Entrepreneuring Legitimacy: A Case Study of the Cultural Codes and Boundary-Makings of the Tech Elite

How do those who are pulling away economically justify their advantageous positions? This issue has acquired salience in the context of rising inequalities and propelled a reflourishing of sociological analysis focused on elites. This article contributes to this literature by enquiring into the status legitimations and interconnected boundary-makings of one particular elite fraction: the tech elite. Even though this grouping is at the forefront of a transformation of the field of power, it remains surprisingly underexplored in the social sciences. To address this lacuna, this study undertakes a case study of the prominent startup accelerator 'Y Combinator' (YC). This accelerator, which has been shaped by Sam Altman and other leading figures in the US tech industry, not only invests financially in startups but also seeks to provide mentorship and expertise to aspiring founders. The article analyses the latter cultural activities by drawing on interviews, lectures, essays, and blogs from the YC online library. Based on qualitative analysis, three central codification principles are reconstructed from the data. Firstly, successful tech entrepreneurs are treated as missionary selves, a quasi-religious framing which goes hand-in-hand with moral boundaries vis-à-vis actors who are deemed materialist and risk-averse. Secondly, the discourse imagines the ideal tech entrepreneur as talented rather than just hardworking. This creates a cultural boundary which operates within the logic of merit-scarcity and thereby serves to legitimate extreme inequalities and the winner-takes-most markets that dominate the tech industry. Thirdly, tech entrepreneurs are construed as fulfillers of real-world needs of the masses. This framing counters public criticisms levelled at tech and echoes the rhetoric of populist political actors, while also allowing to establish moral boundaries vis-à-vis other elite fractions, such as finance. Finally, the article discusses the reconstructed codifications and boundary-makings in relation to data on the socio-structural positions of actors within the startup accelerator.