A Solution Without a Platform

What happens when you build a brilliant solution that solves problems years ahead of it's time, but you have no platform? It fails. You can't get it to the people who could use it. Chris Noble talks about how lessons from how tech startups fail shape what we should be doing in international development and social good today. He calls it the "Wheel of Failure." The biggest piece of advice he'd give his younger self? "Don't flinch. Spend more time talking to the people. In every moment of discomfort or fear... I wanna fight or flee. And I do both in pretty much equal, measure. But because we're humans, there's a third alternative to fight and flee, which is listen. …. Don't force it. Take a minute. Talk to the people, listen to them a little bit. And then see if you can find your way forward." He also talks about relationships over transactions, how trust is the best thing we can build, and why you should have Voltaire and Winnie the Pooh as philosophers you listen to.