In this episode, I spoke to Zoe Weinberg, founder and managing partner of ex/ante, a venture fund focused on technology that enhances human agency.
Zoe actively invests in a growing number of founders committed to empowering users by giving them control over their data and digital identities.
Our conversation explored the ever present threat of digital authoritarianism, the product tradeoff between privacy and convenience, the potential of portable digital identities, and how emerging technologies impact democratic values.
I hope you find this conversation insightful.
Chapters:
- 00:00 Cold open
- 03:15 Human agency and technology
- 12:30 Zoe's thoughts on digital authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism
- 20:18 The product tradeoff between convenience and privacy
- 25:40 Portable digital identities
- 30:05 Zoe's take on tech and the state of democracy
- 36:20 The importance of user agency in emerging tech
- 40:12 Zoe's journey to founding ex/ante
- 45:00 Business models that support user agency
- 50:15 The potential of AI-driven privacy solutions
- 54:45 Closing reflections
The Slow Hunch is produced by the team at Spectral.