Dr. Bryant Lin teaches medicine at Stanford. He founded the Center for Asian Health Research and Education to study diseases that disproportionately affect Asian populations, including nonsmoker lung cancer. Then he was diagnosed with it himself. He is now Stage 4. His doctor prescribed Rybrevant, an FDA-approved treatment for his specific mutation. Aetna denied the claim. Lin, a physician at … Read More
Leverage Points Aren’t What We Think They Are
On Mechanistic Metaphors Systems thinkers love to talk about leverage points—those magical places where a small intervention supposedly yields outsized change. The image is always mechanical: a bar, a fulcrum, a decisive push. But that metaphor smuggles in an assumption: that the world behaves like a machine waiting for the right force in the right place. As Derek Cabrera recently … Read More
The Tale of Two (2) Three (3) Horizon Ideas
On forecasting, portfolios, and futures “We need to spend more time on Horizon 2,” they both say. One is a program officer at a climate and nature philanthropy. The initiatives they’re funding risk being captured by the dominant political economy in the U.S. or co-opted by greenwashing actors who sound like they are marching toward progress but are aggressively resisting … Read More
Narrative, Valuation, and the Material Power of Finance
“Narrative change” has become its own sphere in philanthropy and movement work, stories as culture, identity, and legitimacy. Narrative work is funded. Those with the best narratives attract funding. There’s even been a backlash against narrative-building, and last week I had a set of compelling conversations thanks to Julia Roig’s post on Judith Mil’s post, a materialist critique of narratives. … Read More
Outcomes Will Be Contested
Performing Economic Realities: Climate Week on Value, AI, and the Contest Over Contribution My worlds all collided at Climate Week, and it’s taken me another week to metabolize the bafflement of many and find the corners of coherence, trying to remember more than the variation of seating charts, convening experiences, and which rooms were set to Arctic tundra versus tropical … Read More
Who Shapes the Machine Dreams
A story about unimaginative visions for efficiency and who gets to decide what intelligence serves. The machines are learning. But not what you think. The machines are learning how to hollow out human work and pour the profits into distant accounts. The machines are learning the language of efficiency, which means “we don’t need you anymore.” The machines are learning … Read More
The Double-Edged Sword of Outcomes-Based Models
A compelling narrative is emerging in business and finance: a shift from funding effort to paying for results. On the surface, outcomes-based models, results-based finance, and impact-linked finance appear to be a logical evolution toward greater efficiency and accountability. This approach, however, is not a panacea. It’s a complex tool whose application merits careful critique, as it can create as … Read More
Logic is in the Eye of the Logician
“How do I fund this?” This is the most common question I get when meeting with students, researchers, artists, corporate innovators, non-profit directors, and government policymakers when embarking on a new idea. I’m a business modeler, and I teach how to design business models. So I understand the question about funding, but it is often premature. You can’t answer this … Read More
Bringing Your Community With You: The CurlMix Equity Raise Story
We continue our Alternative Capital Explorers Series, the story of CurlMix. Since launching Reason Street Capital Library I’ve had many taboo conversations with founders, funders, and students all over the world who want to talk about money. Most strikingly are the strong feelings that come up when discussing what it feels like to raise Venture Capital, Angel Investment, or Debt. The CurlMix Story … Read More
Isthmus Community Powered Sharing: Conscious Company Decisions
Welcome to the Alternative Capital Explorers Series, the story of Isthmus. As I’ve been exploring in the Capital Library, most early stage financing alternatives to the standard Angel and VC offerings of equity require a track record of revenue in order to qualify for funding. But what if you are an early stage company and you need to develop technology … Read More
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