An Estonian Response to 'white guys in hoodies'

Father's Day is off to an early start in the US with Melinda Gates' latest jab at the tech industry. Obviously it is another PR gambit but she also brags that she can control the "larger levers" of VC funding. Given Microsoft's lengthy dealings with the Baltics, I'm not sure if she is either calling for a ban on VC funding in Estonia or simply reflecting views typical of out-of-touch Medina WA, an uber-elite enclave within an already rarified section of the upscale Seattle eastside.

Perhaps Melinda is frustrated by a general lack of innovation on the west coast.

Or perhaps she has a slightly aristocratic disdain for Eastern Europe generally. California's xenophobia of all things Slavic has already become a bit of a running joke. Meanwhile Gates seems okay with hoodie-laden things like Skype and no doubt her startups will exploit E European open source software (OSS) and low offshore labor costs.

It may be difficult for the Bellevue crowd to remember that a lot of coders in Eastern Europe toil through cold winters hoping they get noticed (in a positive way). Given Microsoft's recent acquisition of GitHub though, the timing is unfortunate and perhaps not entirely a coincidence.

Maybe Melinda doesn't realize that wearing hoodies is something from our Soviet past - you don't show off wealth in the streets unless you want to get mugged. Plus it is 42F right now in Tartu Estonia... in June.

If Melinda really wants to help women, then realize that most women start their tech careers AFTER kids. But Seattle and Bay Area startups don't dare touch anyone over 30, so there's that.

Perhaps Microsoft should either (1) disavow her views or (2) remove its monopoly presence from E Europe and allow a new tech ecosystem to bloom.

In any case, the Inception project is moving away from GitHub
https://medium.com/@reinman/the-inception-dapp-platform-e6fcc63011ce

Yet another reason to avoid Big Tech.