Who's behind the What If Challenge?

For decades, there was one dominant path to building a company: raise capital, hire a team, build a product, then find out if the idea was viable. That path created remarkable companies, and it still does. But widespread access to AI has opened another one.

The challenge is built for people carrying an idea who aren't ready, willing or able to raise money for it: not enough evidence yet to convince investors, not enough conviction yet to quit a job, no appetite for a boss and a clock, or an idea that will never be venture-sized yet is worth building. There is now a viable path for all of them.

I've spent my career working out whether ideas are real businesses, then scaling them. That knowledge used to matter only inside the ecosystem I worked in. Now everyone gets a shot, and the What If Challenge is me making the knowledge travel.

I don't think a more inclusive age of entrepreneurship means convincing everyone to become a founder. It means more of the people who already want to build something actually getting the chance to try. That's why I created and lead the What If Challenge, supported by founders and operators in my network who believe in the same possibility.

If you'd like to understand the bigger argument for why I think this moment matters, you can read the manifesto.