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By Bretton L - November 27, 2024 The interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Bear Cave is a widely-read newsletter and business created by Edwin Dorsey, dedicated to uncovering unethical practices within major companies. By shining a light on corporate misconduct, it not only informs the public but also creates opportunities for short sellers. So, what exactly is short selling? It’s when an investor borrows shares of a stock and sells the shares, betting that its value will decrease. If the price falls, the investor buys back the shares at a lower cost, profiting the difference. I had the privilege of interviewing Edwin Dorsey—a trailblazer whose investigations can shift market trends. His work not only challenges powerful corporations but also holds them accountable for unethical practices, establishing himself as a powerful voice in the world of finance. Background Prior to founding the Bear Cave, Dorsey attended college in Stanford. During that time, he interned for various hedge funds. His main internship that gave him a lot of experience doing investigative work in companies was in a short selling company, Sophos Capital Management, interning on and off all 4 years of college. Q: What was your motivation for starting the Bear Cave? A: “My plan was when I graduated I was going to work for them [Sophos] but they were in the process of shutting down when I was graduating so I needed to find a job. So the main reason I started the Bear Cave in February of 2020 my senior year of college was to get attention and hopefully get hired. The thing is the newsletter became really big really fast during the pandemic. Looking back at it, February 2020 was literally the best time in history to launch an email newsletter so I got very lucky with the timing.” Q: What is the Bear Cave’s mission? A: “The Bear Cave is focused on exposing corporate misconduct and actively going and trying to figure out what is going on in the world. The mission today is exposing bad companies and showing people how they can do the same type of research themselves.” Q: How do you find companies to research and how do you research them? A: “Anywhere and everywhere. I’ll find companies that interest me; my friends will come with stories of bad experiences with companies. I also track a lot of litigations, press releases, and lawsuits. I’m addicted to Twitter, so oftentimes I'll see somebody tweet something and I’ll want to start poking around. I track a lot of board members that I think have bad histories where if they have been involved in a lot of failed projects, I think future projects are more likely to fail. Sometimes readers will reach out to me and recommend companies that I should look at. Sometimes I’ll try to find themes like winners and losers because of AI. Once a company gets on my radar, the thing I’m uniquely good at is I use the Freedom of Information Act to go to state regulators to get consumer complaints people file against businesses." The Freedom of Information Act is a set of laws that allows any citizen to go to government agencies and request records from the agencies, specifically for Dorsey, consumer complaints about businesses. Success and Growth Dorsey states, “When I started the Bear Cave, I thought it would be a niche publication.” Today, over 70,000 people including students, investors, and law firms read the Bear Cave. Dorsey never marketed out the newsletter. Its growth entirely stemmed from word of mouth and the newsletter being spread online. However, his journey was not always the easiest. As someone who is constantly criticizing people in power, Dorsey is surprised he still has not been sued. Nonetheless, he has received cease and desist letters from companies and a private investigator has even showed up at his parents house before. Sticking to the facts and showing the evidence of what he reports on, Edwin Dorsey helps maintain the integrity of what he is reporting on. Although many of his readers are short sellers and Dorsey has a proven track record of successfully exposing companies with bad practices, he never shorts the companies he reports on. This helps him add a level of integrity to what he does. Q: What is the most successful breakthrough you have reported on? A: “When I was a college student, I started criticizing this babysitting company called Care.com , a platform where parents could find safe and trusted babysitters for their children. By signing up as Harvey Weinstein, I was able to prove they aren’t doing background checks they claim to be doing. I reached out to dozens of journalists and the Wall Street Journal ultimately had a front page story about how Care.com babysitters with criminal histories were hired through the platform and led to the killing of 8 children. My work caused the Care.com stock to collapse, the company was acquired by another company, and the management was replaced. That was the first major breakthrough that I think really changed the trajectory of my career. Along with the larger following I received, it gave me the credibility where people trusted what I reported.” Q: How do you envision the Bear Cave growing in the future? A: “The thing about newsletters is scale. It's the same amount of work whether 10 people or 10 million people read it. By consistently reporting quality content, It will naturally grow. Once I have a big audience, the main way for the Bear Cave to grow is for me to continue going on podcasts so more people can learn what I do and what the Bear Cave is.” Advice Q: Do you have any general advice for other young people who are looking to become entrepreneurs or looking to start their own business? A: ”You could always start small. Once you start taking the first step, everything becomes easier. Being willing to not just go to seminars but to send a cold email to a person you admire, to reach out and introduce yourself, just go one step further than expected, that will make all the difference in life.” Edwin Dorsey took the first step that transformed his journey from searching for a job after college to founding his own newsletter business that is read by tens of thousands of people. Through determination and perseverance, he turned his passion into a powerful platform exposing companies with bad practices.

