👋 Welcome to Curating Connection, a weekly newsletter from Casa Cinco for entrepreneurs and investors in social health.

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This week, I’m sharing an open letter to founders in social health and encouraging you to introduce heat to gatherings and engineer a ‘pandemic of hospitality’. Happy reading!

Here’s to connecting,

Andy

Dear founders: Are we hypocrites?

I recently read an article arguing startups will not solve loneliness. The eloquence of the piece was so compelling it could have convinced me of anything; and so were its arguments. Despite a few rebuttals here and there, I fundamentally agreed.

Wait—hold my poodle. Casa Cinco is a community for entrepreneurs in social health. Why do I agree that startups won’t solve loneliness? I wondered. Are we hypocrites?

The answer is yes—we could be hypocrites, if we were to prescribe to the traditional “startup meets VC” narrative. Here, a startup is a young company targeting rapid growth and scalability with the goal of dominating a market and an investor is typically a venture capitalist providing capital in exchange for equity and focusing on high growth potential for significant financial returns.

This model is built on the basis of speed, scalability, and profitability—a model that has worked beautifully for some industries and terribly for others. It has, among many things, made founders deeply lonely and generally falls short when it comes to solving real-world problems.

The nuance lies in that Casa Cinco aims to do things differently. In order to do so, together, we must redefine what we mean by startups and investors, ask different questions, and level the playing field of what this all means. Bear with me.

The first step is redefining what we mean by startups and investors, returning to the core of each concept. To Casa Cinco:

• ⚒️ A startup is a young company looking to solve a problem or embrace an opportunity create value; and,

• 🤝 An investor is a long-term partner equally passionate about the problem or opportunity, and who expands the startup’s capabilities through people, information, and/or capital (not limited to equity).

The second step is asking ourselves: how can startups help solve loneliness? The role of startups is not to be taken for granted, or one with binary outcomes (i.e. startups will or will not). What needs to be true for startups and investors to successfully join forces in helping solve this problem?

There are two major premises behind those questions, which we must acknowledge and remain open to testing out:

• 🌱 Under certain circumstances, startups and investors have the potential to solve a problem like loneliness; and,

• 🧩 Solutions require a cross-sectoral approach, complementing private efforts with those of governments, healthcare, education, psychology, and urban planning, among others.

Accepting that takes us to our third and final step in doing things differently, This involves leveling the playing field with regards to loneliness and connection, acknowledging:

• 🗣️ Awareness is lacking: Loneliness remains taboo, meaning there isn’t enough education on or socialization of the topic for people to feel comfortable talking about it. Even for those familiar with loneliness, the concept of connection can feel abstract. Can we explore the problem while growing the awareness of it?  

• 📖 Terminology is a work in progress: We use terms like connection, social health, community, etc. and try our best to define each of these. Yet—so is everyone else in the space. There isn’t a common language, but we’re working towards one. What are we really talking about here and do we all agree?

• 🧩 Loneliness is only a piece of the puzzle: In the words of Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the lack of a social deficit (i.e. loneliness) does not equate to high levels of social connection. Loneliness is a piece of a much larger puzzle, one which symbolizes socially healthy and connected individuals and communities. What are the other pieces? What does the puzzle look like, once solved?

• 🖼️ The ‘problem’ is subjective: Loneliness is a subjective feeling, and so is connection. Different people feel social deficits in different ways and for different reasons, which warrant different solutions. Some estimate approximately half of U.S. adults experience loneliness, meaning c. 165 million people. This does not mean c. 165 million customers for the solution you are building.

• 🪄 Not every problem is looking for a startup solution: This came from one of my friends, and he’s right. We must accept that some problems, or opportunities, require solutions outside the startup domain (i.e. government funding, education, NGOs, etc.). If we push through blindly and assume all solutions come on the basis of speed, scale, and profitability alone, we risk making the situation worse—perhaps to the point of no return.

• 💸 Purpose first, profits second: The team at Connective Tissue could not have worded it more beautifully, "Loneliness is a problem to be solved, not because of a financial opportunity, but because each of us are deserving of care and love.”. Here, I prescribe to Alex Edmans’ pieconomics, where businesses seek to create profits only by creating value for society (i.e. growing the pie).

• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Connection isn’t scalable: If you do land on a problem or opportunity that is open to a startup solution, keep in mind that connection, by definition, is not scalable. I recently wrote about David Spinks’ concept of emergence, which argues that we (entrepreneurs) don’t build community—instead, we build containers where community has a chance to emerge.  

In short: startups will not solve loneliness. Not alone, not under the current model, and not if financial rewards take priority over social outcomes. I don’t want to be a buzzkiller (actually, I don’t care), but we must face reality and challenge ourselves to think and act differently.

If you’re a founder looking to approach things differently and genuinely help solve a problem in the social health space, we’d love to meet you and find ways in which we can be of your service.

If you think this is a ton of BS, feel free to unsubscribe. Or, better, if you think it’s BS but want to discuss it in pursuit of better solutions, please reach out.

With love,

Andy

Note: I highly recommend following Connective Tissue and the work of Sam Pressler and his team if you're passionate about social connection. I also encourage you to surround yourself with people who think differently from you and with whom you can find the best solution—not your best solution.

WEEKLY CURATION

PEOPLE

• 👯An excellent piece on engineering a pandemic of hospitality: What is the magic of a very good gathering and what does it have to do with social change? 

• 👨Know who may be feeling lonely? Men in your life

• 🔥With elections around the corner, who says we can’t discuss politics at the family table? Maybe a little HEAT is exactly what our gatherings are missing 

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

• 📕Rewild Yourself: 23 unique ways to reconnect with the natural world

PLACES

• 🧑‍🦳Human-centric leadership at work isn't just good for people, it also boosts your bottom line

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