Rethinking Theories of Value Creation
The venture capital ecosystem is one of the most sophisticated value creation architectures in modern economic history, generating trillions in value, enabling breakthrough innovations across every technology (and non-technology) sector, and providing the financial infrastructure that powers most contemporary technological advancement. From Google to Genentech, from Amazon to Airbnb,
The $29M Question
Product discovery is the murkiest, most ambiguous period of an innovator’s journey; when it’s not clear where, or whether, value actually exists for an identified opportunity. It’s similarly the most
How might we innovate
"To produce means to combine materials and forces within our reach... To produce other things, or the same things by a different method, means to combine these materials and forces differently" - W. Brian Arthur The AI-Driven Inflection Point Despite software having successfully eaten the world, we find ourselves at
Maximizing Intellectual Capital through Systematic Combinatorial Discovery
“We are building a machine that can identify opportunities, adapt infrastructure, and roll out products at full speed” - Richard Fairbank, Capital One CEO It’s now common knowledge that 90% of venture-backed startups will fail to return capital to investors. We very often discuss this as
Unleashing Human Potential Through Systematic Recombination
“Of its output, inventions are a valuable part, but invention is not to be scheduled nor coerced” - Harold Arnold, Bell Labs Modern organizations systematically waste human potential. Despite the rhetorical emphasis on talent as the ultimate competitive advantage, conventional structures treat humans as standardized components to be slotted into fixed
Innovation is a Worthy Cause
Humanity’s incredible progress in less than three centuries has been widely reported and yet still under-appreciated. It is neither opinion nor conjecture to assert that twenty-first century humanity is fundamentally privileged to a degree unimaginable at any prior century of our meager existence.Examples abound, like rates
Cementing Cinematic Synergies
“Am I worried? Of course I’m worried. The cultural space in which the movies I care most about have flourished seems to be shrinking. The audience necessary to sustain original and ambitious work is narcotized by algorithms or distracted by doomscrolling. The state of the movies is very bad.
Loneliness
As we gradually emerged from the pandemic, much was (and continues to be) written about a “loneliness epidemic” seemingly plaguing our society. Epidemics are scientific classifications, and I disagree with how easily the term is thrown around today, devaluing actual epidemics, so I won’t use such terms here. But
Pricing Like It’s 1969
Introduction In Part 1 of the series, I walked you through the long-term secular decline of movie theater attendance, and the still difficult to justify decisions Exhibitors have made to not only not cut back on their theatrical footprint but to invest further over the last 40 years. This
Saving the Silver Screen in the Streaming Age
“Theaters are dead” So proclaim the talking heads from all sides - critics, podcasters, even industry insiders. We’re living in the Streaming Age, after all, in which content is abundant and consumable on demand everywhere. One of the major victims of this abundance is the now lowly movie theater; the
The Business of Charity
One of the initial ideas we’re exploring within our nascent venture studio is in the charitable giving “industry”. Given the largely not-for-profit nature of donations, most do not consider this an industry at all, let alone one that should ever garner the gaze of a capitalist. I
The Obligations of Innovation
Silicon Valley is just a sub-2000 square mile patch of land in Northern California, of equivalent size to the state of Delaware. A small plot of relatively unremarkable topography. Silicon Valley is also the heart, headquarters, and catalyst for the startup ecosystem that (now) powers the US economy. Seven
The Underappreciated Utility of Grants
Sergey Brin Dylan Feld Vitalik Buterin Though we love to romanticize the indefatigable entrepreneur who overcomes the odds to build a massive business, humble beginnings are more common than we often credit. Each of the above founders has gone on to build large to gargantuan businesses, but the start of
Succeed by limiting errors
An obvious framework that few adopt.
Investing in Two-Sigma Youth
On Medici and Thiel
The Opsimath Principle
Incentivizing the most talented non-youth with time (and money).
The Waves Framework
A first attempt to map the relationship between Strategy and Execution
Jobs to be Done as Psychological Framework
When two worlds unexpectedly collide
Psychology has a Context Problem
Introduction
Compensation Primitives
Or how to ensure employees are aligned with corporate strategy.
The Quest to Overtake the NFL
My attempt to fundamentally restructure English soccer to unlock its final form of scale.
Growing the Premier League Media Empire
An attempt to close the gap between the NFL's media juggernaut and the EPL's meager attempts to date.
Football vs Football
Why the world's most popular sports league is so far from the most lucrative.
Experimenting with Startup Studio Structures
How can we evolve our systems to marry productivity with self-actualization?
Exploring New Paradigms of Work
How can we innovate beyond the corporation to enable different, potentially better work lives?
Foundational Frameworks for Strategic Growth
Corporate structural design helps us better understand where strategic advantages arise.
Well Fed and Unsatisfied
The curious case of high pay and low fulfillment in the Innovation Economy.
Cracking the Glass Ceiling
An attempt to break down structural gender biases to improve our innovation capacity.
Venture Capital and Structural Bias
We stifle innovation by disadvantaging female innovators at every level.
Gender Inequity in Venture Funding
Silicon Valley's male dominance is a significant impediment to maximizing our innovation capacity.
From Pixels to Popcorn
Part 3 of a four-part series. Movie theaters must reinvent their analog and digital interfaces to recapture customer attention.
Growth is Progress
Perpetual positive progress for our species is far from guaranteed, but it can be enabled by proactive investment in innovation at scale.
Trophies for Sale
Manchester City's latest title further confirms that Premier League results are pre-determined on the balance sheet.