A Year of Radical Truth, Real Impact, and Reasons for Hope- Final TBLi Weekly for 2025

Dear TBLI Community, Friends, and Fellow Travelers on This Wild Ride,

As 2025 winds down and we collectively catch our breath (or gasp at the state of things—your choice), I want to take a moment to reflect on what's been an extraordinary year for the TBLI ecosystem. And yes, I promise to keep this more entertaining than your average ESG report.

27 Years of Being a "Pain in the Ass" (and Proud of It)

TBLI passed the quarter-century two years ago. That's 27 years of challenging the financial system to actually work for everyone, not just the usual suspects. Twenty-five years of educating investors, connecting game-changers, and occasionally being called "the most dangerous people in finance" (we wear it as a badge of honor, thanks).

From our humble beginnings in Amsterdam to becoming the world's leading ESG/Impact Investing network, we've hosted 40+ international summits, launched countless careers in sustainable finance, and built a community of thousands who refuse to accept "business as usual" as an acceptable answer.

TBLI Group continues to connect investors with opportunities that actually matter—through advisory services, Capital Connect matchmaking, our TEN Network of 300+ experts, and those spirited weekly TBLI Radical truth podcasts where we expose greenwashing faster than you can say "net zero by whenever."

TBLI Circle: Where Magic Happens (No, Really)

Our TBLI Circle community grew stronger this year, creating a space where investors, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders don't just network—they actually connect. Where else can you have a 7-minute video chat that changes your entire business strategy. ? Or attend virtual mixers where more than 300 conversations happen and nobody asks you to join their crypto scheme?

Members gained access to hundreds of hours of content, discounts on events, and most importantly, found their tribe of non-extractive authentic eccentrics. Because let's face it: trying to change the financial system alone is exhausting. Doing it with allies who get it? That's where hope lives.

TrustVC: Because Transparency Isn't Optional

Our newest venture, TrustVC.org, launched this year with a simple but radical premise: what if venture capital and private equity firms were actually held accountable for their behavior? What if LPs could see beyond the glossy pitch decks to understand with whomthey're really partnering?

TrustVC provides insight into the reputation and behavior of VC and PE firms, helps investment firms learn from each other, and creates a more transparent ecosystem. It turns out that when you shine a light on the industry, some fascinating patterns emerge. Who knew? (We did. We totally knew.)

Radical Truth: The Book That Wouldn't Shut Up

Speaking of shining lights in dark places, my upcoming book "Radical Truth: Financing Our Collapse, Funding Our Survival" is coming. And it's not here to make friends with the status quo.

This book asks the uncomfortable questions that need asking:

• Why is $50 trillion in "ESG assets" failing to stop planetary collapse?
• How did we create an economy that's brilliant at measuring everything except what matters?
• What would finance look like if we stopped pretending and started being honest?

I was pleasantly surporised to see one chapter of the book go viral on Linkedin. The Impact Mafia: How the Elite Invented a Way to feel Good While Doing Nothing

The Radical Truth Podcast has been road-testing these ideas all year, featuring conversations with the world's most provocative thinkers—from Matt Christensen at Allianz to Aunnie Patton Power on Revolutionizing Impact Investment to Jonathan Maxwell on financing the energy transition to Tim Jackson on life after capitalism and hundreds others.  Each episode asks: "What if we stopped lying to ourselves about how the financial system actually works?"

Our weekly TBLI newsletters have been sharing excerpts, and let's just say the feedback has ranged from "Thank you for saying what we're all thinking!" to "You're still a pain in the ass, Robert." We'll take both.

Honoring the Heroes Who Left Us

This year, we lost some giants, some quietly and some very painfully. Over the years, we lost many brilliant non-extractive heros. Their absence is still deeply felt:

Hazel Henderson (1933-2022)—remains one of our greatest inspirations. This self-taught futurist and environmental activist created the blueprint for ethical markets and science-based investing decades before it was cool. She coined the term "the love economy," fought for the Golden Rule society, and never, ever pulled her punches. In one of her last interviews with Ralph Nader, she called out the entire financial system for "magical thinking" and told portfolio managers their sustainability ETFs were "rubbish." We miss her fire, her British accent, and her absolute refusal to pretend things were fine when they weren't.
I remember her fondly as she was always supportive of our work and when I visited her home in St. Augustine with my son, who was 8 at the time. She whe took the day to enterttain my son, Sam and I. Classy woman. 
Her memory lives on in the Hazel Henderson Center

And we honor others in the sustainability movement who've passed on—the conservationists, the activists, the quiet heroes who worked behind the scenes to make this movement possible. They built the foundations we stand on.

