Melanie Rieback, a cybersecurity entrepreneur and founder of Nonprofit Ventures, discusses her journey into post-growth entrepreneurship—eschewing the traditional Silicon Valley model for sustainable practices. She critiques the conventional capitalist framework and emphasizes the importance of ethical governance models like steward ownership. Rieback highlights the concept of non-extractive business practices, addressing fair compensation challenges while advocating for systemic change. Engaging personal experiences are also underscored as vital for shaping this innovative landscape.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Melanie's Journey to PGE
Melanie Rieback, a cybersecurity expert, founded a social enterprise after witnessing burnout in colleagues due to ethically challenged companies.
She initially used a model requiring 90% profit donation to charity and later gave 100% of company shares to a foundation.
insights INSIGHT
Extraction Incentive vs. Profit Motive
Rieback emphasizes that removing financial extraction, not just profit, is key.
Without extraction, impact becomes the primary reason for a company's existence.
insights INSIGHT
Beyond Steward Ownership
Steward ownership is good, but doesn't always prevent all forms of extraction.
Rieback advocates going further by eliminating profit rights entirely using golden shares and asset locks.
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The Entrepreneurial State challenges the conventional wisdom that innovation is best left to the private sector. Mariana Mazzucato argues that the public sector has been the primary risk-taker in many significant technological innovations, from the Internet and GPS to touch-screen displays and voice recognition. She provides case studies to show how government investments have driven economic growth and suggests policies to ensure that both the public and private sectors share the risks and rewards of innovation. The book emphasizes the state's role in shaping and creating markets, rather than just fixing market failures.
Thinking in systems
A Primer
Diana Wright
Donella Meadows
This book introduces readers to systems thinking, a critical skill for 21st-century life. It explains how to understand and interact with complex systems, highlighting the importance of internal system structures and feedback loops. The book is divided into sections on system structures and behavior, the relationship between systems and humans, and strategies for creating change within systems. It aims to help readers develop a deeper understanding of systems to address global issues such as climate change, poverty, and social inequalities.
Doughnut economics
Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
Kate Raworth
In *Doughnut Economics*, Kate Raworth presents a new economic model that combines the concept of planetary boundaries with social boundaries. The 'doughnut' framework aims to ensure that no one falls short on life's essentials while preventing the overshoot of Earth's life-supporting systems. Raworth argues for a shift from growth-at-any-costs mentality to an economy that prioritizes human and planetary well-being, drawing on diverse schools of thought including ecological, behavioral, feminist, and institutional economics. The book offers seven key ways to reframe economic thinking for the 21st century, emphasizing the need for economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The Lean Startup introduces a revolutionary approach to building and scaling businesses, emphasizing continuous innovation, customer feedback, and scientific experimentation. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. The book advocates for 'validated learning,' rapid experimentation, and the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop to shorten product development cycles and measure actual progress. It also stresses the importance of pivoting or persevering based on data and customer needs, making it an essential read for anyone involved in starting or growing a business[1][2][5].
Melanie Rieback is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and the founder of Nonprofit Ventures, an organization dedicated to supporting post growth entrepreneurs. She runs an incubator to support post growth entrepreneurs and teaches a course at the University of Amsterdam on post growth entrepreneurship. Her lectures are available on YouTube, linked below.
This episode builds on a long series of conversations on this podcast exploring economic reform: stakeholder capitalism, steward ownership, co-ops, post-growth economics, to name a few. While it's called pot growth entrepreneurship, really this conversation is about non-extractive entrepreneurship. PGE rejects the typical silicon valley model of capital, scale, exit, in favor of bootstrapping, flat growth, and non-extraction.
In this conversation Jenny and Melanie discuss:
Melanie's path from cybersecurity entrepreneur to post growth entrepreneurship
Why not all forms of steward ownership ensure profit serves purpose
Why Melanie believes business is one of the most effective forms of activism
Defining post growth entrepreneurship (PGE)
Why PGE is a leverage point for systemic change
Issues with the Silicon Valley model of capital, scale, exit
Issues with status quo social enterprise and impact investing
Principles of PGE: bootstrapping, flat growth, non-extraction
Asset locks and stable steward ownership implementation
Policy initiatives in Europe to create a steward owned business entity
How to think about fair compensation when implementing PGE
Melanie's post growth entrepreneurship course at the University of Amsterdam; 8 YouTube lectures
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