Opening Up Access

What could happen if we change who writes the first cheque into a startup?

It’s hard to get around the fact that investors are most likely to empathise with problems they’ve experienced themselves. So the types of companies that receive funding at the earliest stages often reflect the problems faced by the typical wealthy white man.

I think we can all agree no one wants to read about another wildly hot funding round for a productivity tool — whether that’s note-taking or calendars. We want to see the hardest problems in the world solved.

So to enable founders to raise money to solve problems experienced by people from diverse backgrounds all over the world, we need to ensure the investors writing the first cheques can empathise with all kinds of different problems — the inability to find affordable fresh food, how to restructure childcare so it supports working families, supporting rehabilitation for those who fall into crime and addiction.

Which is why I’m so proud of the new program we’re launching at AirTree — the Explorer program. We’re opening up education and most importantly funding, to allow a new cohort of angel investors to start introducing us to founders we wouldn’t normally meet and help build investment theses for startups solving problems we may not intuitively empathise with. We can’t wait to see what happens next.

The by-product of this initiative is as important — by giving Explorers funding and allowing them to sit alongside us on the cap table and control their own equity stake, we’re opening up access to wealth creation opportunities that are usually only available to those who are already wealthy.

I’ve written before about the difference between income and wealth, and how real wealth is most often created through equity ownership. Usually to build equity you need to have the initial capital to invest, so often these investments just help the rich get richer. While angel investing is the antithesis of “get rich quick”, hopefully successful Explorers can kick off a flywheel that helps them build wealth for the rest of their lives.

If you would like to become an Explorer, apply here before 30th September.

Links I Enjoyed

The Kekulé Problem

For some reason, it comes as no surprise to me that Cormac McCarthy is a researcher at the Santa Fe Institute. Here he discusses language and the unconscious.

The Billionaire who wanted to die broke, is now officially broke

Chuck Feeney, who co-founded Duty Free Shoppers and General Atlantic, put aside $2m for his retirement and gave away $8bn.

The iBuyers: High(er)-Frequency Trading Comes to Home Buying

A deep dive into the iBuyer model in the US from Byrne Hobart. (It’s a starred Medium article I case you’re saving those up).

A Deep Dive into K-Pop

30,000 words on the K-Pop factory.

And I went on Mike Frazis’ podcast. The conversation covered everything from options trading to creator communities.