To all those who've left us: your work continues. Your truth-telling lives on. And we promise to keep being the pain in the ass you trained us to be.

We also lost our most trusted partner, not to death but to a new chapter in his life. Sam moved on to pursue his own big purpose. Thank you for doing all the heavy lifting for TBLI Group and letting me take the credit. 

Why We're Hopeful (No, Seriously)

Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it: 2025 had its challenges. The climate crisis didn't take a vacation. Greenwashing reached new creative heights. And conventional economics continued to insist that infinite growth on a finite planet is totally fine, why do you ask?

But here's what gives me hope:

1. The Community is Growing. More people than ever understand that the emperor has no clothes. They're tired of the BS, ready for real solutions, and willing to do the work.
2. The Tools Are Getting Better. From AI-powered impact measurement to blockchain-enabled transparency to platforms like TrustVC, we're building the infrastructure for a financial system that actually works.
3. The Money is Starting to Flow. Slowly, painfully, with many setbacks—but capital is beginning to find its way to regenerative solutions, to climate tech, to businesses that create value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
4. The Truth is Harder to Hide. In an age of information, pretending everything is fine while the planet burns becomes increasingly difficult. Radical truth has a way of emerging.
5. We're Still Here. Twenty-Seven years in, TBLI is stronger than ever. You're still here. We're still fighting. And that matters more than you know.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Next year, we're doubling down on everything that makes TBLI... well, TBLI:

• More TBLI Radical Truth Podcast Interviews,  featuring the world's boldest thinkers
• Expanded TBLI Circle programs and virtual mixers
• The launch of "Radical Truth" Book (prepare for controversy)
• Growing TrustVC into the accountability platform the industry desperately needs
• Deepening our advisory work to help more capital find its way to real impact
• Continuing to be a pain in the ass to anyone pretending that incremental change is enough

A Holiday Message Worth Its Weight in Carbon Credits

As you celebrate whatever holidays you celebrate (or hide from your relatives and binge-watch nature documentaries—no judgment), I want to leave you with this:

The financial system as currently designed is financing our collapse. But we—yes, we—are designing and funding our survival.

Every conversation you have about real impact matters. Every dollar you redirect from business-as-usual to regenerative solutions matters. Every time you call out greenwashing, support authentic leaders, and refuse to accept "it's complicated" as an excuse for inaction—it matters.

We're not going to save the world with ESG checkboxes and feel-good marketing. We're going to save it by telling the truth, connecting with allies, and building the systems that should have existed all along.

Is it hard? Absolutely. Is it lonely sometimes? Without question. Are we going to win? We have to. There's no Plan B. Is it also occasionally hilarious watching the old guard try to explain why their models don't account for, you know, reality? Deeply.

Thank You

To everyone who attended a TBLI Talk, joined the Circle, voted for the Better World Prize, posted to trustvc.org, subscribed to our newsletter, brought us your deals, challenged our thinking, shared our content, or simply stayed in the fight when it would have been easier to walk away:

Thank you.

To the entrepreneurs building real solutions, the investors putting capital where their values are, the thought leaders refusing to stay quiet, and the students just entering this field with fresh eyes and fierce determination who refuse to be recruited by a company that don't align with your values and listen to Larry David's job advice.

Thank you.

To Dr. Rieki Crins, Sam Rubinstein, our entire TBLI team and partners, and the 300+ experts in our network who make this work possible:

Thank you.

To Hazel Henderson and all the heroes who came before us, who fought these battles when it was even harder than it is now:

Thank you. We've got it from here.

Here's to 2026

May it bring us:

• More radical truth and less magical thinking
• More real impact and less greenwashing
• More authentic connections and less networking theater
• More courage and less compliance
• More love and less fear

And may we never, ever stop being a pain in the ass to systems that need changing.

With gratitude, hope, and a healthy dose of irreverence,

Robert Rubinstein Chairman & Founder, TBLI Group

P.S. If you made it this far, you're definitely our people. Join us at tblicircle.com and trustvc.org. The revolution will not be ESG-compliant, but it will be well-networked.

P.P.S. Happy Holidays. Get your wellies out. We're going to need them.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead (and basically Hazel Henderson's entire life philosophy)

"Economics is merely politics in disguise." — Hazel Henderson

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

"Am I cynical or critical? I'm a pain in the ass. And it's working." — Robert Rubinstein (probably)