I don't have a framework for this yet. That is intentional.
Every company I work with is finding ways to create efficiency with AI. Some have slowed hiring or reduced headcount as a result. As an investor and board member, I urge the companies I work with to be as capital-efficient as possible. I have also spent years working on the workforce side of technology transitions.
I do not think either view cancels the other.
What interests me now is the person making the decision inside that tension.
Venture deals are partnerships that last ten years or more with founders. Yet I find the rooms I'm in have remarkably little language for the human part of that work: judgment under pressure, resilience, or what sustained performance actually requires.
I chose Penn, the home of positive psychology, to learn firsthand from the field's pioneers. I want tools to complement instinct. I'm inspired by research that shows the psychological capital elements of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism contribute to performance, stress management, and thriving.
My capstone is where I will take that work next.
There is a Detroit version of the same question. Models for entrepreneurship, workforce transition, and community economic development demand people act under conditions of uncertainty, structural headwinds, and repeated setbacks. “Resilience” can be evoked as its own kind of judgment.
I want to understand what actually moves the needle, particularly in a city where the consequences of a transition are not abstract.
Write to me about a company, a question, or a room you are organizing.