This is a much-needed book about pro-social approaches venture capital, including when VC is appropriate as well as when it’s harmful. But it was also a surreal experience for me personally: I was part of the Matter cohort that included Alicia Rouault, part of the interview panel for Jenn Brandel, and, later, a member of staff under Corey Ford. Catherine spends many pages across all of them.

Corey is a good person who was trying to do the right things, including putting time and effort into alternative funding strategies, but undeniably was using the language and ecosystem of VC. (Matter’s LPs were media companies who wanted impact as much as an investment return — it eventually needed to stop investing because media has increasingly shallow pockets.) At the time, these were unproven; there is more evidence for them now.

The best time for these ideas was back then; the second best time is right now. We absolutely do need pro-social investment capital, and we need the ability to invest into singles and doubles. For industries like media, that’s going to be vital. But for every industry, and for the world, it will help protect against the giant centralization of wealth and power that helped fuel the Trump machine.

Let’s build it.