At Boardroom Labs, our mission is to build a better, fairer future for everyone (and partner with those who share our mission). How does this approach merge with venture building where the #1 priority is usually the most economically viable opportunity?

Rather than beginning with a industry or technology as our focus area, we began with an outcome. Specifically, we wanted to promote Care, Prosperity, Justice, and Infrastructure, and Society. Each of these houses more specific themes. For instance, under Infrastructure is Housing & Mobility, Space, Energy & Resources, and Manufacturing & Supply.

Next, we determined what was uncertain in this space and what potential futures that might lead to. For instance, in The Second Dark Ages we imagined a world eco-collapse led to scarcity and a re-emergence of local economies dominated by regional autocrats.

From there, we put a stake in the ground. What sort of a future do we believe is best for us all? Next, we asked ourselves what systemic barriers were standing in the way of that future and who was leading change towards it today. For instance, we found that short-termism was a major problem and Earth Overshoot Day was a movement encouraging long-term thinking.

Finally, with these leaders as fuel we ideated solutions to these systemic barriers. Here are five of the ideas we liked the most:

• HEALTH TWIN: Maps user’s health state and trajectory. Provides actionable treatment options. Aggregates population-level trends.

• SINKHOLE: SaaS platform to support companies green transition efforts. Surfaces opportunities to reduce impact and raise revenues.

• RESISTANCE: Secure, decentralized, and digital community-level decision-making. Replaces analog voting and decision systems.

• FOOTPRINTS: Enables micro-bounties for green behaviour. Leverages digital currency and AI to reduce transaction and fulfillment costs.

• SUMMIT: Leverages AI to help users design productive and purposeful paths. Analyzes social patterns to circumvent declining industries.

You may have noticed that SUMMIT is quite similar to our studio venture Campfire, SINKHOLE is similar to our fund venture Carbon One, and HEALTH TWIN is influencing our venture work with SCHC. We envision the world we want then we build to realize it. That’s how we lead the future.