Less Thiel, More Estés
The Scheme, Vol 1. Ed. 6: Expired playbooks and living mirrors.
Culture is the family of the family. If the family has various sicknesses, then all families within the culture will have to struggle with the same malaises.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
When you step into the tech industry, one book that often gets pushed at you is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. It was the bible of startup culture for over a decade. As we sit today, with social media companies on trial in LA, it has not aged well. But it’s still held up as the bible. I would wonder why that is, but I already shared the answer a few weeks ago.
When I first formed Pyramid and talked to a few people about my vision, the most common statement I received was that I was “too ambitious.” When I started fundraising, it was recommended to me that I read Zero to One. I was encouraged to essentially emotionally manipulate investors to give me their money by creating scarcity, limited opportunity, and FOMO—all considered best practices in fundraising(!) while we simultaneously watched the destruction of the minds of millions of children become warped by their investments.
Naturally, it sent me back to the drawing board. And then something happened when I was resetting my pathway. I went through menopause. Not perimenopause, but the full year of menopause. I was 47. That made me early to menopause and late to start-up culture—an intersection no one talks about.
There is a liberation that comes with menopause. In many ways, I felt like I fell off a cliff. Unexpected, unready. I went back to Women Who Run With the Wolves. I thought a lot about what I desired for the next phase of life. I thought about how much freer I feel in who I am and what I know about the world. I thought about the sickness in every corner of the tech industry and most of our society, mostly predicated on a philosophy of 0 to 1. And I thought about Estés.
I found in Estés what Theil couldn’t offer—a mirror rather than a playbook. Where Thiel encourages you to build through force, competition, and will, Estés invites you to intuition, instincts, cycles, and imagination. There’s a reason her book is more relevant 30 years on, and Thiel is a character on South Park.
Pyramid, is a mirror. It’s the tool that will give you the structure your instincts always deserved, but never had. I’ve spent a year learning how to build it on my own before going back out to finish the fundraising. That has been the gift. (If you’re interested in Beta Testing it [or investing!], email me as we’re going to start this spring!) It is the tool to guide you in your practices, your path. It is the container for a new culture. As Estés said, culture is the family of the family. The tech we’ve used is fundamentally sick, and we’ve all struggled with its malaise. Pyramid is my commitment to build something healthy enough to pass on.
BOOK CLUB RETURNS!
In March, we will meet via Zoom to discuss our first book: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth. I’ve started this! It’s dense but super thought-provoking. If you like Wendell Berry, this is your jam. The Atlantic referred to it as “cranky,” so naturally I’m intrigued.
Location: Zoom
Date: Thursday, March 19th, 12 pm-1 pm ET - on the cusp of the Spring Equinox
RSVP: This is a free event; please email me to register. I will send out the Zoom link the week of the event.