By Bretton L - November 9, 2024 Previously, we posted an article discussing the GenAI in the Valley event, hosted by Valley 101. Following the event, we had the opportunity of interviewing Qian Chen, one of the co-founders of Valley 101. We learned about her perspective of hosting the event and her successful entrepreneurial journey from being a television anchor to becoming a co-founder! First, we asked Ms. Chen questions pertaining to hosting the GenAI conference which drew such large interest. Q:  What were your main goals you wanted to accomplish at the event? A: “Previously, I generated a large audience of listeners through Youtube and my podcast, but I had no opportunity to have a face to face event to inform people about Valley 101. My first goal was to bring people together and have my Youtubes’ and podcasts’ audiences gather together at the GenAI conference. With there being so many events about AI in Silicon Valley, I wanted to do something different aside from generic events interviewing people about coding. My second goal was to have a media perspective about AI, inviting multimedia elements to the event, and understanding how storytelling would add a new perspective to GenAI. You could see this in how we had diverse conversations about AI in different topics including jewelry, music, and education.” Q: How did you market out the event to ensure high attendance? A: “With our platforms already having 3 million subscribers, we mainly promoted the event through our Youtube channel as well as the podcasts. Across 10 different channels, we told our viewers and listeners about the event and encouraged them to attend the GenAI conference on October 19th. In addition, we have third party collaborations and partnerships with different organizations and businesses. We offered discounts to partners to promote the event.” Q: How did you reach out to the different speakers? Were they people you already knew? A: “Most of the speakers we invited were already close with us or we already knew through mutual connections. This is one of the advantages of being a media company as many of our speakers we previously interviewed were easy to reach out to. Some speakers also helped introduce us to other guests for speakers depending on the different topics.” Q: What was the most challenging part about the whole process of setting up the event? A: “Since this was the first time we ever hosted a big event, managing the process was the most difficult part of the process. The details were extremely important throughout the entire planning, preparing things including what venue to book and how to broadcast the event and record it. Simultaneously having to manage so many different aspects of hosting the event made it challenging. We thought we had everything ready but there are always last minute changes which affect the original plans. One of our key speakers canceled the day before, causing us to have to adjust our events’ agenda, redesign the questions, and replace the speaker with another one.” Q: Would you consider the GenAI conference a success? A: “Yes I would give the conference’s success a 9/10 since although this was the first time we hosted an event, it went really smoothly.” Excited to learn more about Ms. Chen’s background and her successful career path, we shifted over to questions about Ms. Chen’s career from working in broadcast journalism to becoming an entrepreneur. Q: What is your background prior to founding Valley 101? A: “Prior to founding Valley 101, I had a career in television. I studied broadcast journalism at Syracuse. After graduating from college, I worked in Wall Street for 2 years in the New York Stock Exchange as a reporter for public markets. After 2 years, I became a bilingual reporter in Singapore for CNBC, where I reported 2-3 minute time segments on air. However, I wanted to broaden my professional career from cable news to the more modern internet media. I quit my job as a reporter and went to Stanford for my master in data journalism where I met my co-founder. Together we joined forces in 2022 and built Valley 101 from there.” Q: What is Valley 101’s mission? A: “There has always been a cultural gap in Mandarin content and we wanted to create shorter videos around 30 minutes or shorter with different types of content. Nobody was making well-designed content about tech and finance so we wanted to reach the Asian American audience who wanted to learn more about certain topics and have more segments. We wanted to produce content to fill the language gap while still entertaining our followers.” Q: What inspired you to co-found Valley 101? A: “I always wanted to produce good content, and being an anchor limited my creativity. I also hosted another segment called “Asia Market Minute” where we had 1 minute segments talking about Asian markets, which didn’t let us talk about much in detail. I wanted more in depth investigative journalism, getting into the details about core parts of businesses. Once I moved to Silicon Valley, I learned more about research and development of tech and wanted to build a bridge between cutting edge technology and the public. Co-founding Valley 101, we were able to find a fun, easy, and understandable way for the general public to know more about advancements in technology and industrial developments while having our own unique creative approach.” Q: What is the most valuable piece of information you have learned throughout your career? A: “Do something you like and are good at. For a long time I knew I wanted to do videos and decided to focus on visualization and data-driven storytelling. Stay consistent with what you want to focus on. Valley 101 was able to grow fast because of our good team but also because we understood our advantages compared to other competitors and media creators.” Q: What advice do you have to students aspiring to become future entrepreneurs or business leaders? A: “Specifically to students in Silicon Valley, the youth are often encouraged to try to start their own companies. There is a large failure rate in entrepreneurship, but the strongest who survive are those who are most talented in their field. Make sure to use your special strengths and insights on the future of an industry because it will give you a significant advantage over others. Have a passion for what you do because if you don’t enjoy the business you run or its mission, you won’t have the motivation.” The interview with Ms. Chen offered our team valuable insights into the entrepreneurial mindset required for hosting events and navigating career challenges. Her advice to others was very inspiring, showing how entrepreneurs need to be ahead of their competitors and enjoy what they are doing to find success. Additionally, her unique journey from broadcast journalism to entrepreneurship demonstrates that anyone can successfully pivot careers, leveraging their existing skills to create new opportunities and achieve their goals.

The second GenAI Summit Silicon Valley on Nov. 2 was an inspiring event that showcased the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and how it's reshaping technology and business. I learned about how AI is becoming more accessible, faster, and more effective for real-world uses. This includes everything from helping companies make better decisions to creating AI systems that can understand and process different types of information—like images and text—at the same time. A key takeaway was how AI can be applied to many fields, including education, healthcare, marketing, and business. There was a focus on the practical side of using AI responsibly, like ensuring data privacy and maintaining security in AI applications. This understanding of both the potential and the ethical responsibilities of AI was valuable and highlighted how essential it is to have a balanced approach when using these powerful technologies. The event was well-organized and offered a great mix of talks, panels, and networking opportunities. I appreciated the range of topics, from technical insights on how AI systems are built to big-picture discussions about AI's role in the future. The live demos and pitches from various startups were especially exciting, as they showed AI applications being developed in real time to solve everyday problems. I also enjoyed the networking sessions, where I got to connect with people from all parts of the AI industry. Meeting people who are passionate about using AI for positive change was inspiring and made me feel more connected to the AI community. It was encouraging to see so many innovative ideas from both established companies and startups. As a leader in SVYEP, attending the summit gave me a new perspective on how innovation can drive positive change. I saw how AI can be used to create solutions for real-world challenges, which inspired me to encourage more creative problem-solving within SVYEP. This experience made me realize the importance of staying curious and open to new technologies to help our community adapt to a rapidly changing world. I also want to bring what I learned about responsible AI use back to SVYEP. Seeing the importance of privacy, ethics, and transparency in AI made me want to emphasize these values in our programs. I hope to add sessions where our youth can learn about not just how AI works, but how to use it responsibly. Overall, the summit reinforced my commitment to empowering young people to explore and use AI in ways that positively impact their communities.

