|
Thank You for Your Support. Now Come Down Off the Hill.
Every time I post something about how the financial system is quietly bankrolling the end of civilisation, something wonderful happens.
The comments arrive.
"So true, Robert!"
"Finally someone is saying it!"
"This NEEDS to be said."
"👏👏👏"
And then the private messages. "Robert, I agree with every word. I can't say it publicly, but please keep going."
I want to start by saying thank you. I mean it. Those messages have kept me going on days when the only thing I wanted to fight was the snooze button.
But I also want to tell you what they tell me. They tell me there are far more of you than there are of them. And that changes everything.
The view from the mud
I often feel like a man who has gone to war. Outnumbered. Out-lawyered. Out-PR'd. Facing an opponent with a trillion dollars, a comms department and a Magic Circle law firm on speed dial.
And when I turn around, I see all of you. On the hill. Cheering. Waving flags. Somebody has brought a vuvuzela.
Here is what I have finally understood. You are not the audience. You are the army. You just haven't been told yet.
So consider this your letter of enlistment.
Why the hill feels safer
I understand the hill. I have sat on it. The view is lovely and the catering is excellent. I usually organised the catering.
The Like button is a remarkable invention. It weighs nothing, costs nothing, risks nothing, and gives you a small warm feeling that feels almost exactly like having done something. LinkedIn offers you Like, Celebrate, Support, Love, Insightful and Funny. What it does not offer is a button that says I'm in.
So let's build that button ourselves.
Because the thing that keeps this system in place is not its strength. The people running it are not strong. They are few. There are vastly more of us: founders, fund managers, LPs, analysts, the junior associate told to make the ESG numbers "look directional," the family office principal who knows exactly what his wealth manager is doing.
The system survives on one thing only: every one of those people politely waiting for somebody else to go first.
What if, this time, it's you?
Brave is smaller than you think
The message I receive most is "I wish I were brave enough to say what you say."
Here is the good news. Brave is much smaller than you think. You don't need a microphone, a manifesto or a lawyer. Most of the time, brave is five minutes and a click that actually leads somewhere.
Take trustvc.org. It lets founders and LPs review the investors they have actually dealt with. The fund that put you through eight months of due diligence and then vanished. The VC who wanted your customer list "just to understand the space." And the excellent investors too, who deserve to be found by the founders who need them.
You can do it anonymously. No name, no photo, no career risk. Zorro had a mask. Batman had a mask. This one comes free, and it fits everyone.
Every honest review is a lantern for the next founder walking into the same room. That is not complaining. That is how a market learns to tell the truth.
Your enlistment form
If what I write matters to you, here is how to turn that feeling into force. No uniform required. Pick one this week. Pick three if you are feeling Scottish.
One. Write one honest review at trustvc.org. Anonymous. Five minutes. Good or bad. Stick to the facts. You will be protecting a founder you will never meet.
Two. Come to our events (tbligroup.com/events). And I mean come. Not just register. Our industry has a special species that registers for everything and attends nothing: the Like button with a confirmation email. Be the other kind. Show up, sit in the chair, and bring your questions. The room is only as good as the people who walk into it.
Three. Engage during TBLI Connect. Ask the question everyone is thinking. Make the introduction. Talk to the founder nobody else is talking to. Turn your camera on. The magic of these sessions happens between people, not on the slides.
Four. Join TBLI Circle. This is where the people who have come down off the hill find each other. You will be surprised how many of us there are. We only felt alone because everyone was being quiet at the same time.
Five. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and the Radical Truth interviews on YouTube. Think of it as basic training. The guests are people who chose to speak up, and every one of them started exactly where you are.
Six. Use the Better World Prize, our open source database of ESG and impact measurement (tbligroup.com/bwp-database). Use it, test it, improve it, and pass it on. It is free, and it belongs to everyone who wants impact to be measured by what actually happens.
Seven. Share, and help someone. Actually share, with a sentence about why it matters to you. Then do the more powerful thing: introduce a founder to an investor who deserves them. Send the link to the colleague who whispered "I agree but I can't say it." Put your name next to someone who needs a name next to theirs.
Eight. Order my book, The Extraction Machine, when it comes out. It is the long version of everything I have been saying, with footnotes, which is how you know it is serious. Read it, argue with it, and then give it to someone who needs it even more than you do.
Come on down
Quiet support is kind. It is also invisible. The people who need to see that the ground is shifting are the ones who never read the DMs.
So say it where it counts. Show up where it matters. Help carry the thing you believe in.
The system does not change when one person shouts. It changes when enough people stop waiting for permission and step forward at the same time.
I'll be down here in the mud. There is plenty of room, the view is better than you'd expect, and I would very much like the company.
Bring a friend.
TBLI Circle
|
