Atelier WeekNotes: May 2025 (oops)
INITIATIVES. Request: a 'Ready for Scaling' tool? Venture Partner at Conduit Connect Absurd Intelligence.Hold the date: Fate of Britain Convention, Thu 11 Sep. 0/DETECTING. [Redacted event].
So, May happened. One of the big things: starting to support Absurd Intelligence as a part-time (sorta) Director of Impact (more here). As I said at the time, WeekNotes will be affected, as I won't be able to share confidential insider stuff.
That's one reason for no WeekNotes in May. Another is that I’m now spending 3 days a week on one thing. As a result, I am both busier and have less flexibility.
So, this WeekNote MonthNote (doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?) is a catch up on various events and activities during May, with only little on AI.
INITIATIVES
Request: a 'Ready for Scaling' tool?
Venture Partner at Conduit Connect
Absurd Intelligence
-Hold the date: Fate of Britain Convention, Thu 11 Sep.
0/DETECTING
The [redacted event name] by [redacted organisation name].
How can the Atelier of What's Next be of service to you, and your purposes? We'd love to hear from you. Perhaps you have a challenge or idea to put in the studio. Maybe one of our existing topics appeals to you. What if you love to make new things happen by being part of the studio? Or if you have feedback or comments that would improve this deck. Either click the button below or email davidbent@atelierwhatsnext.org.
INITIATIVES
Request: a 'Ready for Scaling' tool?
I've been asked to run a session at the CISL Canopy ('a community of impact-led startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses accelerating solutions to global sustainability challenges') on 'Scaling sustainability innovation' as part of the Cambridge Wide Open Day. The advertising blurb:
"How can startups be scaled up? While there is no single formula, this event will explore scaling up through stories from successful entrepreneurs and tools based on research.
This event is being delivered by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)‘s Canopy Innovation team, with guest speaker David Bent. It is part of Cambridge Wide Open Day.
Joining this event, you will:
Hear from successful entrepreneurs on the strategies, challenges and approach to their scaling journey
Learn frameworks and assessment tools to help you map out what you need to scale
Find out about upcoming accelerator programmes from Canopy
Contribute to the conversation on what is needed to scale startups' innovation
Build networks with impact-driven founders."
Register here, if you're interested.
I’m planning to use a 'maturity framework' to spot what is needed next for their start up to scale up. I have examples and tools already (for instance from the classic Camels, Tigers & Unicorns and Grubb's multiple journeys).
If you know of anything which can be used to diagnose what more is needed for a start-up to scale up, do drop me a line.
By the way, I do already know about the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology. When I've put this request out to my networks, I've had lots of responses saying ‘use the TRLs’.
But, they are measuring whether the technology works. A technology can be TRL9 (“System Proven and Ready for Full Commercial Deployment”) but still the company doesn’t have the right staff, a ready supply chain, customer who understand the new offer, enough market demand, the right regulation and so on.
I’m looking to see if there is anything like TRL but for all the non-technology aspects.
WHAT NEXT
Register for the event here.
Send me your examples or relevant tools.
Venture Partner at Conduit Connect
I've had my first meeting considering potential investments as a Venture Partners at Conduit Connect (background in a past WeekNote). The VPs are a sort of expert sounding board, asking question and giving expert insight on the individual companies that Conduit Connect is considering investing in. Conduit Connect has four themes: climate, health, education, and inclusion.
Obviously, the discussions themselves are confidential. A couple of themes that I can share:
Exciting start-ups! We considered eight companies. I was very dubious on some, and had some questions on others. But there were at least 3 which stand a chance of having a big impact, and making money along the way.
Process speciality. Having four themes means having to know enough on four big topics, with many sub-markets. Which means being very good at forming judgement by gathering insight from experts.
Longevity of specialist tech. A number of the start-ups had very specialist technology. Which raised a question about how long there would be a market for such singular solutions.
Somewhere in David Landes' Wealth and Poverty of Nations, I think he argues that the US had industrial take-off when screws and similar hardware became standardised. Then, rather than sticking to a very particular screw, everything was re-designed around a standard set of screws. And so on. (My memory might be off (I read it over 20 years ago), but I think repairing guns was a key proving ground, which would be very American.)
The question for an investor is: will this particular specialist tech still have a market in 5-10 years (when the investor will be hoping to exit) or will a generic standardised tech be so prevalent and cheap that everyone re-designs to use that, and makes the specialist solution obsolete?
Problems are not markets. As Rowan Conway keeps telling me (and said in public here). Even an Impact Venture Capital approach can only invest in a business where there are going to be returns. There are solutions to problems which will not get the necessary rate of return to attract funding.
Impact Investing is a good thing. But will not address every thing that needs addressing.
WHAT NEXT
More Venture Partnering!
Absurd Intelligence
Save the date: Fate of Britain Convention, Thu 11 Sep.
AI sent out a save the date email. Here are the key paragraphs:
The Fate of Britain Convention is a call to collaborate on making a better, kinder, more connected country. To rebuild the Britain we know in our hearts while being real about what we see around us: A multifaceted-intersecting-shit-show of climate, inequality and the cost of living, unfolding in real time as our democratic institutions collapse under the weight. Together we can be the answer, but only if we’re able to become infinitely greater than the sum of our parts.
