Tech Entrepreneurs: The Artists of Tomorrow
- Roy Sharples
- Nov 20, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
A Manifesto for the Creators Who Code, Craft, and Conjure the Future
Once upon a time, the artist was our oracle.
A brushstroke could start a revolution.
A guitar riff could shatter conformity.
A poem could put a dictator on notice.
They painted outside the lines.
They broke the frame.
They turned anguish into anthems and chaos into clarity.
Fast-forward to now—
the canvas has changed.
The brush is a keyboard.
The palette? Python, pixels, and platform design.
And the studio?
A garage, a co-working loft, a laptop in a Lisbon café.
The artist of yesterday painted portraits.
The artist of today ships product.
Welcome to the new avant-garde.
Code is the New Ink. Algorithms Are the New Arpeggios.
Yes, you heard that right.
Because in the 21st century, the tech entrepreneur is not just a founder.
They’re a composer of culture,
an architect of attention,
a rebel with a startup.
Forget the stereotype of the hoodie-clad disruptor glued to metrics.
These are dreamsmiths, sculpting the digital ether
into things that didn’t exist yesterday and will define tomorrow.
Steve Jobs didn’t build a phone.
He curated a lifestyle.
Elon Musk doesn’t just launch rockets.
He writes mythologies in real-time—on Twitter.
Jack Dorsey gave the world a global microphone
where 280 characters can topple regimes or inspire revolutions.
This isn’t business as usual.
This is art, disguised as disruption.
Disruption Is the New Dadaism
Remember when Picasso shattered perspective?
That’s what Uber did to the taxi.
What Spotify did to the record store.
What crypto is doing to money itself.
Every tech entrepreneur worth their Series A
starts by asking the question every artist lives by:
“What if the world didn’t work the way it does?”
Then they paint, in code.
They carve, in backend logic.
They compose, in UX flows and machine learning models.
Where punks screamed with guitars,
founders scream with platforms.
Same energy. New tools.
They Don’t Sell Products. They Sell Paradigms.
Instagram changed how we share identity.
Tinder redefined desire.
Zoom transformed silence into signal.
These aren’t companies.
They’re cultural supernovas—flashing bright, burning fast, and bending behavior in their wake.
TikTok didn’t just launch an app.
It gave the next generation a stage,
a soapbox, and a symphony all in one.
And guess what?
It wasn’t art school dropouts behind it.
It was engineers. Designers. Product people.
Artists in disguise.
Form Meets Function: Where Bauhaus Meets Beta Testing
Tesla isn’t a car. It’s a manifesto on wheels.
A sonnet to sustainability with butterfly doors.
Airbnb isn’t just travel.
It’s a story—a way to live someone else’s life,
if only for a night.
The best entrepreneurs know:
Design isn't decoration.
It's intention. Emotion. Meaning. Movement.
Jobs called it the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.
We call it the future of feeling.
With Great Disruption Comes Great Responsibility
But let’s not romanticize too much.
This new generation of creators faces ethical dilemmas
that would make Da Vinci drop his compass.
Can an AI make art?
Should a metaverse replace a mountain?
Do we automate justice—or commodify bias?
The startup pitch deck rarely includes
the line: “What does this do to the soul?”
But it should.
Because while the brush once glorified war,
now the code can manufacture consent.
And in the age of deepfakes, data mining, and digital echo chambers,
every creator becomes a custodian of truth—or a vandal of it.
So here’s the real art:
Building the future without breaking the human.
The Studio Is Global. The Gallery Is the World.
Today’s entrepreneurs are Renaissance spirits
with Slack channels instead of salons.
They prototype like Pollock—chaotic, quick, visceral.
They iterate like Miles Davis—always a few bars ahead.
They launch like Bowie—strange, bold, genre-defying.
This isn’t about scale.
It’s about soul.
Because the true mark of an artist isn’t the applause.
It’s the afterglow.
The Legacy Isn’t Just IPOs. It’s Impact.
You want to be remembered?
Then don't just build.
Stir. Shift. Scar. Heal.
Be Banksy with backend.
Be Basquiat with blockchain.
Be Bowie with bandwidth.
Ask yourself:
Will your code spark curiosity?
Will your product provoke perspective?
Will your idea leave the world more beautiful, more inclusive, more alive?
Because the Tools Have Changed. But the Mission Hasn’t.
To tell the truth.
To reveal the unseen.
To make the invisible visceral.
That’s the artist’s work.
That’s the entrepreneur’s work.
That’s our work.
A Call to the Creators of Tomorrow
This is your manifesto.
You are the artist now.
Your medium is infinite.
Your audience, everywhere.
So code like a poet.
Design like a sculptor.
Ship like your soul depends on it.
And when they ask, “What do you do?”
Say this:
“I don’t just launch features.
I compose futures.”
Because the world needs less product,
and more poetry in motion.
The canvas is waiting.
The next masterpiece is yours.
Paint boldly.
Ship bravely.
Make art with your startup.
And leave the world changed.
Read the Book. Stoke the Fire.
by Roy Sharples
How to make the invisible visible by lighting the way into the future.
Founder of Unknown Origins.
Champion of originality in an age of imitation.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Unknown Origins Creative Studios All rights reserved © copyright 2024
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