Kalil's Corner: Business Plan Competitions for Multi-Sector Collaborations

The Power of Effective Agenda-Setting — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation (V2)

Tom Kalil Renaissance Philanthropy believes in the power of effective agenda-setting. In this Q&A, Tom Kalil discusses what we mean by that, how agenda-setting can create positive, self-fulfilling prophesies, and the role of field strategists in agenda-setting.

A game of co-opetition: exploring the benefits of asset owner collaboration - Thinking Ahead Institute

It may seem like a hidden truth but the reality is that asset owners are in competition with each other. They are in competition for the best alpha ideas, the best manager products and the best research – all with the aim of improving risk-return trade-offs to increase the likelihood of meeting their liabilities. As a result, many asset owners find it difficult to collaborate, even in initiatives that may prove mutually beneficial. At the Thinking Ahead Institute’s recent Sydney roundtable event, asset owner attendees highlighted the top three barriers to successful peer collaboration: (1) difficulties being transparent; (2) lack of time and resources available; and (3) difficulties in aligning interests. At the same time, attendees agreed on the value to funds of collaborating productively on industry structure and regulation, and on a universal owner / alignment of interest agenda. 

Coordinated Research Programs — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation (V2)

In many cases, ambitious R&D problems are not well-suited to individual academic labs, startups, or other existing institutions.

Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

Renaissance Philanthropy is a nonprofit that designs, incubates, and manages time-bound, thesis-driven philanthropic funds for science, technology, and innovation. Led by Tom Kalil and Kumar Garg, the organization has catalyzed $533M in philanthropic capital since 2024.

Project vs. Product, Startup vs. Business

A couple of weeks ago I dropped into a thread by Mosh Lee, about how ATproto has too many projects and too few businesses. Yes! A few months ago I volunteered to help teams with ops or strategy, and k

👊💰 We need a revolution in social media business models

Deepti Doshi on the business incentives underlying social media

The EU Inc. Proposal: how far does it really go?

A post by Gillis Waelkens and Stéphanie De Smet (Clifford Chance)

Introducing the Inaugural EU Cohort of the Big if True Science Accelerator — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation (V2)

In June, we announced our partnership with SPRIND, Germany's Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, to identify and develop the next generation of leaders to design new R&D challenges and other kinds of coordinated research programs to tackle humanity's most pressing challenges. La

UK Horizons: FRC — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation

Successful coordinated research programmes, like those at ARPAs, have often resulted from exceptional contractors. Many of the best contractors leveraged organisational models uncommon in academia or VC-funded startups. They combined technical ambition, a willingness to build real technology for actual users, and flexible management structures all under one roof to tackle ambitious R&D problems which made the programs a success. These organisations were driven by the pursuit of an ambitious North Star technical vision, not revenue-maximisation. And they pursued this vision with a mix of contracts and grants. We call organisations that do this Frontier Research Contractors (FRCs). Two of ARPA’s most impactful  programmes, the original internet and autonomous vehicle projects, were both led by FRCs. FRCs are also often referred to as 'BBNs' by researchers, inspired by the early internet (ARPAnet) contractor, Bolt, Beranek & Newman.

The Four Factors for Organizations - Future Mending Radio

When I pick an organization for the podcast or the map at Futuremending.com, I’m not just picking businesses out of a hat – I have a system for evaluating orgs which I call the Four Factors for Organizations. The Four Factors are Multi-solving, Sharing, Sufficiency and Transparency.This episode is in two parts. The opening minutes are a bit of an emotional check-in to see how people are processing the unprecedented political turmoil in the United States. The second part of the podcast discusses the Four Factors for Organizations and why seeking out certain vectors of change makes more sense than trying to lay out a detailed plan for a better future. Read about the Four Factors: https://www.futuremending.com/whatMatt’s Blue Sky account: https://bsky.app/profile/mattliepaehlke.bsky.socialWired Magazine coverage of the crisis in the U.S. : https://www.wired.com/tag/elon-musk/Rebecca Solnit’s newsletter: https://meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io/welcome-to-meditations-in-an-emergency/ Google's AI Policy: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/05/google-owner-drops-promise-not-to-use-ai-for-weapons Future Mending Map: https://www.futuremending.com/toronto    Music Credits:'Epilogue' by The Slow Motions.  Used with permission of the artist.‘Fashion’ by Alex Productions. Creative Commons.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV1miCgT7J4‘Miss you’ by Middle Child. Creative Commons.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dayIKHEIYqY‘Opening’ by Phillip Glass.  Arr. by Karl Michelson.  Performed by The Union Guitar Trio.  Used with permission of the artists.Union Guitar Trio on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2E0NidLjIzBAO7t0BBPFUDUnion Guitar Trio on Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-union-guitar-trio/1592543833Sound Effects:BBC News November 9th, 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjNz1lvXgzUwood hit low glass bowl 3.mp3 by ascap -- https://freesound.org/s/242388/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0Brightness by sonically_sound -- https://freesound.org/s/632762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0