The GenAI in the Valley 2024 conference, which took place on October 19, brought together about 700 people, including top professionals working with AI, autonomous driving, new energy, fashion, and investment industries. Three SVYEP officers were invited to attend. The event featured a unique lineup of panels, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities. They talked about a range of topics, including large language models (LLM), and AI-generated content. They highlighted both the potential of AI, as well as the challenges, giving us a range of perspectives on the future. Something that stood out was the mix of technical insight, with real-world applications and predictions. The conference was dynamic and well-organized, it worked as both an educational platform, but also as a great opportunity to speak and listen to other attendees and professionals. I left the event not only learning more about the future of AI but also with lasting industry connections.

A common complaint about practicing business is absence of ethics. We all learn about ways to improve your business by employing good marketing tactics, doing proper outreach, and obviously, creating a profitable product, but when you get to the real world, a good way to save money (to some) is to simply cut corners. This comes in many forms, whether it’s sacrificing product quality, underpaying workers, false advertising, or ignoring environmental responsibilities. Bad business practices also don't need to be illegal: many times, legal, yet anti-consumer policies are created simply because a company has the power to do so. The usual argument against such practices is that one’s actions will always come back to haunt them. If, for example, someone compromises on quality, sooner or later they’ll get caught. However, some statistics show the contrary: a study conducted in 2023 finds that a third of restaurants get away with using low-quality food. Additionally, there are upwards of a million people being paid lower than the federal minimum in the United States. Even more studies have shown that over 90% of “environmentally friendly” claims on products are vague, misleading, or have no proper support at all. On top of that, companies with monopolies can simply shrug off complaints about its bad practices, forcing people to continue using its product. These statistics point to a horrifying truth: perhaps it’s harder than we’d expected to catch people conducting bad business practices. And when they do, it’s even harder to prosecute: it’s estimated that 90% of white collar crimes aren’t even reported, much less taken to court. And, once again, this statistic is ignoring the number of technically legal, yet unethical conduct. This isn’t to say that all bad business practices go unnoticed. Ubisoft, a gaming development studio often criticized for its anti-consumer policies, has lost 87% of its peak market cap. However, the overall trend seems to indicate that many malpractices often aren’t called out. The lack of accountability in many business industries can often be attributed to insufficient oversight from the government. In many cases, regulatory bodies are under-resourced, influenced or paid-off by the very corporations they are supposed to oversee. This leads to an environment where unethical practices can flourish without consequence. Furthermore, when penalties for misconduct are minimal, businesses may view them as the cost of doing business rather than a genuine deterrent. Part of this may come from the difficulty small businesses have in competing with monoliths. Small, local, or family-owned businesses often can’t match the sheer production efficiency of monopolies. As a result, they may feel pressured to compromise their values and ethics to stay afloat, resorting to questionable practices that can undermine their integrity. However, this doesn't mean that unethical behavior is the solution. Rather, it highlights the urgent need for systemic change that levels the playing field. By supporting fair regulations, fostering a culture of accountability, and prioritizing ethical practices, consumers can help create an environment where all businesses, regardless of size, can thrive without sacrificing their principles or morals. Ultimately, nurturing a marketplace built on integrity not only benefits individual businesses but also strengthens communities and promotes a healthier economy for everyone. How this is done, however, is hard to answer.

