> The difference between the ancient way of working a lifetime for a salary, perks and a gold watch on retirement and the new one of building a breakout company in tech lies in a wholly changed business environment by which super-talented founders with a business sense can draw on a depth of knowledge/expertise (typically gained from work experience in a demanding tech environment) to conceive of a solid business model to profitably disrupt existing enterprises and thereafter apply grit, good sense, unbelievable perseverance, and basic street smarts to execute on that model via a startup world that affords amazing access to capital, an ultra-connected network of technically savvy persons with whom one can potentially ally, and a huge reservoir of resources by which founders can educate themselves to learn, grow, and develop.
The length and structure of this sentence obfuscates its meaning.
After several minutes I was able to read it in full... and lots of reading and back-tracing.
He says our business model is "wholly-changed" and now founders need to be super-talented and a long list of other things in order to succeed in the modern world.
I would argue that founders have always needed incredible smarts and a good product/market fit to succeed. I don't think anyone would claim that the "titans" of industry (think Rockefeller, John Jacob Astor) didn't have street smarts, grit, and perseverance.
> affords amazing access to capital, an ultra-connected network of technically savvy persons with whom one can potentially ally, and a huge reservoir of resources by which founders can educate themselves to learn, grow, and develop
For sure, there's more resources (cheaply) available than ever before.
IMO, this should all add up to make it easier to start a business and succeed. Maybe that's what he wanted to say.
The length and structure of this sentence obfuscates its meaning.