a million dollar, um, round when you. You know, you wanna launch this business because you wanted to sustain you.
You needed to sustain you. But here's my, my argument against that. If you buy, if you buy into this, keeping up with the Jones' narrative, right? If you buy into this, I need to grow, you know, at X times my valuation, quarter after quarter. If you keep buying into these things, The battle is probably already lost once you get that term sheet.
But if we accept that this is the place where the worst damage is done, when it comes to the wealth disparity that we have, if you [00:13:00] agree with the fact that it is this moment in the life span of a, of a enterprise. Of a company, of a startup, that this is the moment where a founder makes this decision that I am going to sh channel any wealth that I create, that I generate to the 1% instead of to the masses.
If we agree with that, then we can say, Okay, let's work back from there. What causes a founder? to say that I am okay with that decision. Where is this narrative being taught and why? Where is this narrative being taught to us on social media? Where is this being taught in schools? Where is this being taught in your neighborhoods, in the communities, in the churches?
If you agree, if [00:14:00] you are here to fight against wealth disparity, That we, the 1%, the, the, the rich getting richer, the middle class shrinking. Um, if you believe in equal wages, the people who are working, the fact that somebody that's making 20,000 an hour is a goal. , if the wealth was more evenly distributed, you know, maybe it'll be a hundred thousand hour and that'll be the new normal.
The, the wealthy fights so hard against. Penny increase, like this is the debate. This is the field. This is where we are having this argument as opposed to the, in a much higher a hundred, $200 an hour range, which is, you know, which you look at the people who are working the executive branches of many companies.
When you have the workers who are doing more, if you believe that this is wrong and you can't trace that back to when a founder [00:15:00] decides. Sign a term sheet or, or whatever you want to call it, that says that when we blow up that the money's gonna go to the top and let them figure out how to trickle it down to share it amongst us, The little people that if you believe that, then you could look back and say, Okay, how, where does this narrative start?
Where do we start to talk about, um, tell our kids that you need to keep up? That kid over there cuz he's making it or this archetype cuz he's, he's gonna get funded and if you follow this archetype that looks like me, he's not gonna get funded. Where are we teaching these narratives? So if I come into this with the knowledge that no, I know why this narrative exists and we're go into that in another episode, uh, but I'll touch on it a little bit now, a narrative that's exists because it allows us to scapegoat.
The masses and not point and [00:16:00] hold the people accountable who are in the top percentages of income. You know, 1% of the country has as more wealth than the bottom half of the country is like insane. Is that insane? Yes, it is. Um, and why are we fighting amongst each other as opposed to holding them accountable?
So we have to think about why is that? Why is that narrative continue, and how do we continue that narrative? And that narrative continues because they tell people like me and you that we have to strive and aspire to be like those who are doing the damage. Once we start to shift that narrative, and you'll have a term sheet that's placed in front of you.
It says that, Oh yeah, we'll help you join our club if. Give the majority of your wealth to us. If you are not taught the counter narrative, which is that me doing this, there's another option. Is a [00:17:00] tougher road. But if you are going to stay there and after you make your billion say, Oh, I believe in social and economic and environmental justice, let's stick with the economic justice.
If I'm gonna say, Oh yeah, I would love to see the wealth gap close, and you have more money than you could spend in several lifetimes, and you, um, You'll continue to pass down this wealth and continue to perpetuate this wealth gap. If you are a person that's going to be there and claiming that you are for what's right and closing the wealth gap, then let's embrace this new narrative.
Let's start to. People in our community, people who are outside our community, people in the colleges, uh, people who are coming up with the great ideas and the great inventions. Let's let them know that there is another option. If material, then we are not talking about end ending capitalism or socialism.
And I wanna stay away [00:18:00] from actually these words. I just wanna talk about common sense. If you a person that believes that. Or can be shown the counter narrative that this decision, when you have a term sheet placed in front of you by a vc, a venture capital firm telling you that we'll take all your money and give you a lot of it as well.
If you allow us to take your idea if you.
See the counter narrative that might empower, if not a majority, maybe if a couple, a few people and starts with one or two founders who say, Yeah, wow, I see the damage I'm doing by signing. I see the damage that's done by signing this term sheet. I see the damage that's done by. Uh, lying with somebody who's already in the 1% and no, I'm not gonna do it.
I have this great idea that is Airbnb. I keep using them cuz it's a example. I think we all know. I [00:19:00] have this idea called Airbnb and man, I know that the money that you are offering me in the millions will really help me get there faster. But I've been taught that why do I need to get there faster when I just wanna sustain and.
The community with staying in a home and not spending more money in a another corporation that, uh, that's run by billionaires. Um, if I am okay with foregoing becoming a billionaire, and I am okay with empowering the community with that same idea, that might be more valuable if we taught it, but who's teaching it?
And I'm gonna wrap this up because, um, I want to continue this another time and I really wanna start to dig deeper and, and I, and I want to go more into the narrative that's being taught and the counter narrative the next time. But for now, I want you to think about that. Think about it as a founder, as a person who [00:20:00] has a great idea, why are you buying into the narrative that you have to be a part of the 1% as opposed to a person that has a great idea that can be used that.
To help the community and knowing that the point of no return is after you sign that term sheet. So think about that. So, um, I'm gonna wrap it up. My name is Trevor Femm. This is Spread Love fm. And I wanna, uh, wrap it up with, uh, one, uh, call to action, which is, uh, we want you to comment, we want you to follow, subscribe, and when you do follow.
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