The new drivers of value

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that resource abundance — capital, technology, knowledge — creates an unprecedented opportunity for mission-driven founders to build generational companies that solve real problems for real people. Read here

Abundance has shifted bottlenecks, moving the constraint from production to clarity of intent, design, and efficiency.

The Philosophy

Our mission at Fairbridge is to back exceptional founders with unconventional insight that drives social progress at scale. In the past, we measured success through velocity, throughput, and headcount. Today, where founder supply is abundant, capability is no longer enough. Additional differentiators of legitimacy, quality, and restraint are no longer soft virtues; they are the new competitive edges.

Below is how they show up in some of the companies we back.

Operational Recalibration

1. Legitimacy — Do customers rave about you? What’s the quality of regulatory standards you adhere to? What guardrails define you? Security.

Enduring companies are authentically connected to a cause and operate within clear institutional and “moral” rails — think ingredient quality, regulatory jurisdiction, customer data treatment, internal values and culture. They invest early in infrastructure that enables legitimacy.

Sphere was not built as a generic investment platform. It was designed to bridge climate values and mainstream 401(k) systems, working inside (vs. around) the existing retirement infrastructure and adhering to its rules for customer data privacy, pricing, advertising etc.

GivingCredit is uncompromising about customer data privacy, transparency of methods and the rules for evaluation of creditworthiness and adheres to FCRA guidelines. Peer-to-peer borrowers can transact without concern for potential negative consequences to their FICO score from data leaks

CoverRight’s promise to help retirees find their best healthplan regardless of how much profit the company makes assures customers that their health and wealth are not up for sale to the highest bidder.  

In all these cases, legitimacy is structural, strategic, and not performative.

2. Quality — What must never break? What must never be compromised?

Ambiguity in value proposition, hidden extraction, or imprecise claims, even when unintentional or unsubstantiated, can be fatal. The recent Vital Farms fiasco is a good example. In a world of low trust and hyper-financialization, customers invest the time to research and spread the word.

Quality means demonstrable superiority, clarity of definition, and consistency of delivery.

Pave defines its value in hard outcomes: Reduced NPLs, Higher approval and underwriting rates, faster decision cycles, ease of integration.

Magicblocks promises a 6x increase in conversion rates through real time AI Sales agents that take two minutes to build and hook, qualify, and close customers, 24/7.

Every bag of product from Seal the Seasons can be tested to verify that the fruit is produced where the bag says it is. New Jersey blueberries are from New Jersey.

3. Restraint — What must not be built? What must be eliminated? What could we do that we choose not to?

Abundance creates the temptation to overbuild. In the advent of claude, I meet founders who have built impressive technology and want to showcase what it can do. I remind them that technology is not the answer, but just an amplifier of intent. Restraint means testing quickly with customers to build what they need most, focusing on areas of competence, and keeping an eye on time and capital efficiency. This framework from Mike Maples of earned conviction, represents this concept well.

MagicBlocks leverages the team’s earned experience building $200M+ of leads in sales in Mortgage Brokerage, Tourism, Fitness, and Fertility categories. Sales are restricted to those four.

In the past, scarcity of capital, and builders/talent were drivers for restraint. Today, that discipline must be intentional.

In Summary

Companies that win in this new environment might look boring from the outside. The problems they solving are not new. Differentiation is in insight, a commitment to building robust rails underneath, and the desire to get to what customers really want quickly and efficiently. Two mission-driven companies (not in our portfolio ☹) that embody this are:

Nubank — David did not frame Nubank as a disruptor. He simply went out and built a superior customer proposition in an industry that’s lagging. And, while customers demanded innovation, they still want the peace of mind that their money is safe. Nubank nailed that.

Esusu — By embedding rent reporting into FICO and through structuring valuable partnerships with top developers, distributors, and data owners in real estate, Samir and Wemimo have unlocked access to credit for millions on their way to unicorn status.

A few companies in our portfolio are on their way and we want to back more. Please reach out.