By Bretton L - August 13, 2024 In collaboration with Amino Capital and CalColor Academy, SVYEP cohosted the Amino Youth Entrepreneur Mindset Summit on August 4–a landmark event that selected 30 exemplary students to attend. The event was headed by Sue Xu, a managing partner of Amino Capital, and founding CEO of CandyHouse and CyteSi. The event commenced with a brief introduction by Dr. Xu, before diving into what drives a successful business pitch, and the thought process behind it.  Xu then provided an overview of Amino Capital and introduced the students to the VC firm. Founded in 2012, Amino Capital is a venture capital firm that manages over $1 billion in capital. Its founding team includes Larry Li, Sue Xu, and Huican Zhu. Among the hundreds of businesses Amino Capital has funded, notable investments include being an angel investor of Zoom and investors of Replit and Chime. Collectively, Amino’s portfolio is valued at around $540 billion. Xu then discussed the rationale behind their investments and how Amino’s support has propelled these companies to success. Focusing on their 3 most successful investments, Xu first dived into how Amino contributed to Zoom’s success. Currently valued at over $17 billion, Zoom received its angel investment in 2011 from Larry Li, founder and managing partner at Amino Capital, funding the early developmental stages of Zoom. Likewise, Amino was also an initial investor of Replit, helping fund the software platform to achieve a valuation exceeding $1 billion and an user base of over 22 million people. Lastly, Xu explained Amino’s early investment in Chime in 2013 before they had any users, launching Chime into one of the largest fintech companies in the world, now valued at $25 billion. In addition to the funding provided, Amino also gave guidance and consulting to companies they invested in. The event then transitioned to guest speakers, where students had the opportunity to hear from several pioneers in the business world. Among them were the founders of HuhuAI, an AI platform that enables users to visualize how clothing will look on users before making a purchase, and Kyros AI, an online platform designed to help high school students get admitted into their dream colleges. Additionally, Huican Zhu, another previously mentioned Amino founder, spoke to the students about his success as an entrepreneur, advising students on how to navigate the challenging road that is building a business. As one of the initial members of the Google team, Zhu spearheaded the development of Google Image Search, an algorithm allowing users to search the web using images. The session concluded with a live Q&A, engaging students with a panel of speakers, who answered questions about their experiences and lessons in the entrepreneurial field. Before wrapping up the event, students were tasked with transforming their newfound knowledge into business ideas. Collaborating in teams, they developed innovative solutions to address real-world problems, including AI healthcare, business consulting, and entertainment streaming services. Students then pitched their ideas to the entrepreneurs and investors, gaining valuable feedback and praise. The summit, led by the founding members of Amino Capital, exposed high school students to the world of business and entrepreneurship, connecting them with successful industry leaders whose insights and personal feedback inspire and guide students to one day become their very own entrepreneurs and leaders.

Preston Crawley, "Google Fiber Center Street, Provo", 2021, via https://universe.byu.edu/2021/01/15/google-fiber-and-provo-city-negotiate-new-agreement/ By: Bretton L - July 23, 2024 Today, Google Fiber provides high-speed internet to millions of people and businesses in the US. Google Fiber’s story can be traced back to Cedric Lam and his mission to revolutionize America’s broadband connectivity.  I had the honor of being invited by Cedric to have dinner on the Google Campus where I interviewed him on his journey. The Journey to Fiber Cedric grew up in China before moving to Hong Kong at age 15. Throughout high school, Cedric excelled in physics, placing first in many physics competitions and all his physics classes. Cedric’s passion for physics and his practical mindset led him to major in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. His dedication to learning and academic excellence earned him a scholarship to study in the US, where he received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. After graduate school, Cedric started his career at AT&T and subsequently joined a startup and became the Chief System Architect. Faced with the difficulty in fundraising for the startup company due to the 2008 financial crisis,  Cedric joined Google, initially as a staff optical network engineer.  During his first year at Google, the founding CEO of Google, Larry Page was annoyed by the limited data capacity cap that Comcast imposed on his home internet plan. Page envisioned the possibility for Google to jump-start the lagging broadband access network infrastructure in the US and allow people to benefit from blazing-fast data networks nationwide. Mr. Page turned to his team to find qualified employees at Google to help start that project. Since Cedric had previously written a book on broadband access technology, Passive Optical Networks: Principles and Practice , he was given the opportunity to investigate the feasibility of the GFiber project, which initially was his 20% exploratory project. As the first and lead engineer on the project, Cedric quickly assembled a team of knowledgeable Googlers, eager to contribute their expertise and make a difference in the world, and many of them eventually became his good friends. Insights for Emerging Entrepreneurs Throughout our dinner, Cedric shared his experiences with me from his immigrant story to his success at Google. Additionally, he spent time explaining the technology behind how fiber can carry high-speed internet data to homes and businesses. Nonetheless, I had some questions of my own about advice he might give to younger generations of entrepreneurs. Was there a specific moment that drove you to take the lead and start Google Fiber? “I studied optical communication networks at graduate school and I already had the vision to use fiber for broadband access networks.  