Startup Ethical Economic Design
Project Brief:
Purpose-driven startup founders are beginning to wake up to the challenges of getting their business off the ground in ways that protect the purpose of the project.
While many companies retrofit a “mission” in order to sell their idea, there are a growing number of builders and entrepreneurs who are truly motivated by impact rather than profit or cashing out. And there are more and more technologists wanting to work on sustainable projects that have the possibility to make a meaningful and positive difference in the trajectory of the future, even risky projects without a guarantee of security or the allure of a lottery-like payout.
How can we build technologies without the pressure to grow at all costs, especially when that growth undermines the very purpose we aim to serve?
We need Startup Ethical Economic Design for Funding. SEED Funding and SEED Founding!
We've identified four major considerations when choosing how to structure mission-driven startups, particularly when building technology with human interaction as a key component. Each area has different options as well as the potential for innovation.
Entity structure
- What options exist for business legal structures that are better suited to protecting the purpose of the organization in the long run?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks associated with each legal structure?
- What incentives and challenges are baked into these options?
- How do these options compare in different jurisdictions?
- What innovations are possible and useful?
Funding options
- What types of capital can be used to fund purpose-serving projects that don’t put the long term purpose at risk?
- What novel innovations in the capital funding space exist? What are their current challenges?
- How can we combine different inputs, such as investment, grant funding, revenue streams (services, products, custom development, etc), donations, debt, or other mechanisms to enable sufficient seed capital to catalyze mission-driven projects?
Business models
- Which business models support values-aligned purpose-preservation most effectively?
- Where and how might some business models impede positive impact?