The Fate of Britain Convention - Thursday 11th of September 2025, Conway Hall, 10:00 - 16:00
We will bring together 300+ people, individuals and organisations, ready to do the joined-up, collaborative work needed to build a better world regardless of job or affiliation. From democracy to faith, economics to community organising, culture to tech, climate and more, The Fate of Britain is a clarion call with one simple foundational truth: We can – and will – collectively make a better way to live.
WHAT NEXT
For more, email Nuala [at] absurdintelligence [dot] com.
0/DETECTING
The [redacted event name] by [redacted organisation name]
For some reason, I was invited to a fairly prestigious cultural event on designing the future, which was part of a global pro-market thinktank being in town. The thinktank had a strong reputation as influential (though a checkered history in using that influence). Intrigued, I went along not knowing what to expect.
You'll notice that I have not named the event or the organisation. I don't want to get the people who got me the invite into trouble by naming names.
It was the most vapid, all-surface-no-depth excuse for a cultural event that I have ever had the misfortune to attend.
And I have been to bad events. (Including an academic CSR conference in INSEAD where the French organisers put on after-dinner entertainment of a dancing troupe of scantily-clad women. Really.)
This was something else entirely.
It was an authentic and profound artistic experience in the same way that CentreParcs is a tropical resort beach holiday.
A simulacrum, a facsimile, a shade of what should have been.
Mingling at the start, it turned out that no one knew what to expect. At the time, I thought that was because they wanted a sense of mystery. Now, I think it is because they knew no one would come if they had told us.
The first thing was a boring, self-important speech by the person in charge of the thinktank's world tour. The [redacted event name] has been going for 2 years! It has been a tremendous addition to the itinerary when the global thinktank goes to a city! The person who organises it is a truly amazing person! So creative! So gifted!
As this droned on, I was reminded of communist party speeches, where all is amazing -- ironic format, given the political leanings of the think tank itself. But, maybe things could pick up from here.
Things did not pick up.
Next was a combination of aerobicise, techno dancing and cultish mindfulness. We were invited to put on silent disco headphones. Some sub-John Hopkins techno built quietly in the background, with readings by Alan Watts sprinkled in. That might have been fine, except for the dance instructor-turned-meditation guru's mic'ed up voice burst into our ears, requiring us to get up and dance. And not dance in our own way, but dance to his moves. Arms up! Arms down! Up! Down!
This went on for what felt like ages.
Men in business suits, women in posh frocks. All performing high tempo, synchronised moves, like morning calisthetics that is mandatory in some communist regimes. Getting a bit sweaty. Then he ordered us to tell the person opposite us that 'we are love', and 'I love you'.
All! In the service! Of a! Communal! Spiritual! Experience!
He finished by asking us to check out the postcards on each of our placemats, and join them in a retreat in Greece over the summer.
Now, I'm not against giving people unusual experiences, nor against pushing boundaries and expectations. Three days a week I'm working people who are literally trying to do that.
But.
A 10 minute slot (it felt like a lot more), of imposed regimented activity, while having sensory overload, and being ordered to say slogans.
That does not a positive, profound experience make.
In fact, it makes for an anti-profound experience, one which makes engaging people to do unusual things more difficult. Certainly, anti-mindfulness too.
Such a co-option of rich, old and nuanced Buddhist thought, and packaged up as instant noodles. Commodification of spirituality and wellness into expensive activities for wealthy people who exist outside of any of the civic communities needed for the slow, inner work of self-development.
The rest of the evening continued in much the same vein. A leading curator of an feminist exhibition told us that no writer anywhere, ever, has imagined a society of gender equality. (I immediately thought of the moon-based community in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed. Hardly a flawless community, but one aiming for and mostly delivering gender equality.)
An artist, who had been working with AI and robots, showed us lots of their work in galleries. Each image or video lasted about 1.2 seconds. There was no chance to absorb their art. Her message to us: AI and robots are going to be important to the future. Quite the conclusion, from 15 years of inquiry.
What meaning do I take from the whole fandango? It was hard to escape the feeling that the unwritten purpose of event was for elites to be comfortable with the future they are making — all in an conscious-salving, Instagram-friendly format.
I was struck again and again how much of the event was the impersonation of something else. Of a retreat. Of a seminar. Of people getting to know each other. Of actually engaging with art. The whole thing was so fast and fragmented that none of the offerings could be more than a simulation of the real thing. All the while, the organisers telling us how deep the experience was.
It made me think just how distanced the main audience of the thinktank -- political and business elites -- are from others' realities. Because, their commodified, sanitised, curated bubble is their reality -- concierged (if that is a word) all the way. Also, of learnt ignorance, of being satisfied with the shadows on the cave wall, lest you learn what is going on outside.
The wine was nice. My table enjoyed being quizzical and cynical about the whole thing.
WHAT NEXT
Avoid this global thinktank.
Make sure that any Absurd Intelligence events avoid the same trap of being in and for their own bubble, with no grounding to a world beyond.
Cracking stuff, David! Just a shame they didn't have you as an afternote speaker to round the whole thing off...