The independent economy is the real economy. In the age of AI, ownership is the only defensible position.
Michael Rangel founded Novo, the banking platform built for small and independent businesses. He sits on Novo’s board of directors and is now making this case public.
How I got hereAs previously featured in
Why now
He spent a decade building Novo, used today by more than 250,000 small businesses. He is making the case in public now because ownership has stopped being the ambitious choice and become the only durable one. The case rests on three claims.
Real
Four in five American businesses have no employees. That line was crossed in 2014, no press conference. The small business category is still treated as if that were not true. This is not a niche market. It is the market.
Defensible
AI is compressing white-collar work, fastest in the careers a generation was told were safest. The job gets eliminated. The owner has a choice. Own your time, or rent it to someone else. Only one of those compounds.
Enabled
The same technology taking the job hands a one-person company the leverage of a fifty-person one. The tool that makes you replaceable as an employee makes you formidable as an owner. The $1 million solopreneur is not an outlier anymore. It is where this leads.