Edward Norton: From Hollywood to High-Impact Entrepreneurship

Jan 27, 2026

Edward Norton, acclaimed actor and filmmaker turned serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. He compares filmmaking to building companies. He discusses founding CrowdRise, modernizing board workflows with Zek, and why he never starts a company solo. He explains trade-offs between standalone businesses and M&A and how storytelling shapes leadership and team-building.

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INSIGHT

Storytelling Is Organizational Glue

Building a film is like building a company: you must tell a compelling story and align a large team around it.
Great directors are great communicators who synchronize disparate people into a shared creative frequency.

INSIGHT

Creativity And Analysis Are One

Creative and analytical work use the same cognitive skills; the right-brain/left-brain divide is false.
Norton applies analytical rigor to acting and creative thinking to his businesses.

ANECDOTE

Entrepreneurship Runs In The Family

Norton grew up in a household steeped in entrepreneurship and impact, with grandfather Jim Rouse and a father in environmental organizations.
Early exposure made starting things feel normal and exciting to him.

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Edward Norton is known for both his acclaimed film career and his experiences founding and scaling ventures like CrowdRise, Baswood, STAX, and EDO. He joins Kim Posnett, global co-head of Investment Banking, to discuss the parallels between filmmaking and entrepreneurship, the importance of mission-driven work, and the lessons learned from building teams and driving innovation. This session was recorded at the 2025 Builders and Innovators Summit on October 16, 2025.

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