Startup founders in Silicon Valley are often motivated by an almost religious idealism: young tech workers, looking to move fast and break things, want to use technology to make the world a better place. But 2022 has brought about a reckoning: the business models of once-star firms, such as Uber and Meta, are under threat; the allure of the dishevelled whizz-kid has been undermined by the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried; and the expense of Palo Alto has pushed plucky startups out. The Bay Area has often been populated by liberals, but many of tech’s heroes, like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen, have shifted to the right. 

On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Soumaya Keynes and Alice Fulwood ask whether Silicon Valley has lost its religion. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the University of Washington, reveals the Valley’s past. And Adrian Daub, the author of “What Tech Calls Thinking”, tells us that the secret of the successful founder is to bamboozle regulators while they make a bit more money.

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