Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, June 23, 2025
by Neil Senturia
Calling all founders. All aboard.
I think about entrepreneurship a lot. Where and how and why. And the beginning.
(“Watch out for the first step. It’s a doozy.” — Ned Ryerson, “Ground Hog Day.”)
Amir Goldberg, a Stanford professor, wrote an article titled “All Aboard! The AI-Data Train is Leaving the Station.” He says the train is leaving the station — “the problem is, there are many trains — and some are going off the cliff.”
I would like to take a slight exception with that idea. My bride Ms. Bry and I started our little AI company with the following image in mind. You are standing on the train platform, not even sure you have a ticket, and then you hear the whistle. It is exciting. Then a transformational technology train pulls in and perhaps impulsively, without thinking too much, you just have to get on that train.
What I believe is that there are not an unlimited number of trains. Even more unsettling, you have no idea if or when another one will show up. You can’t know where it is going (there is no schedule), you can’t know if you can get a seat, you don’t know if it has a dining car — but regardless, you have to get on that train.
There are moments that matter. (“I only saw her for one second, but I’ll bet a month hasn’t gone by since that I haven’t thought of that girl.” — Bernstein in “Citizen Kane.”)
There are not an unlimited number of shots on goal.
You know that first mover nonsense that you tell an investor — maybe there is some truth there. Take the leap. It is exactly that entrepreneurial spirit that is required. And in the end, you can always get off — while it is moving, unfortunately.
(“I can’t swim … The fall will probably kill you.” — “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”)
I just finished watching “Mountainhead,” on HBO/Max. The film is ostensibly a dark satire about four billionaires holed up in a $22 million ski chalet in Park City, Utah, who waste 90 minutes of your time, using geek-speak and inside lingo, arguing about money, power, change the world, AI, fake videos destined to destroy the world, and the only way to avoid the apocalypse is to murder one of the four, who has the secret software antidote. They refer to murder as “disrupting the blood.”
Stop the madness. I am fed up, disgusted, bored and generally ready to fully dismiss “tech bros” and all the arrogance, coded words, secret handshakes and private clubs that go with them.
The darkness I see in the film is that while we snicker at the bros, secretly we all want in on the deal. Easy to self-deprecate at 11,000 feet with nine bedrooms.
Recently, I listened to a confab of successful tech entrepreneurs (of the 180 people on the Zoom, maybe 12 were women), and it was an out-of-body experience. More than half were under 35 (as you well know my first number is a 7), and I think they must have misread my application.
The room exuded certainty. No hesitation.
These organizations masquerade as a collaborative sharing society, when in fact they are a closed loop, vibe-coded group that appear to live in a world disconnected from the reality most of us experience, hyper-focused on getting to the B-money.
Starting a new company was considered about as randomly as deciding whether to go for Chinese or Thai for dinner. Of course, there were also a raft of advisers, mentors, coaches who want to get paid for assisting in navigating the choppy waters of incubation.
One fellow suggested that AI will soon allow for a one-person unicorn.
What I think is lacking in the current tech ecosystem is empathy, a basic grasp of the human condition, which cannot easily be turned into an algorithm or an app.
Palena Neale, a Paris based leadership coach, reports that “55% of CEOs think they lead with empathy at work, but only 28% of employees share that view.”
Does that surprise you?
Her rules for empathy are simple. Listen. Be other-focused. Consider multiple views. Promote discussion. Connect, care, support. Validate, explore. There is another person in the room.
So the real question is this: If it is so simple, why is it so hard?
Rule No. 795: Look in the mirror.