Is there a specific type of venture you’re thinking about starting?
And are you looking specifically for “value alignment” with effective altruism, or just having as big a positive impact as you can? Do you see any difference between those two things?
Hi Aaron! Thanks for your response. Yes, some friends and I have been thinking about one/two ventures that sell carbon credits in exchange for financing transitions to plant-based consumption or production (can clarify further if that would be helpful).
I’m thinking of value alignment more broadly i.e. that the venture starters may hold some values (in our case concern for animal welfare, global + local pollution) that they would like to see the venture advance, or at least not compromise, while also satisfying investor demand for profit. But the values could also be other things. For instance, Lyft might have held as founding values to pay drivers ‘fair’ wages—what things could they have read/learned to help them guide the growth of their company in such a way that it was aligned with this goal? Let me know if that makes sense—not sure it does!
This is an interesting post:
Towards effective entrepreneurship: what makes a startup high-impact?
Thanks! I found this helpful, especially the part on explicitly writing down impact mechanisms, as well as ways of measuring them, even if they’re imperfect. As a next step, it would be useful to know if there are ways of structuring/managing a corporation such that it is broadly aligned with increasing impact through these mechanisms.
Establishing the culture / mission of the organization around the success of the social good (which is easier for customers as benefactors) instead of just increasing profits as much as possible.
I wrote down some thoughts on the trade-offs one encounters when balancing profitability and other values: https://victorsintnicolaas.com/articles/11.html
Very much interested in other material!