Coburn Ventures Podcast

The 11 unavoidable ideas are one of the oldest components of our process. For those of you who have been around for a while, the Unavoidable Ideas are a variation of what we used to call our Node 1 Societal Shifts. These shifts were the starting point for every company we would analyze for our portfolio. At the very top of our funnel, the first filter was this question: Is this company benefiting from or negatively impacted by one of the societal changes that we’ve identified? It increased conviction from the beginning that we had a company that was in the midst of major change, and that is where we wanted our portfolio to be positioned, in monumental change! Here are "11 Unavoidable Ideas" that are in play right now, and we believe are worth noticing and thinking through at a deeper level. I hope you enjoy it.

There’s a big difference between believing you understand a concept and really internalizing it. If I know anything about the community surrounding Coburn Ventures, I know that we always want tools to adapt, change and learn new things in our work and life. But more than that, we don't want to create new blind spots by thinking we understand something that we really don't. Pip and I have developed pilot projects and working groups with clients that helps embed internalization in investment process, but we’ll go deeper on those specific tools another time because today we include a friend later in this conversation whose profession demands internalization of every piece of his act such that to his audience, all motions are effortless: he needs to be particularly beguiling to his audience...its magician and mentalist Ryan Oakes. I hope you enjoy it.

ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) presents pressure to go from one mindset to another about what investing is and to whom all of the benefits accrue and why. A change like this leaves open a lot of opportunities for confusion, and for jumping to conclusions…both enemies of a strong and clear investment process on a high-functioning team. Today, we are aiming to bring awareness up around common misunderstandings arising with ESG. We start with misunderstandings between investors and marketers, and then between investors and... investors. I hope you enjoy it. 

Jennifer Brown helps organizations understand what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion means in real life. What kinds of listening needs to happen, what programs work, how to go beyond the surface level… so that employees can come to work as their full selves. Jennifer acts as a guide in this sometimes rough terrain. Today we start with some knowledge-building, and basic definitions like equity vs. equality. After that Jennifer helps us see more of what DEI looks like in an effective organization and why its so important for building trust, belonging and in that, productivity. Let’s jump in.

As I listened back to this recording, I was shaking my head most of the time. This is about the least summery summer book list that has ever been released. I mean, my best "beach read" is a study of Old New York and Pip has a recommendation that profiles families in North Korea. That being said, the goal is to take in some new inputs this summer...and especially uncommon or unconventional inputs, and I am constantly amazed by the power of research and writing, but especially world literature, to open up new considerations, new perspectives, and broaden my imagination. For an investor, there is so much value in widening the aperture and letting a writer hold hands with the reader's imagination to do the thing we humans can do: consider the many different ways of looking at the world and our collective past and future. It's a skill, but with the help of a good book, it's also play. We looked for books that had a combination of new ideas and great fun, and that is how we created the so-called summer book list. I hope you enjoy it.

We're here for Part Two of our conversation with Mike Lee of The Future Market and Alpha Food Labs.  This week we'll get deeper into a systems-level approach to understanding our current food system to have a better view of where it may be going next. We start at the layer of culture, observing how our regional preferences create regional bonds and identity, and that this is ever more present in multi-national brands aiming to plug in directly to our cultural and political identities. Finally, Mike walks us through a couple of compelling examples of why "sustainability" cannot be yanked out of the context of the whole food system. 

What's more fundamental than food? This week and next, we have two discussions with our friend Mike Lee, founder of The Future Market and Alpha Food Labs. Mike and his team help large corporations see into a future where everything from how we get our food to what it consists of, is different, and he helps young brands navigate a very established food industry. In today's conversation, Mike helps us understand why the future of food may not be what we first imagine. 

Today we’re talking about getting back to the office, a topic that many of you have been bringing to us fervently over the last six months. Beyond the obvious reasons, I think you are all asking about it precisely because it is up for discussion and review, and that itself is meaningful!  Additionally, I think you are sensing that the role of the traditional office for knowledge workers and more has been in the rearview mirror for a while. And now, office as a daily necessity for the doing of work, the office as we've defined it for the last 80 years or so, is just not part of our zeitgeist. It is likely now post zeitgeist, which is not so scary an idea as post zeitgeist only means that its classical period has passed. It does not cease to exist, but it loses its place as the de facto standard to define when work is done and how, both individually and in the context of team.  So what might happen in the coming months as organizations sort out coming back to a physical office? Let's jump in.

We’re here with Gavin Ivester, a product and brand executive with a background in industrial design. He has global experience in both tech and lifestyle products at Apple, Nike, Puma, and Bang & Olufsen. Our topic today is care. More specifically, what is it that modern companies can do to incorporate care, at scale, into their product or service experience? Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking about play and play science, inspired by the work of our friend Dr. Stuart Brown. So, why this topic, on this podcast? Well, play, may not be exactly what you think. We know how to describe play and its benefits for children but we think we leave many types of play behind when we grow up. Spoiler alert: may we don't, we just don't fully realize what play is. Play is much broader and more powerful than we give it credit for. Dr. Brown writes that in a play state, we are organizing our thoughts, and rapidly creating. It’s how we’ve evolved to solve problems. Without play, we are depressed, prone to burnout, and our thinking becomes stuck and rigid. Now, doesn't "play" sound intriguing?  Let's jump in.