Democratizing Innovation

Today I had a great lunch with Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko of the Floodgate Fund and where we had enjoyable discussion about disrupting the space of entrepreneurship. The question was posed as to whether the innovations of the 2000s have sufficiently brought down the costs of development to the point that people, who have normally been excluded from opportunities in technology could now have access. It is a great question....the point was made that a number of people have a head start as a result of their environment that may be difficult to overcome--but technology may help to at least close the gap further. Who is to say the in the future there may not be an Latino founder of a company like Facebook, a woman who starts a Google type company, or and African American who starts the next iteration of Twitter. It is an exciting prospect--the question is how to incubate this kind of creativity among people who are facing every day challenges. One point, is that smart phones have become a leveler--many youth , despite their class, have smart phones now and use mobile applications. It may be that instead of a business to business start up, the first innovations by people who may have been traditionally on the outside will be the application of technology to common problems that they may face. All I know is that I came away excited from the discussion and look forward to more...