As a newbie author, I am finding lots of exposure opportunities to spread the message of More Good Jobs through the expanding medium of podcasting.
Each podcast interview I’ve been invited to has been interesting and generated great discussion. Enough so that now we’re working on putting show notes on the More Good Jobs press section with the aim of helping our community dive right into the particular themes they’re most interested in.
With today’s election being top of mind for everyone, I’ll highlight last week’s MergeLane podcast with host Elizabeth Kraus. She pressed me on certain issues as no interviewer had done, including on topics that set up an interesting dialog about how we as entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders can do more than just show up at the voting booth if we want to drive systemic change.
The total podcast is about an hour long. The first half hour or so sets up More Good Jobs themes profiled in the book, along with Elizabeth sharing perspective about her view of startup community from being based in Vail, Colorado.
All good stuff, including Elizabeth pushing back a bit on my assertion around the difficulty of attracting VCs to invest outside the Magnet Cities known for being tech hubs.
However, the last third of the interview is where we start diverging from standard MGJ interview themes.
You can access the interview here:
The following show notes may help in navigating directly to the time in the interview for these political and cause related topics:
43:02 – What led to my deciding to become involved in the political realm, including running as an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in 2016?
46:34 – How can entrepreneurs and investors (who have lots of choices and competing demands) balance their professional ambition with a desire to bring about bigger change for a cause they believe in?
49:40 – What are the structural issues accelerating such polarization between our two parties? What can we do about it?
54:07 – Whatever cause we are passionate about, how do we go about building a tribe of like minded people that might come together to do something about it?
56:10 – What is one non-obvious thing every VC and entrepreneur should do before the election?
Here are some of the organizations and resources mentioned in the podcast:
Upstate Venture Connect – Non profit building startup ecosystem across Upstate NY (profiled in More Good Jobs)
Upstate Jobs Party – Independent body and PAC building voter and political engagement to increase Upstate NY’s talent retention and grow stronger communities
Unite America – Non profit leading advancements in political reform to drive structural changes in the electoral process
Right To Start – Non profit campaign to rebuild the American economy by unleashing entrepreneurial opportunity for everyone
Yes on 2 – ballot measure in Massachusetts for Ranked Choice Voting
Ballot Ready – Company that activates and empowers an informed and engaged electorate.
Many thanks to Elizabeth for an engaging interview that stimulated great discussion. I hope some of what we shared might stimulate more thinking around options we have to help bring about change we believe in, well after we leave the voting booth.