It's been 14 years since David Fincher gave Facebook the Hollywood treatment, and a solid decade since Mike Judge brought Silicon Valley into our living rooms on HBO.
A lot has changed in these intervening years — Uber IPO'd, Elizabeth Holmes went to jail for fraud, self driving cars hit the roads, Covid-19 briefly ground everything to a near halt and San Francisco was unceremoniously crowned a "doom loop" city.
The AI boom also took life here, reinvigorating the tech community during a broad market downturn but also sparking debates about trust, safety, copyright and regulations, not to mention potential threats to the future of humanity.
So, it seems like a fitting time for a new art project to emerge that reflects, and contemplates, this moment.
I was recently invited to preview "Silicon Valley: The Musical," an upcoming production created by a trio of twenty-something Bay Area founders: Belinda Mo, 25, Kyle Morris, 27, and Scott Fitsimones, 27.
They described the preview as a rough draft for a longer musical that will debut later this summer, and performed several songs during a live show last month at Manny's Café in San Francisco.
The set included songs such as "It's not easy (to be a VC)" and "Group House," both nods to their own experiences.
Mo, Morris and Fitsimones met while living at a group home for aspiring founders in San Francisco, and quickly learned that they all had an affinity for music and theater. And of course, tech, an industry that's not particularly known for cross-pollination with the arts.
"I think these communities don't overlap enough. I think both are really impactful, really important," Morris told me. "I want to create a world where I'm able to help move capital and move society forward with technology, but also deeply understand all the different like forms of human expression and make sure everyone feels connected."
They also acknowledge that the tech industry has affected the city in both positive and negative ways.
"I think there's a very strong lack of awareness in some of these communities," Mo said. "The lack of self awareness, of understanding other people's struggles ... I think you can see this a lot in the streets of San Francisco, and it does have a real impact on how products are designed."
However, Mo said, there's also a sense of optimism.
"I think there is a very wonderful beauty to that optimism and being able to build something that objectively does improve people's lives," Mo said.
"Silicon Valley: The Musical" follows two MIT dropouts who founded an artificial intelligence startup called RobotMe, represented on stage by a toaster. The drop-outs-turned-founders navigate San Francisco, venture capital, demo days, AI, and of course, are trying to save the world. But a vengeful VC investor lashes out when things don't go his way.
"I missed out on a round, and I won't look like a fool in this town. I hope some competition don't get ya down, 'cuz I found a better startup and I led their round," Fitsimones sings as "Gordon Greene," the show's villainous investor, in a showtunes-inspired track.
"I gave them five. Five million dollars. Stanford and MIT, the team's got some polish. While you're living on Soylent and ramen noodles, they just hired another executive straight out of Google," the song continues. "If you don't know their names by now, here's your warnin'. You'll see them on TechCrunch tomorrow mornin'."
There's a venture firm called A15d, a not-so-subtle reference to storied VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, a.k.a. A16z. And a fictional Elon Musk takes the stage during a song called "Accelerationist Rap Battle."
A showtunes/hip hop-inspired mashup titled "Not Just a Tech Bro" centers around RobotMe co-founder "Dave," portrayed by Morris, who bemoans the judgement of others as he swipes through dating profiles.
"I'm more than a tech bro. I have hobbies like climbing and hiking. I'm more than a tech bro. If I work weekends, it's just 'cuz I like it. Listen, allow me to explain. Us guys in tech, we're not all the same," Morris sings.
And in an indie-pop song titled "SF State of Mind," RobotMe's other co-cofounder "Quinn," portrayed by Mo, reflects on the city as a place filled with disparities, struggles and opportunities.
"People sleep on streets outside Victorians with silk sheets. Everybody's workin', beggin', usin', playin', needin'. It's so fleetin'," Mo sings. "Oh the hills of San Francisco, fog is rolling so deep, on an incline too steep. In a rush some fall behind. All have money on their minds. We look out to the Bay and we had everything but time, because that's what happens under a torn-open sky in a city borrowed from the sea."
The in-the-know memes sprinkled throughout the musical will surely resonate with other techies and founders (and VCs with a sense of humor), but will the show appeal to a general audience that isn't in on the joke, especially in San Francisco, where some might judge the project as cringey?
"Embrace the cringe," Fitsimones said. "We are embracing it."
As things were, the audience at the preview were mostly fellow techies, founders and friends of the trio.
One observer was casually overhead saying that the performance was “a lot better than I expected.”
Other audience members were also impressed.
"The way that it went a little bit beyond the truth but not so far that it was unbelievable to me was incredible," said an attendee, who identified themselves simply as Diogo.
Another attendee, who declined to give their name, also appreciated that the musical unmasks a layer of tech's culture for people who are outside of the industry.
"A lot of what's considered tech culture is a little opaque," they said. "You hear about all the big scary things getting created, but there's so much ridiculous, unhinged behavior internally."
In real life, the musical's three founders have raised millions for their own startups.
Fitsimones has raised nearly $15 million through a Series A round for AirGarage, an app for managing parking spots.
Mo has raised $4 million in seed funding for Viva Translate, a startup developing workplace translation software.
And Morris has raised just over $3 million in seed funding for Banana ML, an API-powered machine learning development site.
Collectively, their investors include Founders Fund, Floodgate, Alumni Ventures, CapitalX, General Catalyst, AIX Ventures and, yes, A16z.
More details about the summer debut and tour of "Silicon Valley: The Musical" can be found at www.svmusical.com.
