Image - the speaker and her book cover
Past Event

Catherine Bracy: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

In researching her new book World Eaters, Catherine Bracy interviewed founders, fund managers, contract and temp workers in the gig economy, and limited partners across the landscape. She says she learned that the current VC model is not a good fit for the majority of start-ups—and yet, there are too few options for early stage funding outside of VC dollars. While there are some alternative paths for sustainable, responsible growth, without the help of regulators, there is not much motivation to drive investors from the roulette table that is venture capital.

Join us as Bracy takes our stage and offers her urgent and illuminating perspective into how the most pernicious aspects of the venture capital ethos reaches all areas of our lives, into everything from health care to food to entertainment to the labor market, and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Certain to be controversial, Bracy’s tale is an eye-opening account of the ways that the values of contemporary venture capital hurt founders, consumers, and the market.

Notes

Photo by Anya McInroy.

April 14, 2025

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California
110 The Embarcadero
Taube Family Auditorium
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States

Speakers
Image - Catherine Bracy

Catherine Bracy

Founder and CEO, TechEquity; Author, World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

Image - Kate Conger

In Conversation with Kate Conger

Technology Reporter, The New York Times