Description: Venture capital (VC) embodies powerful fictions about the nature of capitalism, technological progress and the state. VC is a particular formation of financial, technological and ideological power that remains under-theorized in political economy, communication studies and critical theories of technology. I hold that it is the hegemonic fraction of capitalist power due to its popularization of specific techno-fantasies. Global corporate behemoths like Google, Meta and Nvidia serve as tales of VC backed abundance. The likes of Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen cultivate the mystique of single-minded iconoclasts who have stared into ‘the abyss of death’ and emerged as ‘dragon slayers’.

This presentation will outline a broad theory of VC power from private networks of finance, a media eco-system and an unbounded geography of techno-experimentation. At the heart of VC power are the financial and ideological imperatives of exit. The logics of growth, scale and monopoly are premised upon venture capitalists exiting from an equity stake. Ideologically exit fuels performative contrarianism, an arbitraging of the public trust and fantasies of ‘Network States’ and freedom cities. Social networks and culture war are essential to the valorization of VC networks. a16z is exemplary having described itself as “a media company that monetizes via investing” while championing technologies such as web3 that seek to make users venture capitalists in miniature. The VC philosopher or influencer emerges through this convergence of social networks and financialization to dictate future social necessity.

Speaker Bio: Olivier Jutel is a lecturer in Media, Film, and Communication at University of Otago. His work is centred on the geopolitics of digital media and emerging technologies. In his first post at the University of the South Pacific he saw the importance of the developing world to American narratives of network freedom and NGO experiments in fintech. Emerging technologies continue to be dominated by colonial logics of abundance and the venture capitalist dream of 'blue oceans'. Olivier's work has looked at blockchain in the developing world as an extension of American techno-colonialism. This has included the rise of Pacific blockchain imperalism, crypto-colonialism in West Africa or the platform imperialism of American policy settings in Aotearoa / New Zealand. More recently he has written about the Network State movement of venture and crypto nomads, which Gizmodo has dubbed the "Worst New Trend of 2024".

Please RSVP to g.c.mueller@uva.nl