Later when I joined AT&T Labs, I was doing research on the techniques to employ fiber optics for low-cost broadband access.  Nonetheless, the US already had a pervasive copper-based access network, whether that’s the DSL network operated by the telecom operators or the coaxial cable network operated by cable TV operators. Without a compelling demand and application, there is very little incentive, including AT&T who allowed me to do research on the subject, to actually build a new fiber-based access network because of the high infrastructure construction cost. When I was approached to start fiber optics at Google, it was the opportunity I had been waiting for.” Could you describe a time when you faced a significant challenge while working on the project and how you overcame it? “Although it doesn’t directly relate to working on the development of GFiber, the greatest challenge I ever faced was having to take on that manager role while managing a large team full of friends. This was my first time officially being a manager and many early team members were my good friends who followed me and supported my vision.  It was always a struggle to balance my personal friendships with my coworkers while having to look at their productivity and the work they did from the view of a manager, wanting to see success within my team and the overall Fiber project as a whole.” Do you have any advice for aspiring young entrepreneurs? “Find your passion and pursue it. Only when you are truly passionate about something, you can become really good at it and you can become successful in what you do.  So always follow your heart but make sure to use some intuition and logic to help guide you to finding success. Whenever you are presented with opportunities, seize them because you may never find that opportunity again.  Also, build a strong analytical capability through your school training, because no matter what you do, it is a very important skill on the path to success.”

Homes 4 the Homeless is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating homelessness globally through innovative housing solutions. Today, SVYEP officers interviewed its founder and CEO, Steve Schneider. Steve’s story started in 2017, when the Sonoma wildfires destroyed his home in California. Inspired to help others who had similarly lost their homes, Steve set out to found Homes 4 the Homeless. What are the specific housing innovations that Homes 4 the Homeless uses to address homelessness? The idea started almost two decades ago, when I was in China for business. And I noticed: there’s no homelessness there—they’re housing a billion and a half people. How are they doing that? So I discovered they were making hotels and apartment buildings and all kinds of housing out of shipping containers. And so when I started this project, we got all these inexpensive houses from China, these little units for $1,200. And they would fold up and pop up in what was called a flat rack, and you could fit about 10 of those houses in a single shipping container. That was a great solution. What challenges has Homes 4 the Homeless faced in its mission, and how did you overcome them? Well, we had gotten the houses at that point, but if you look in the news, there was a big emphasis on dignified housing—every other word is dignified housing for migrant workers, dignified housing for the homeless. And so when we looked back at our housing that we provided that was fully code compliant, but still looked like, you know, a prison without bars. To solve that, we approached Vessel, a luxury tourism manufacturer for luxury tourism market, nothing to do with homelessness whatsoever. We showed them what we could do, and said, what if we could add a lot of technologies—sustainable technologies—to the equation, and come up with one of the greenest, most dignified houses on the market. And we did; in order to do so we had to commit a lot of time and money to making these new houses fully code compliant and meeting all the US standards, but we did it. And next thing you know, we had signed a government contract for exclusive distribution of these new houses from Vessel. How do you reflect on the success of your nonprofit? First and foremost, as a business acumen, when you start a project, you stay on the project. If it's a real project, and it has real merit, and there's a path from the beginning of the middle to the end, you have to stay focused on it until you get it across the finish line. Most people get close to the finish line on their projects, and then they get derailed by something and they end up abandoning it. My successes have always been making sure that everything gets across the finish line, and they stay on it and stay on it and stay on until it gets across the finish line. This housing project is something I’ve looked at from every different angle: affordable housing is 100% needed. The state needs it, the counties need it, the cities need it, the world needs it. But on the other hand, that's not enough: it's not just these goals but the real business models that made it happen and got us over the finish line. So I would say, this is a trap for many businesses, especially nonprofits, but you have to consider it from both sides. Homes 4 the Homeless, I think is an example of a business view of how you can positively impact the world. Everybody wins: philanthropy investors earn a return, the community is being enhanced, dignified housing is being provided, somebody's off the street. That's how you make a good business, making sure everyone gets something out of it. I’ll leave you with that.

