&U Analogies

I've come up with some new analogies this week to fit Ampersand U into people's brains, including mine. We can think of it as the Thiel Fellowship meets Shark Tank!

As far as I know, the Thiel Fellowship operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, part of Peter's Foundation. They selectively give away free money grants, previously $100k now $200k, to young builders before they graduate from college.

The premise is philanthropic and philosophical. The underlying point is to correct an expensive failure in the marketplace of ideas around education. Can students forge a more effective learning path outside of traditional school systems?

The program has a good track record at accelerating talent to realize their potential. It's a highly targeted, surgical intervention. It works to inflect an individual's life trajectory. For some time now, it's been a prestigious badge to wear.

Similarly, &U has a philosophical point to prove, for now via $50k grants. I call them "strategic gifts" because I'd like to go further beyond the confines of school—the realm of research grants and scholarships—to play with the boundaries of life's social building blocks, e.g. trust and family. A mom might give her son a car, or pay for his wedding, in service of him living his best life. Why not a stranger?

Mark Burnett adapted Shark Tank from the format of Dragon's Den. A bunch of investors participate as stars on the show, making real business deals with their personal resources to entertain a television audience. Those eyeballs enable the production to sell ads, and contestants on the show gain public exposure.

Thanks to the internet and proliferation of screens (smartphones), now there are better ways to profitably create entertainment outside of television. Seth Godin, MrBeast, and Bryan Johnson can structure their own production companies. All they need is a laptop. Vertically integrated stars can connect much more directly and authentically with their audience communities, sell products, etc.

I own my distribution via this blog and a youtube channel. You don't need to write a letter to my agent, who gives it to the director's secretary, etc. You can just post a comment somewhere or send me an email.

My life has evolved to the point where I'm passionate about making a show out of strategic gifting. I think I can do it uniquely well. In a way, I'm trying to put Peter Thiel + Paul Graham's brains inside Mark Cuban + MrBeast's body.

Present conditions enable this, now more than ever. As the implications dawned upon me in July and August, I realized a for-profit media company is the best vehicle for my philanthropy. It has taken some time to prepare myself mentally and set things up over the course of September and October.

This was my first week of showtime. I knew I'd be creating a big snowball, but I didn't expect the first snowflake to be so simple—just posting the below message in a slack group for Interact alumni. This catalyzed a ton of activity, much more than I anticipated, such that I'm now percolating many new platform directions and possibilities.

Things are going extremely well. My &U candidates are easily at the quality level of Thiel Fellows. The clarity of my vision has resonated, allowing me to connect with incredible people from all corners of the globe. I'm psyched to share their stories with the world soon, and boost the ones I can along their paths.