Giving Circle First Grant, Unite America and Bear Stories
Your weekly five things from the mind of Miles Lasater
Welcome to your Saturday! Here are your weekly five things from the mind of Miles.
Giving Circle. I’ve started a Giving Circle for startup tech nonprofits. Immigrants Like Us is the recommendation for this quarter. I’ve spent some time advising the exec team and am excited by their mission "to help immigrants find freedom, opportunity, and love in the United States - without the high cost of an attorney." They provide free software and content to assist in filing immigration paperwork. Think of it as TurboTax for immigration. The team has experience with similar models (UpSolve), has strong SEO ratings & earned media and has begun serving clients.
Unite America. Many moons ago, I read the Centrist Manifesto and lost track of the author. More recently, I’ve discovered Unite America and joined as a member. They are mainly advocating to end gerrymandering, put in place rank choice voting and have nonpartisan primaries. Check it out.
Bear Stories. I’ve been scaring myself with arguments that the stock market and perhaps our monetary, economic and political system is in for more shocks and deep change. If there is a 1 or 5% chance these arguments are correct, what should we do?
Seeing Words. I recently listened to a survey lecture course on the language families of the world. The professor said a couple times that he pictures words visually when someone says them. He seemed to say that everyone does this. Is this based on any research or just an assumption? I picture words approximately never. Maybe that’s why I have struggled with spelling. I’m curious how common it is for people to have a visual relationship with spoken language.
Climate Guests Please. We’ve published 12 episodes so far in the relaunch of the Startups for Good podcast. Our guests have come from many industries including higher ed, finance, investing, software, home care, legal tech, nonprofit and government. I’m looking for a guest or two who is a founder working on mitigating or adapting to climate change. Ideally someone who has a product in market and/or raised some investment capital.
As a reminder, my work projects are:
Startup investing with Purpose Built Ventures
A podcast called Startups for Good with associated virtual community and giving circle
My blog Venture Patterns
Until next week,
Miles