There are enough shovels - by Sam MacGinty - Worthwhile
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There are enough shovels<br>Silicon valley needs to dig for gold again
Sam MacGinty<br>May 24, 2026
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San Francisco was built on the backs of gold miners. People across the world dropped everything in search of a fortune in the California hills. The city grew from a small colonial outpost on the far reaches of the continent into a thriving metropolis.<br>When the city established itself as the catalyst for the internet revolution, the spirit of the gold miners looked to be alive and well — smart, determined people, out to change the world. The swings they took were huge: AirBnb imagined a world where you could live like a local anywhere you travel, Doordash imagined a world where you can have a chauffeur deliver a burrito in a snap of your fingers, Google Glass looked dumb but man it was a fun idea.<br>As we came to the end of Web 2.0 and social optimism, the romantic ideals of tech began to fade. The city moved from revolutionising to optimising. The time and talent of the best and brightest was spent on ideas that don’t tangibly impact anyone outside the tech bubble. Ideas that no longer aimed to make life better for people but instead helped businesses nail their compliance strategy.<br>The goalposts moved. Stable, recurring revenue from enterprise clients became the north star. Why would you try to build for so many individuals? They’re so hard to sell to. Solve a small problem for a big company. You’ll have a much easier time raising a round with solid MRR and a low CAC. Make sure you raise your Series A from a top-tier fund, that’ll guarantee a big Series B, and you’ll need that to have any hope for a Series C.<br>Bo-ring!<br>In a world with so many real problems to solve, so many real advancements to make, it is a waste of life to have a city so dense with talent and resources working on projects so irrelevant. Surely no child dreams of crushing it in B2B SAAS. The magic of our connected world is the power that we have to build and share positive things. The same skills required to create a B2B SAAS tool can be used to build something life-changing. There are more rewarding things to build. There is no shortage of important problems.<br>I refuse to accept this status quo. To move forward as a society, we need to take bold leaps. We need to try to improve the lives of everyone on earth. Every one of us has the power to enact positive change. We can push the tech world back on track with our own actions. Build something for yourself, your friends, anyone you know. Something that you can enjoy together. Something that makes your life a little brighter. If you are an investor, look beyond the stable revenue of enterprise customers. See not only the bigger customer pool of consumers but also the bigger potential impact.<br>Sure, it’s easier to make a living selling shovels, but what’s the point if no one is going to dig for gold?
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