This Internet journey started with an HN Article linking to an article in BigThink about the need for a philosophy of progress. This was written as a guest blog by Jason Crawford, almost famous for being the writer of Roots Of Progress, as part of a special issue exploring Progress, how it happens, how is nurtured, stifled, and what changes are required to ensure greater progress for all.
The issue is very well designed and, as usual, I wondered who are the founders behind BigThink magazine. It turns out that is owned by Freethink Media, a media company that focuses on inspirational daily news instead of the usual news covering toxic politics, and negativity.
Looking further at who funds this magazine, I found that is sustained by two main investors: Bedrock Capital and MaC Venture Capital. Due to subconscious Minecraft-related reasons, I decided to take a deeper look at Bedrock Capital and found two interesting things: The very impressive portfolio of investments and that the founder is Geoff Lewis.
Before founding BedrockCap, Geoff worked as a partner in Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel. Earlier in 2010, he cofounded TopGuest, a travel industry's social loyalty product, with an impressive exit almost two years later at the end of 2011.
This startup was backed by Peter Thield, which Geoff met, as he recounts, during a party at Peter's house. Thanks to that interaction he ended up working at Peter's Clarium Capital, a hedge fund, after he left Proctor & Gamble his first job after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University.
[WIP] This is the journey by far. Some of the topics that can be learned from it and I find myself interested in are:
- Progress of civilization
- Spread of knowledge and positive news through media
- Funding companies as a way for greater impact across industries
- Connections matter a lot
- The path towards Venture Capital usually goes through becoming an entrepreneur first
