Tech founder turned impact investor:
BetterBite.vc—Alt protein / climate VC in Asia
GoalsWon.com—accountability coaching app
Simon Newstead
Karma: 372
Consider publishing EAG/x program earlier
Some questions from me:
Probability of blended meat options being introduced in X major restaurant chains by year Y
Level of government investment in alternative proteins by year X
Which precision fermentation / cultivated food ingredients will reach price parity of animal equivalents by year X
Submitting this question as a funder (early stage VC) that works in alt protein, and would influence areas to support and how to best help existing portfolio companies. Been working in this space for 5+ years and previously in broader animal movement as advocate.
Suggestions:
1) Have a commitment device, like pledging with Giving What We Can
2) Take the active choice to donate out of your hands, set up automatic bank transfers on regular basis, separate accounts etc. So motivation isn’t needed for the donations to still get done.
3) If you feel like the “why” and emotional connection could help, setup an automation so you get blog posts from organizations that you (indirectly) support are sent to your inbox/DMs—this is the work you are making happen!
Thanks for all the donations you’ve done over the years!
Thanks Vasco for writing this post and being open minded to evolve viewpoints—much appreciated.
Do you have thoughts on whether long term it would be preferable for net suffering to have more cropland with higher amount of nematodes per sq/m etc supporting a given population size with current per capita animal consumption levels, vs relatively more consumption of land efficient alternatives to animal products, enabling higher human population and greater amount of urban/suburban land ie—with less nematodes per sq/m.
Thanks for sharing.
Reminds me a bit of the work Innovate Animal Ag are doing, not sure if the consulting part also covers the R&D / engineering or just go to market/commercialization.
It makes sense though, we’ve seen in other fields mission driven folks being the ones to develop all new technologies / try out their own ideas eg- climate tech, alt protein
I don’t think it’s so important to have someone who fully aligns with the values. There are many great marketing execs in industry who don’t use their companies products, or maybe only partially identify with things personally. My suggestion—hire an executive recruiting firm focused on this sector, and ask them to target some of the most successful brands in the broader charity / social enterprise / commercial+impact space or in ad agencies who did the work. Or consider bringing in hired guns on a contract/project basis (or outsource it to an experienced agency). This is a critical brand turnaround project. Let’s not try to DIY
This role seems like more of a digital/marketing generalist and who will “translate our EA brand strategy into concrete marketing plans”—my question is more on who is leading the branding strategy effort if this role isn’t. Is it someone with deep experience in branding specifically? The reason I ask is because to turn around a tarnished brand is a very challenging endeavor, and without doing that, it will limit EA’s potential (see GMO, nuclear etc)
“Act now, rather than wait until it’s too late” → well put.
Glad to see the good work of CaML and others highlighted. Positively influencing the models as much as possible right now seems vital.
A random one—is AI for inter-species communication emerging as a thing? Is it viable in the short term, are there promising projects working on it with a view to bringing it to the masses via mobile apps etc?
Thanks for sharing the direction, appreciated.
For the rebrand, do you have experienced marketing folks on board or planned to be?
ie- with real industry experience, beyond EA circles?
It seems like a very tough challenge to undo the damage and change perceptions, and would benefit from a battle-tested team/professional.
I appreciate you sharing this and for making the effort to donate to help out in this world. Sometimes we can get numb to giving (or not giving) and it’s helpful to get a reminder of the impact of our donations in human terms.
From a practical point of view, if all the traffic and search/other reputation is to 80k website, and the timelines are perceived to be short, I could imagine it makes sense to the team to directly adjust the focus of the website rather than take the years to build up a separate, additional brand.
Simon Newstead’s Quick takes
If this is a critical time with probability of short timelines increasing, money invested via donations should be of higher value now vs historically.
But potential for AGI in the short term might lead folks to worry more about the potential risk to their career plus there’s also the desire to invest more now to capture AGI gains, leading to donations not increasing to match their potential value in this moment.
Questions-
Any sense of if this might be the case? I have only anecdotal observations.
If it is, how can we tackle this?
App product guy and mobile game designer (in a past life) here.
Suggestion would be to test and much as you possibly can quickly and cheaply with a bare bones MVP / prototype before you commit lots of time/money on charity setup, full app development, graphics/branding.
Most app concepts and UX’s just don’t resonate with users, find out if it does first before going further, and iterate as needed.
There’s lots of good advice out there on how to do customer development, testing. I’d go both qualitative (blind play test, focus groups etc) and quantitative (embed analytics, see where people drop etc)
All the best with it!
Got to connect with Max through impact investing circles, he also took the time out to have a call to give feedback on another impact project, sharing his experience candidly. I remember thinking—that was really nice of him to take time out to really help a random person on the internet. Shame he was taken too early. Rest in peace Max.
This year have donated:
14k to long term future / s-risks / ai safety
12k to animal suffering
4k to global health / well-being
Glad to finish up with a slight increase vs last year.
Organizations:
Center for AI safety
AI for Animals (via Hive)
Future of Life Institute
Wild Animal Initiative (via GWWC)
Centre for Reducing Suffering
Animal Advocacy Africa
Malaria Consortium (via EA Australia)
Michael Dello-Lacovo (content)
Shrimp Welfare Project
Thanks all for working hard on the important stuff...
My question is about donation swap and is there enough critical mass of givers (and demand) to implement or help facilitate something like this?
eg- Australia can give to some cause areas / charities but not others (eg existential risk, animal policy/lobbying etc)
Thanks for all the great work (and donations!) you and crew all do at GWWC.
Great initiative!
Quite a lot of agri projects doing similar things with satellite imagery
eg- seeing if rice farmers are adopting alternate wetting drying as opposed to traditional flooding, to reduce methane emissions.
Not sure if there are practical lessons to be learned from those folks?
What an interesting and relevant topic area you’re working on, and nice to hear you’re working towards something bigger. How true about extraordinary altruistic leverage. Welcome to the forum...
I think the peak of value could be around the 4-6 months mark.
Some examples of events I was involved in:
Agri-Food Innovation Summit:
June—first public look at speakers / program published
Aug—full agenda and all speakers confirmed
Nov—event
Food Frontier:
May—speakers and program announced
Oct—event
Too far out and it’s hard to know what your priorities might be, lock-in risk etc.