Here's Hoping Next Version of TechVille Will Be Grounded in Business Fundamentals and Professional Decorum

Anointed geniuses such as Elon Musk are looking more and more like clowns.

Has Musk, for example, been too distracted with Twitter and tweeting that he didn’t notice the severe competition from established vehicle players in the EV niche. Ford, for example, has quite the lineup such as the F-150 Lightning. Meanwhile, as Yahoo Finance reports, Tesla short-sellers made $8.2 billion this year betting against genius.

Musk is just the tip of the iceberg in the exploding disenchantment with tech’s supposed wonderkinds. The shift now is to demand concrete data about revenue and profits. Skip the hype about growth. Talk like a “real” business, such as McDonald’s or Goldman Sachs.

Also skip the platitudes about the public good. Was it part of the public good for Meta to snatch back a job as a recruiter a few days before the professional was to start? A lease had been signed. The same thing happened at Twitter. A lease had been signed. And with all the tech layoffs those two will have a tough time finding comparable work. Yes, Meta and Twitter were purpose-driven to make the world a better place.

Clearly the movement right now is this: a return to old-fashioned business fundamentals. Also, it’s about welcoming back leaders and managers who don’t suck up all the oxygen. Remember the centered presence of Bob Iger when he was head of Disney? So impressive. So successful.

I recall with such pain ghostwriting a book on entrepreneurship for one-time tech high-flyer Andrew Bachman. He put himself out there as larger than life and louder. Techli described him as “borderline arrogant and albeit boisterous.” No surprise, he had been honored at the White House. That was baked into the startup game. Entrepreneur as hero of the times. Yes, he created a $50K scholarship for his alma mater Babson.

Soon enough Bachman became entangled with the FTC and had to surrender the usual tech bling like designer cars and watches.

Things got worse. According to an official government announcement, he took a guilty plea in connection with a mobile-cramming fraud. Wiley backed off from publishing that book. The Babson scholarship went poof. (Also, one can imagine a hit to the Babson Brand.)

No, not every high-profile tech founder pushes legal boundaries. But most did push against the boundaries of prudent business practices and professional decorum.

Will the next era of tech entrepreneurship be more quiet? And, data-heavy about financial performance? And, with humility among the players?

Even before the current tech crash, when I sized up a prospective client as “Another Bachman,” I headed out of that force field. The compensation wasn’t worth it.

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.