Finance Lab

Dil and I went on a Finance Lab retreat at the weekend, which was very interesting. (Geoff - Dil and I are on a fellowship with https://financeinnovationlab.org/)

I realised that the other fellows didn’t really know what mutual credit is, even though they’ve talked with us, read about us, and received pitches from us.

They hadn’t really put in the time to get their heads around it (but to be fair, we haven’t given enough time to understand their projects either).

I think we have to make it super-simple and be really, really clear – even with people like this. Make the explanation of what it is short and very concise.

So we put together a 5-minute pitch that did that, and afterwards, people came up to us to say that they get it now, and they love it. Several of them said that their projects were attempting to change aspects of the economy, but ours is attempting to change it completely – which was very exciting. But they didn’t see that before.

We’re giving that 5-minute pitch to 100 influential people in September, some of whom might be able to push some money our way.

NB – Oli, there was a slot in the weekend about how it’s important to hit the sweet spot between sounding like a second-hand car salesman and a hippie (!), but I agree with you that we shouldn’t say that in our pitch (or have images of Arthur Daley or hippies). But I think the sweet spot is saying that community is being destroyed everywhere, which isn’t healthy – for humans or nature – and that we have a new system that regenerates community and really benefits your small business.

I’ve got a suggestion. Would people be happy for me to talk to the Finance Lab about further potential collaboration / partnership after our fellowship ends? On their ‘about page’ the first thing it says is ‘a place to be radical’. I think the Finance Lab already know that our project is the most radical they’ve ever had.

I think their influence could be pivotal. I don’t know what it would mean in practice – I’d have to ask what’s possible. But advocacy and influence are part of their remit. And they really believe in the idea, and in us.

We need to involve more female energy, and the Finance Lab is our mirror image in that respect (Geoff – they’re all women). They could provide outreach, as well as kudos, expertise and ideas. And femaleness in shedfuls. (I don’t think most blokes could work with them, by the way - they spent the train journey back singing Usher songs together and talking about whether Alexandra Ocasio Cortez’s boyfriend is hot or not. How long could you cope with that?).