When thinking about business, it’s easy for a highly competitive, economized environment to pop into mind. Business, normally a profit-driven activity, while focusing on serving others, just doesn’t seem to come together. What if I told you it can? There’s a misconception that the sole end goal for businesses’ is monetary success. While that may be partially true, and self-sustainability is often part of a businesses’ objective, that’s not the full story. What about merely enjoying the process of creating something new? Being in control of your service’s future? Some people may consider these ideas to be frivolous or unrealistic, but we can see these ambitions reflected in the nascence of some of the world’s biggest corporations. Google began as a research project between two PhD students who hadn’t even graduated. Zuckerberg originally started Facebook to connect his classmates at Harvard. None of these were originally created to capitalize off its users. And lastly, closest to today’s topic, what about wanting to create something to change the world for the better? Even this idea isn’t unseen in businesses. Wikipedia, the fourth most visited website (excluding search engines Google and Baidu), is a service that remains free to all, made to promote the spread of knowledge and education. To this day, Wikipedia remains a nonprofit. Online statistics say that as of 2017, 3% of businesses are 501c3. Additionally, there’s the notion that nonprofits, whose goal isn’t to solely make profit, can’t be successful, and starting a nonprofit takes less skill than succeeding with a startup. Personally, I’d push back on this opinion and would even argue it’s the other way around. Being committed to successfully run a company that doesn’t even make profit and finding success while only relying on donations, all to support a cause you believe in, should be praised, not looked down upon. What do the members at SVYEP think? Lotus Wu : Starting a business just to make money isn't realistic and will probably fail. Real success comes from wanting to make a positive impact on society. If you're passionate about creating change, the money will come naturally. Chasing money as your main goal leads to selfish decisions and a focus on profit over purpose. Businesses should stay true to their mission and never prioritize profit above all else. Jeremy Peng : I think there can be successful cases of a business being motivated purely by profit, if profit is all they’re after. Even exploitative businesses can be successful. However, most people who start businesses don’t just seek money in the first place, but a kind of respect and legacy that we associate with business success—this is only achievable by businesses that change the world for the better. Justin Wong : A business can only succeed with an intrinsic motivation to accomplish something extraordinary that will truly improve the world. While extrinsic values that focus on monetary rewards can drive a business short term, genuine belief in the value of one’s work is always the more sustainable option. There needs to be a strong and clear vision that drives a business forward, and with time, profit follows as long as one stays true to one's goals.

SVYEP club officers interviewed 7EDU founder Jun Liu last week on her thoughts about being an entrepreneur. Jun’s finely honed insight into the business world proved at once thought-provoking and inspirational to our team.

