Message from us

We believe firmly that life will be blended more than ever before- work, art, relationships, and personal growth. We’re building as whole humans, not just individual professionals.

We’re not tech experts and we don’t claim to be.

In fact, coming from years in the eye of the storm of the ML industry, we’d argue that no one is a tech expert. It’s impossible to keep up with the pace of innovation at this point and to make it more complex, we’re not even speaking the same language.

There’s no alignment on what is “ethical,” what is the highest performing, and from our experience in the heart of the open source ecosystem what is “open.” So, we’re racing toward a future that is largely undefined, and right now, we believe that the incentives that motivate the industry are wrong. Monetary incentives will drive us to a future that isn’t aligned with what we believe the best of AI can bring out in us.

In our vision for the future, we should be building tech that helps us escape from the digital rat race we’re in now. We see glimpses of this future that already exist. We’re so excited to be partnered with people who understand the scary reality of the attention economy, and those who are creating organizations that build us out of the information age and into the curation age. We need to build tech that helps us be more human, as well as transcends us into superhuman cyborgs or whatever. To do and build things that we could’ve never imagined before.

We’re going back to the future. Tapping into the roots of our humanity. Embracing our flaws and awkwardness, because that’s all that AI will leave us to do- is be uniquely human! The Thing is an experimental project that tells our story, authentically, and opportunistically.

It aims first to get us on the same page of where we’re at, starting at the heart of the tech world. Yes, there’s incredible progress being made- but what does it mean if 1.) we’re all competing to get ahead of something that fundamentally and collectively outsmarts us [queue AGI debates] and 2.) what does it matter if most of the world doesn’t even understand how to leverage it?

There’s a million podcasts out there, and educational platforms, and low/no-code services that can help you build anything you can imagine. We’re not trying to compete with that.

We’re trying to build alongside and on top of all of the amazing people and places that are. Co-opetition is the name of the game, the spirit of open-source (which speaks directly to our roots) and how we believe the best future will be built. We want to tell our story, and help you tell yours. We’ll create content that frames these ideas in a myriad of ways to get the message across, and from there, we’ll work with our friends to start building the future.

Content, community, curation.

Structurally, we’re set up as an LLC and a nonprofit. We’ve done this for a number of reasons. Our philosophy is number one: transparency, transparency, transparency (that’s why we’re dedicated to building in public.) The LLC is to make profits off of our unique talents, you’re probably well aware of the “open vs closed source” debates and trust us, we are too. The idea isn’t that we should just be sharing anything and not asking what we can get in return. We’ve got to make a living, and it isn’t wrong to be compensated for what unique talents you bring to the table.

We will raise and accept $ from the LLC to offer services to our friends in the ecosystem. We’ll help companies build their brands and develop tech value statements (similar to ESG principles, but tech/future-centric), create unique community events (like our work in last year’s “AI Woodstock”, and create unique media content that helps companies and individuals get their message across in a way that’s not hive-minded, language-elitist, and/or a snooze fest. The LLC will still be built in 100% transparency, and every $ spent will be shared with the public of why and how.

But our passion is for the non-profit piece. This is where we’ll accept donations and grants to build the community up with content, services, tools that promote this vision and bring everyone along for the ride.

$ will be used to propel our media efforts forward and eventually, we’d love to set up a fund that helps us donate to individuals and organization who share our enthusiasm, and are maybe less resourced.

Something we’re (founders) uniquely good at is vibe-gauging. Like we said, we’re only as good as the friends we surround ourself with, and we’re really proud of the people we get to grow alongside ov. On top of everything we intend to build and create, we can only achieve it if the experts around us are winning as well. Our nonprofit efforts allow us to give back.

*Hot take, but the nonprofit sector is currently stained with a bad reputation filled with corruption and false promises. Back to our values- transparency, transparency, transparency. We hope to make a difference in changing the perception. Every dollar earned and distributed for the non-profit will be made publicly known, and we’ll make this an educational effort. What we spend and why will be explicitly defined, and hopefully this builds a model that others can learn from and expand on. True wealth is only as good as much as you are able to share it. Let’s make that known, felt, and widely practiced.

So, we’re The Thing. You know? That thing. The thing that’s going to bridge us into the future, that still looks unclear and largely scary at times.

We’re humans- let’s figure out what that means first. Because that’s going to change soon too. We’re Renee and Madisen. Two humans that want to get to know you, to help you get to know you, and collab on building a future that looks a lot more simple, even if the world doesn’t feel that way at the moment.