Neil Thanedar

My first books are here! I wanted to share this moment with my kids, so I waited for my boys to get home from school before opening the first box! Bucket list moment for sure!

First look inside my new hardcover!

All of this attention on USAID has really highlighted all the amazing work it does! I bet it’ll get even stronger in the next administration. Haters really do the best marketing!

Direct democracy is an underrated tool for Positive Politics now! x.com/i/status/20312…

Why is politics so broken — and why do we keep blaming our presidents for everything? Is dark money the real problem… or is it the incentive structure behind the system? In this episode of Meyerside Chats, I sit down with @NeilThanedar — Executive Director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, author of Positive Politics, and a founder who went through Y Combinator — to explore campaign finance reform, political incentives, direct democracy, and how everyday citizens can move from outrage to action. Neil draws a powerful parallel between startups and politics — asking: what if there were a “Y Combinator for politics”? A structured accelerator that helps ambitious optimists launch campaigns, pass ballot initiatives, and build real civic momentum the same way founders build companies. As the son of U.S. Congressman Shri Thanedar — and someone who helped guide and advise his father’s congressional campaigns — Neil brings firsthand insight into how incentives, messaging, fundraising pressure, and party structures shape political decisions long before legislation is ever passed. We unpack: • Why presidents get too much credit — and too much blame • How money and party incentives drive political behavior • Whether you must pick a political party to succeed • Direct democracy and ballot initiatives as reform tools • The “Y Combinator for Politics” concept • Applying startup discipline to civic reform • The human reality of serving in Congress • Why action beats social media outrage If you care about political reform, startup thinking, civic engagement, or breaking the red vs blue blame cycle — this conversation is for you. Check it out, and please subscribe to support our mission: youtu.be/zkpyJUEYWJ8 🎙 Also Available on all major podcast platforms

TOMORROW✨ Most of us feel like politics is something that happens to us, but what if you knew exactly where to go to turn your ideas into laws? Join host @NeilThanedar to investigate how to navigate local, state, and federal change. interintellect.com/salons/session…

Working on a new case for @MichiganCFN!

I'm doing the last session of this Positive Politics salon this Friday at noon ET! Come join us and learn exactly where to take key political actions!

The #1 thing we can do to increase startup formation in America is to pass universal healthcare. Thousands of potential founders are stuck in jobs just for healthcare. Americans should have the freedom to quit their jobs and start startups without losing their healthcare!

We've become too reliant on institutions like the Supreme Court and Congress to stop every Executive overreach. They're just the first lines of defense! We the citizens must always be ready to call out our government too. We are the ultimate watchdogs!

AI is already designed to prevent civilians from breaking the law. Why shouldn't it be designed to stop the government from breaking the constitution too? Democracy means we are all checks and balances on our government. It's not just Congress. We all have to fight back.

OpenAI's CEO + wife donated $25 million to MAGA Inc. six months ago, by far Trump's #1 biggest 2025 check. Now Trump banned OpenAI's top competitor. What's that worth? $100+ billion? That's not democracy.

OpenAI vs. Anthropic boils down to this question:

@sama Let's say someone with top clearance at DoD goes rogue and tries to use the government's OpenAI instance to do something unconstitutional, like extrajudiciously killing American civilians. Can you guarantee OpenAI will stop them?

I'd like to answer questions about our work with the DoW and our thinking over the past few days. Please AMA.

@MIAviationKing Counting on you to fix it! 🫡

fun fact for all of you playing at home. The closest airport to this course is Toledo's Express Airport which currently has ZERO network carriers. The only airline is @Allegiant to Orlando, St Pete, Punta Gorda, Sarasota. Florida. It lost AA in September 2021 and has STRUGGLED for years with leakage to Detroit which is a casual 45 minute drive, unless the weather is shit of course. Then you have to deal with Delta being the hub carrier there, their high fares, risk of Spirit going bankrupt, Southwest's small presence there. A city of 272k people, plus a large MSA (nearly a MILLION) cannot maintain decent air service other than a leisure carrier? Thousands of dollars poured into studies looking at the true markets over the years, even money waiting there for revenue, marketing guarantees, yet nobody has the fucking balls to open the routes again. I was actually surprised UA did not try to add this with their S26 expansion over Erie and other markets, before the FAA stepped in and demanded the meeting. This airport is very high on my list for cracking its leakage and catchment issue, as it has some decent demand with air before you factor in the road leakage. A fun challenge, looking forward to it. This event alone will generate some decent charter revenue, or allow us to prove some routes. Chicago is high on O/D on air alone.

@typesfast Dick’s just added a fitness tracking feature that gives you points for working out. We all work for the machines now. 🤷‍♂️

One of them is not like the others

When your buddy who played major juniors drops into your C league game:

Awesome example of Positive Politics!

The new @MCFNalerts automatically pulls data from Michigan's new campaign finance website, MiTN. MiTN has had some very public issues, and our work with it makes clear that big fixes are still needed. We are advocating for those changes with MDOS now!

Shout out to MDC, a pro bono engineering group from @UMich who built this app for us! I highly recommend MDC to any nonprofits looking to build new public tech!

Proud of this new project by @MichiganCFN! You can now get a free daily email with all big political contributions and expenditures in Michigan!