Steve Franks

So this happened last night. Cool!

@William_Blake Dang - a classic!

Tracy Kidder died. His book Soul of a New Machine is an absolute must-read for its exciting inside account of a team building a computer in late 1970s. The original startup-like true story in novelistic form. What a time that dawn was...America awakening from the hedonistic utopian fumes of the hippies and ignoring the doom of oil shocks and population bombs.

@kmullett @SonyAlpha +1

I did a thing in Iceland. Well, Mother Nature did a thing, I captured the thing she did. A7Riii + 14mm f/1.8 GM - #AuroraBorealis #photography #iceland #SonyAlpha

Nice job, @ScrubbedOut and team, for filling the event space at AfterBurner 2026! Even more packed than 2025!

@DStrachman They had me at "Mr" Danielle LOL

Bad cold email today: Good day Mr Danielle, I’m reaching out because your work backing founders before the market consensus forms — and your focus on first-principles thinking... N0000000OOOOOOOOooooo

@2025pics Great pic, Dan

@ChicagoBooth One of my favorite profs - Congrats!

Congratulations to Booth’s Pradeep Chintagunta on winning the 2025 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award! One of the most distinguished awards in the field, it recognizes those who have made a sustained impact on the profession of marketing throughout their career.

@DStrachman Danielle, I 100% agree about the need for encouragement of eccentricity - and that the systems students experience are built for the opposite. Encouragement of deep dives into eccentric passions, I feel, is the path for an individual to develop personal freedom.

Most people aren't given the freedom and encouragement to dive as deep as they want in their passions, nor to develop themselves as a near eccentric in that space.

@DStrachman @MarathonFusion I love how 1517 has funded literal alchemy!

Congrats to 1517 portco @MarathonFusion! Incredible news!

@AmpLabEW Their presentation was SO solid!

TODAY is the day! Ruby & Emma, with their company Tailored Bites, are competing in the Innovate WithIN State Finals. They are scheduled in the 11:30 - 12:30 pm window and you can watch the livestream here: youtube.com/live/DDn_ftFLZ…

I like this take because it’s actually hot. But here’s the thing. Design implies purpose. So the question is: 1. For what purpose was modern education designed? 2. Was it well designed for that purpose? 3. When did that change? For what purpose was education designed? Modern education - the kind where you sit in class and get grades - was designed to grow the workforce. Capitalism demands a growing supply of knowledgeable workers, and industrialization in particular demanded them faster than the old model could afford. We needed a way to systematically mass produce not-dumb workers. Notice I didn’t say anything about creativity, high intelligence, human flourishing, morality, etc. I said not dumb workers. Was it well designed for that purpose? The thing about mass production is it’s great for quantity, often at the expense of quality. But the workforce (at the time) didn’t demand quality. It demanded quantity. We can argue all day about whether or not a mass produced not-dumb workforce was the right purpose, but we do seem to *have* said workforce. And to Ben’s point, so do many other countries that adopted this model. So it seems modern education was well designed for that purpose, at least at the time. Well designed doesn’t mean perfect. When did that change? Modern education was built on the idea that access to information is scarce, that certain information should be transferred faithfully into the minds of children, and that we know how to do that reasonably well. But today, access to information is abundant, and when compared to teaching, there are much more effective ways of getting that information into the minds of children. Ben thinks AI is the tipping point, and he may be right. One could argue it happened earlier, with the invention of tools like IXL, or perhaps even earlier still with edtech in general, or the internet. But unlike edtech and the internet, AI specifically replaces teaching. And that is certainly an inflection point.. My take Modern education, like monarchy, was a good design for the wrong problem. The question isn’t how to fill the workforce. It’s how to empower individuals. If we had started with that question, we wouldn’t have landed on the modern education model, because it’s horribly designed for that purpose.

@DStrachman Congrats! On a side note, no more coffee for Nick - it looks like he's had enough 😎

New album drop!!! First close of 1517 Fund IV! Less than 15% of funds make it to Fund IV so this is a huge milestone for 1517 as we grow from being emerging managers to an emerging firm. Watch out world, we're in this for another ten years!

@AmpLabEW Go Isaac! Go Corrion!

Amazing first day of our traction pitches. At Amp Lab, we always like to try and take a unique approach to things. Students shared their entrepreneurial journey and stated their vested interest in what comes next for their businesses. #entrepreneurship #fortwayne #innovation

@AmpLabEW I spy Link and Cash.

I am already meeting high school students who have mastered knowledge at the frontier of science by using Claude, ChatGPT, etc. People are focusing too much on how students cheat and not enough on those who are speedrunning science

@DStrachman Danielle and Michael - the original two blokes.

People ask us a lot about the traits we look for in founders. Sometimes it comes down to two blokes being on a makeshift stage, laughing and singing, with the glimmer of an audience.

@jasonjoyride I loved the book - great video! When I think about long term big innovation I also think about ARPA and Licklider. Both Bell and ARPA had the steady flow of money needed for the long term view - and key people who were uncanny research team builders.

Bell Labs was so cracked that I made a new "historic S3" format just to dive deeper into their inventions and lore.

@1977Diva Those in the know understand that it is ALWAYS Jenee' Johnson Day around here!

Check out what one of our Young Entrepreneur Award winners is up to!