The Ethics of Venture Capital Investors. With Johannes Lenhard

Response-ability.Tech

Our guest today is Dr Johannes Lenhard. Johannes received his PhD in Anthropology at Cambridge University and in 2017 started a post-doctoral research project, at the Max Planck Centre Cambridge for the Study of Ethics, the Economy and Social Change, on the ethics of venture capital investors.
Johannes spoke at the 2021 Response-ability Summit.
He shares what drew him to studying venture capitalists and how he does ethnography in this very closed, elite world across various field sites including Silicon Valley and London. Johannes explains that "not a single book" has been written about venture capitalists by someone who isn't one. As he says, "only an engaged anthropology" can enable someone to be both insider and outsider in this rarefied world.
Johannes explains the impact of the lack of diversity in venture capital since not only are VC's hiring people who look like them (white, male) but they "also reproduce themselves into who runs these tech companies". The issue of venture funding is explored by Johannes and Erika Brodnock in their book, Better Venture, which will be published later in 2021.
Johannes also briefly discusses Environmental Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) metrics which are starting to affect VC’s and the “aggregate confusion” identified by an MIT paper.
Johannes believes more scrutiny into venture capital investors is needed, saying "they are the ones deciding the big tech companies in the next 10-15 years....scrutinizing them now has an impact on everything in the future. They are the kingmakers, and we've been solely focussing on the kings, the Mark Zuckerbergs and the Jeff Bezos of this world".
Scrutiny, he explains, will benefit both society and the VC's themselves.
Drawing on his Medium post, "The Ultimate Primer on Venture Capital and Silicon Valley", Johannes shares his top reading picks for anyone eager to learn more: Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy by William Janeway; The Code by Margaret O’Mara; VC: An American History by Tom Nicholas; and a paper, "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?".
And lastly, Johannes explains why more academics "of any kind" are needed to study the world of venture capital investors.
You can follow Johannes on Twitter at @JFLenhard and connect with him on LinkedIn.
Academics and articles also mentioned in our conversation:

• Saskia Sassen
• James Laidlaw
• Johannes Lenhard, Can Tech Ever Be Good? Public Books, September 2020.