Can you tell me what's wrong with the world?

Tell me what you think.

What’s wrong with the world, today? 

If you asked this question to a typical American on the street you’d likely get a torrent of responses without any hesitation…

Climate change is going to destroy our planet!

Politicians are running our country into the ground!

The rich aren’t paying their fair share!

But, what if you asked them “What’s right with the world, today?”

Do you think they would be able to rapid fire share everything that’s going great today? 

My hypothesis is that they would not.

Our society is attached to the story that our world is decaying one [insert democrat/republican talking point] at a time. Our country is heading in the wrong direction and the American Empire is beginning the end...

I don’t believe this, and I’ll prove it to you. That’s why I’m writing you this email. 

Every week, I’ll be following the people and companies tackling the biggest “issues” our world faces today with capitalist solutions. I’ll detail how this issue is being solved, who’s solving it and how (if possible) you can participate and maybe even profit from these trends. 

We’re in the beginnings of a massive global renaissance. Will it be a straight line to get there? Absolutely not. We’ll take many punches to the gut before the destination is reached, but the trend is up from here. 

Let’s take the Climate as a first example. A topic I’m excited to cover more inside this newsletter.

A quick google search yields such positive articles as…

“2020 Tied for Warmest Year on Record, NASA Analysis Shows”

“Disaster Costs Doubled in 2020, Reflecting Costs of Climate Change”

And, there’s many more doom and gloom. However, I notice a theme (and I am noticing this theme often) that the media and the scientific papers focus more on what’s wrong. 

Climate scientists will often predict large increases in global temperatures will lead to rising oceans and catastrophic damage to our way of life. This story gets picked up by the media and parroted across the world. 

It’s a linear projection of our current existence into the future.

But, there are two sides to this story. For every climate scientist who’s warning us about the risks of continuing our current path, there are hundreds, if not thousands of entrepreneurs, risk takers, and dreamers actively working on solutions to the biggest problems our world faces today. 

These people operate outside the awareness of most of the world. And, their solutions are paradigm shifting. That linear projection the climate scientist warned us about changes in an instant.

But the media barely picks up on any of this, and the majority of the population then doesn’t know it exists. 

We’re all aware of the laundry list of the problems facing our climate today:

• CO2 and Methane greenhouse gases

• Large scale plastic waste 

• Deforestation for livestock and agriculture

• Landfills and waste management 

• Poisoning our soil with industrial chemicals

• The list goes on and on

But how connected are we to the entrepreneurs who are dedicating the most precious resource of all (their time) to solving these issues? 

One business leader who I follow and who has his pulse on the companies tackling the largest issues facing our climate is Chamath Palihapitiya (I love his Twitter). He is actively finding, funding, and promoting entrepreneurs and businesses tackling the largest opportunities in saving our climate.

I recently invested into a publicly traded stock he helped take public, Desktop Metals (DM is the ticker). Desktop Metals engineered new 3D printing tech that can do both rapid prototyping and high-volume manufacturing. This is a technology that’s been on the fringe of commercial application for decades, and is now ready for its time in the light. 

What does 3D printing do for the climate? In 2019, the US imported $451 billion worth of goods from China. All of that stuff had to get to America somehow. It takes an army of trucks, boats, planes, and heavy machinery to do it.

The kind of 3D printing Desktop Metals can do will allow manufacturers of all kinds (from electronics to consumer goods to manufacturing) to affordably bring their production much closer to the location of sale. 

As more and more manufacturers can afford to produce their products locally it will dramatically cut down on international shipping, air freight, and other contributors to pollution and waste. 

Desktop Metals has a laundry list of the world’s largest manufacturers as its current customers, MOEN, Adidas, Milwaukee Tool, Stanley Black & Decker, 3M, and more. 

So, while most climate scientists focus on what the world will look like if our current trajectory is continued…

They miss the innovation that will bend the curve in an entirely new direction.

This nexus of innovation (which I’ve yet to coin a fancy word for) is where my newsletter will focus. The point of private market solutions tackling the biggest opportunities our world has today. It just so happens that the biggest opportunities for innovation are also our biggest ‘problems’. 

I’ll be continuing this style of article every Friday until all of the world’s problems are solved, and I’d love for you to join me. 

If you’d like to keep receiving my newsletter you don’t need to do anything. I’ll keep sending it. If you’re not interested, no hard feelings, respond to this email and let me know and I’ll take you off the distribution list. You can also click “unsubscribe” in the link below.

Before you go, I have one favor to ask of you… 

What are the trends that you’re following right now and would like for me to cover? 

Anything and everything is on the table. It can be problems you see, solutions you’re curious about and anything in between. Respond to this email and share your ideas with me and I’ll add them to my list of topics to cover. 

Thank you for reading this inaugural issue. More to come next week! 

-Jared

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