Exploring a different mental model for building large, coordinated essential service providers — Whether it be in farming or nursing or grocery sales, an unmistakable global phenomenon has been the consolidation of control of essential sectors by centralized actors. Largely, these new consolidated actors enact an extractive strategy to take advantage of the long-tail of suppliers and service providers the industry was built…

How should we hold pension managers accountable in an age of extreme risk? — The extreme heat waves that kicked off the year in India and now are ravaging Europe and the Western United States have me thinking about pensions. …

Philanthropic organizations and public leaders may have their heart in the right place but are putting their money in the wrong place when sponsoring contests — If you follow today’s innovation sector news, you could be forgiven for getting the impression that the solutions to all of our problems are right around the corner. Billions invested of dollars into climate tech funds! Hundreds of millions invested in carbon capture companies! …

Why we need to reflect on the fundraising process to optimize for innovation — Since so many entrepreneurs with ideas for how to solve challenges facing humanity seek out Venture Capital (VC) as a source of funding, reflecting on VC fundraising process and its inefficiencies is important if we would like to improve their odds of success. …

Why we may not need private investment in early technology development — In working on the follow-up to my essay introducing the concept of Aligned Innovation (a follow-up too many months in the writing), I came across this fascinating study by Katja Kisseleva: “Public funding and financial performance of entrepreneurial firms,” a working paper. Here’s basically the gist, from the abstract: “firms…