Luke Kanies is the reason I attended the NewCo Shift Forum.
In a 6-part series on Medium at the end of 2017, Kanies took apart the venture capital industry, brick by brick, and outlined a few different paths forward. It was thoughtful and illuminating; at the same time both revolutionary and rooted in optimistic capitalism. It’s exactly the kind of deep, critical thinking we need to face our enormous challenges. The series was sponsored by John Battelle and NewCo.
I assumed that NewCo’s signature conference, the Shift Forum, would present more of the same challenges to the status quo. But it’s a few hours since the close of the 2018 forum and I can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity. Most of the speakers were credible and relevant leaders, and some, like Michael Tubbs, Eric Garcetti, Jennifer Pahlka and Ben Silberman were inspiring. I genuinely enjoyed the experience and met some passionate and powerful leaders among the other delegates. But did I get a sense of how, exactly, “Business Must Lead,” which was the title of the event? Were we exposed to other Kanies-like insights that would help us to build the institutions of a more equal future? Outside of Pahlka’s thrilling vision for rebuilding government in the service of its user-citizens, I think the answer is “no.”
I would not normally provide feedback publicly, like this. (And given I have 189 twitter followers no one may read this anyway). But NewCo is important. There aren’t that many organizations consistently challenging conventional thought while maintaining a capitalist lens. NewCo’s leaders are connected, credible, super-smart and clearly care about both business and humans. It can be a powerful force to help us face, and overcome, the contradictions inherent in asking capitalism to serve humanity. So I’m posting this publicly because if others agree with this feedback it will be more powerful, and will help NewCo have the impact we all want it to have. Please know these thoughts come from great respect and belief in what NewCo can achieve.
Here are a few examples where I think opportunities were missed at the Forum:
· In a very short (but terrifying) presentation The Silicon Valley Bank outlined the incredible progress of Chinese industry, and how big a threat it was to America. However, there was no challenging conversation about the implications of this and how the US could respond.
· There was very little discussion of what could be learned from the rest of the world in addressing two of the conference’s pillars: politics and policy and the future of work. Be it Estonia’s digital government, India’s response to jobs being lost to big data or the progressive safety nets of Northern Europe, the most we heard was Colorado Governor Hickenlooper’s impressive and bipartisan adoption of the Swiss apprenticeship system and a short list of ideas from Laura Tyson. In a panel of four former leaders of other national governments, the conversation largely focused on the world’s reaction to Donald Trump. It’s clear from NewCo’s writing that it believes there are great ideas in the rest of the world, but that perspective was largely absent.
· Conversations about the future of the Democratic and Republican parties were both safe and again very focused on Trump and the 2016 election. In a year where an optimistic capitalist and former banker mobilized France around an entirely new party with a challenging and important platform, our conversation failed to introduce any ideas to break American political dysfunction.
· While I have nothing but respect for Kirsten Green and Aileen Lee as powerful, smart and successful women who are winning in venture capital, and they did a terrific job on their panel, I was very surprised to hear only from people operating in a traditional VC model. The industry may be fundamentally broken, and especially in light of the Kanies series, I expected to hear from people like Ross Baird, Bryce Roberts or the women from the Zebra movement who are building new and more equitable approaches to funding the ventures of the future.
Finally, and maybe most disappointingly, was the panel with Tim O’Reilly, Nick Hanauer and Laura Tyson. O’Reilly and Hanauer are two of the most thoughtful capitalists who also believe that our current system is fundamentally broken. They have important, radical and challenging ideas, and business can make meaningful choices to follow their lead to a more equal future. I was incredibly excited for this one! But the moderator kept steering them to “politically viable” solutions. Why? How often is Stephen Miller steered toward safe and “politically viable” solutions? The NewCo Shift Forum seems like the perfect place to get 100% of O’Reilly and Hanauer, and, while they did their best to be challenging, they were pushed to the least interesting aspects of their ideas.
During Mayor Garcetti’s engaging discussion he talked about the surprising finding that a permanent sales tax was more popular among the people of Los Angeles than a temporary one. When asked in a focus group, citizens said that a permanent tax meant a real, long-lasting solution to LA’s traffic problem. They didn’t want another half-measure. Isn’t that one of the real lessons from Trump and Sanders? That people know things are broken and are more likely to embrace and trust radical change than incrementalism?
I think the delegates at the Forum would similarly prefer challenging and bold to “politically viable.” On the morning of the third day one delegate said to me: “I want to leave here inspired. I don’t think it’s going to happen.” In conversation with others there was clear agreement that our systems are broken and a great unease and frustration about the unclear path to fixing it. There was real fear about the consequences if inequality and uncertainty continue to grow, and a desire for radical redesign. And everyone I talked to believed both in capitalism and democracy — this was not a crowd full of communists. While the people on stage were often thoughtful, experienced and brilliant, their answers for saving American capitalism tended toward the safe and measured.
As you think about 2019’s event, please give us our permanent sales tax. Show us how and why things are broken. Unleash the O’Reillys and the Hannauers. You have a powerful megaphone right now: use it to make us uncomfortable and challenge us to make big changes. Like the citizens of Los Angeles, big change is what we actually want, even if it hurts a little.
