Leo Ringer

Great interview with Sir Patrick Vallance in the @formventureshq newsletter today. ‘For regulators, the incentive to take risk is virtually zero. We need strong political leadership and to give regulators a clear mandate for innovation’ Worth a read: formventures.substack.com/p/sir-patrick-…

For many startups, regulation has become the biggest barrier to growth. Over-stretched & underfunded, regulators have been struggling to keep up amid rapid technological change. ✍️ @leoringer & @andrewjb_ of @formventureshq set out the case for reform ➡️ futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/2024/06/12/why…

let's talk about ~regulatory capture in AI~ wrote something with @patrick_newton1 that might annoy everyone (sorry not sorry) quick thread

New post. I tried to summarize my POV on Europe. More importantly, i share share two small suggestions that, as a first step, could bring us back on track. 🇪🇺 eu/acc klinger.io/posts/eu-acc

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“Until the UK fixes, funds and speeds up its approval processes, its dreams of turning frontier tech sectors into thriving industries may be frustrated” Great @pmdfoster @SpeedMaddie Big Read in today’s @FT on the creaking state of the UK’s regulators, and the impact on UK’s best companies:

Thanks to @pmdfoster and @SpeedMaddie for speaking with @leoringer and @andrewjb_ about the UK’s regulators — and how to fix and fund them to support UK startups:

Well done to @formventureshq @leoringer @andrewjb_ and team for a great event this morning on the importance of regulation/regulators for startups. Checkout their great report here: formventures.notion.site/Fix-The-Regula…

Thanks to everyone that came down to our FORM Summit this morning! When you ask a VC or founder about regulation and government, “f*ck the regulators” isn’t an uncommon response. If you go by Marc Andreessen’s latest screed, regulation is the enemy of tech, and vice versa. But the real tech optimist view — and our view at @formventureshq — is that instead of wishing regulation wasn’t there while doing nothing about it, we can accept the reality of it while also being impatient about improving it. So this morning we launched our new report, fixtheregulators.com, to help startups move quickly in regulated markets and turn regulators into a source of advantage for the UK. Thanks to @DBTInvestment, Finn at flok.health, @edsteele_, @gates_sj & @twehmeier @atomico for hosting us. Check out our report & get in touch with thoughts! fixtheregulators.com

Our take on how policy shaped tech in 2023 and what comes next - and a recap of a very busy year for the @formventureshq team! formventures.substack.com/p/15-unfinishe…

"We need to give bags of money to centralised institutions to realise the dream of not having centralised institutions"

Everyone losing their sh*t over the CMA asking whether Microsoft / OpenAI might be a merger has had since 2002 to register their outrage about how UK competition law works.

@Dominic2306 Why don't we just apply intellectual energy to fixing the regulators instead: fixtheregulators.com

the CMA is another blundering ignorant menace to progress & productivity, it shd be closed & everyone fired like dozens of other agencies

What we talk about when we talk about low investment in the UK - a 🧵 (Epistemic status: v speculative; really just me thinking aloud)

@AnEmergentI @s8mb Commit to doing something but only "when parliamentary time allows" which means never because "allows" means "decided by us" and this phrase actually means "we've decided not to".

Plenty to add to the CIA field manual based on how Whitehall works: a) Insist on ‘stakeholder consultation’ when you want to do a reform, ie talk to the vested interests and ask if they want anything changed. b) if a decision to unblock something appears near in a meeting, say ‘let’s take it offline’ c) appoint someone with literally no background in the subject as senior advisor on the most crucial projects, and insist they are consulted at all times on everything related to the project. d) following on from c, report anyone actually competent who tries to bypass the person in c) to HR for uncollegiate activity, thus eliminating the danger of competence creeping in! e) put the finance team in charge (ie, Treasury), therefore guaranteeing the project goes ahead but is crippled by paperwork and penny pinching, with no serious management expertise. f) show great enthusiasm for the suggested reform or change, and demonstrate this by insisting a ‘pilot project version’ is done first and quickly. This will in reality take years and kill the wider reform. g) insist nothing that impacts spending is decided outside of a Treasury controlled ‘fiscal event’ such as spending review or budget, thus ensuring government departments cannot create or publish actual strategies with choices/decisions in them as this would have fiscal consequences, ensuring strategies are simply collections of case studies and vague statements of aspirations and commitments to future strategies. h) And if all else fails - raise concerns of judicial review, delaying the project beyond the Parliament. I think u cd totally sabotage progress in just about any country v this list of tactics + the CIA’s existing ones!

Is it possible that the CIA has infiltrated the British government?

regulation & geopolitical risks = key challenges facing European tech, according to @atomico State of European Tech 👀 @formventureshq

The new City Minister @BimAfolami is right here: regulators must have incentives to take some risk, especially around new technologies - as @formventureshq has long argued, most recently here: formventures.substack.com/p/13-to-build-… The right legislative frameworks and resources are also key

Great to see DSIT working to #fixtheregulators. This needs to extend to every frontier tech and every regulator, and become embedded as the standard operating approach, not a side-project.

Legislation can restrict regulators' support for innovation - here the UK fertility regulator HFEA is explicitly asking for more flex in the law to allow it to do so, and continue to in future 👏 #fixtheregulators