Outlining startup culture as a global form
: Koskinen Henri
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
: 2023
: Journal of Cultural Economy
: JOURNAL OF CULTURAL ECONOMY
: J CULT ECON-UK
: 17
: 1753-0350
: 1753-0369
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2023.2216215
: https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2023.2216215
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/180387493
Startup entrepreneurship, understood as innovative venture creation and development, has gained a strong momentum under current capitalism, and startup cultures are being developed all over the globe. In this article, I examine startup culture as a global form and investigate the relationship between Silicon Valley - often seen as the cradle of current technology and startup entrepreneurship - and local manifestations of startup culture. I argue that Silicon Valley is an ambivalent, emblematic schema for the global construction of startup cultures. Therefore, I draw attention to the shared features of startup cultures by conceptualizing the notion in a threefold manner. Firstly, I conceive startup culture as a form of governance, which I dub startup entrepreneurialism. Secondly, I discuss startup culture as the cultural circuit of digital capitalism. Thirdly, I explore startup culture as a distinct form of economic activity that is characterized by a symbiosis between venture capital and growth companies. Drawing together, I find that startup cultures are best understood as an instantiation of a privileged form of contemporary capitalist production.