The government is the result of the formal contract between citizens of a country and said country. The citizen gives up the ability to act lawlessly, with the promise that the government, in turn, will systematically regulate the needs of the people and establish a just society. Instead of letting people run free with whatever weaponry they can find, guns are controlled–in turn, a police force and court are created so justice could be enforced. Citizens have to obey traffic laws, and in turn, governments can create a driving system everyone is required to follow, allowing more safety than if everybody followed their own driving rules. However, one area of debate still ongoing is, “How big of a role should the government play in regulating businesses?” People who are against governments playing a big role in regulating business cite the low satisfaction in current government-ran projects in the United States, including a bad public education system, slow progress in public construction projects, and generally error-prone path of obtaining citizenship and other documentation, such as a driver’s license. This results in a major argument being, “How can we trust the government to do a good job regulating private businesses when they can’t even manage theirs properly?” Similarly, another argument against heavy government regulation is the fact that private businesses thrive because they are private and have the ability to make choices for themselves. As discussed in our previous post, what makes startups thrive is their innovation. How can innovation occur when under government management? Lastly, people are scared of government regulation because it’s a “slippery slope.” At first, even if corrupt industries are regulated for the better, the government may start to abuse their power onto other businesses simply because they feel like it. On the flip side, people who support government ordinance cite how workers are often abused and underpaid. A study has found that in 2022, 44% of workers aged 18 to 64 earn low hourly incomes, which is problematic due to the fact that housing prices have risen by 500% in the past fifty years, with income only rising by 300. If the government plays a bigger role in businesses, the government will be able to improve the living conditions of workers. In fact, acts have already been passed that do exactly this: the minimum wage in California is $16.00/hour, over twice as high as the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25. As soon as June, the minimum wages in California will be raised again. Additionally, the government will also be able to systematically address ethical issues raised by corporations, especially in controversial fields such as biotechnology. What do the members at SVYEP think?

In Silicon Valley, where innovation determines everything, one would assume that monopolies with access to the biggest pool of resources—which fund research for said innovations—would always be driving new technological advancements and stay in power. However, a quick look reveals that only one of the top ten companies with the highest market capital in 2000 remains on the list as of 2024, and less than half of the biggest corporations in 1980 are even in the top hundred today. Yet, this comes as no shock: simply having access to wealth doesn’t guarantee a company’s future success. History has taught us that no matter how powerful a person or entity may be, complacency, misuse, or a general disconnect from current trends may bring the most gigantic titan crashing down. A prominent example is how IBM, a company who had once supplied up to 70% of all business computers, fell from grace due to gradually losing touch with its audience and squandering its money on R&D that yielded a low ROI. In current years, however, the government has been trying to artificially break up monopolies, evident in the massive number of antitrust lawsuits filed against the biggest corporations of our era: Google, for one, has had three since just 2020. These companies are often described as having “ridden the wave of the internet,” and since their inception, have managed to remain relevant by keeping up with the latest trends and developments in technology. Yet, people wonder if government interference is even necessary. Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, people have begun to question whether these monopolies have stayed too complacent and lack the ambition to ride the next wave of technological development: artificial intelligence. A notable example is Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Despite being the fourth biggest technology company in the world (and fifth biggest overall), owning a subsidiary that developed the first AI bot to beat a world champion at the board game Go, and publishing a paper that is the cornerstone of modern day artificial intelligence titled “Attention is All You Need” (115010), many people cite Alphabet as having “missed its mark” in regards to artificial intelligence. Alphabet is often criticized for being too content with its current position and not capitalizing on its research in artificial intelligence, despite investing money into AI R&D for over a decade. Alphabet’s mistake has given opportunities for dozens of startups, including OpenAI, to catch up and arguably even gain a lead on the behemoth that once led AI development, leading us to where we are now. After Alphabet’s failed launch of Gemini, which people speculate was due to increased pressure to compete with ChatGPT, cost Alphabet losses of almost 100 billion, many individuals are asking themselves: In the new revolution of artificial intelligence, is it really the monopolies that are leading the race and edging out small competitors, or the startups, which have a fresh vision of their goals? Nevertheless, the resources big companies have access to are indisputable and can’t be understated. So in the struggle between the big tech and startups over AI, who will emerge victorious?