Mike Solana

Founder of Pirate Wires who appears across Kyle’s notes as both a tech-culture commentator and a member of the Silicon Valley new-cities circle. In the research for Surviving The Death of Venture Capital, Solana is the foil to a “euthanize the VCs” argument: he responded that “there is a difference between ‘euthanasia’ of a concept, and dehumanizing a group of human beings before suggesting they be euthanized.” Kyle concedes Solana’s narrower point — that with no track record a VC has “pretty much just got Twitter… a recipe for incredibly dramatic status games” — and credits his brand-momentum observation that established VC brands rarely fully wind down but “zombie-persist,” which cuts against “the model is dying” toward “the model is mutating” (source: Surviving The Death of Venture Capital - Research).

Solana also appears as a node in the City Building research: he is listed among the Silicon Valley new-cities figures the founders consulted during their May–July 2019 research push, alongside Mark Lutter, Tamara Winter, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Patri Friedman, and Jason Crawford (source: City Building). His Pirate Wires commentary on the Musk-era Twitter saga is cited in The Renaissance of Rise and Grind - Research (source: The Renaissance of Rise and Grind - Research).

Context: Mike Solana is the founder and editor-in-chief of Pirate Wires, a tech-and-culture media company, and was previously a vice president at Founders Fund. His writing is known for a contrarian, pro-tech, anti-establishment posture.

Where this appears

• Surviving The Death of Venture Capital - Research — his “euthanasia of a concept vs. dehumanizing people” pushback and the VC brand-momentum / zombie-persistence point.
• City Building — among the Silicon Valley new-cities figures consulted in the 2019 research phase.
• The Renaissance of Rise and Grind - Research — his Pirate Wires coverage of the Musk-era Twitter saga.