Why Venture Capital needs Public Policy Teams
Technological progress exponentially shapes our economies, societies and ways to live. New products, business models and technological solutions to the big (and seemingly small) problems of our time have always forced humanity to strike a delicate balance. Allowing for and actively pushing for that progress on the one hand and the needed legislative, regulatory and political guardrails for these technologies on the other given that they often challenge and change our existing norms and behaviors.
The purpose of most Public Policy teams in technology companies is to translate between the worlds of technology “the builders”, politics “the rule-setters” and regulation “the enforcers”.
It’s time Venture Capital firms start to build Public Policy functions to engage more directly in the debate between technological progress and the political and legislative reactions to it. The discussion goes to the core of their raison d’etre — pushing and backing entrepreneurs who are building cutting edge technologies and companies with the ability to ensure powerful, positive change that endures.
Both the firm and their portfolio companies would benefit from having the capacity to engage in a dialogue and building a base-level of understanding of the current and future legislative environment their technologies and products will have to operate in.