Only about 10 percent of venture funds ever make it to a fourth vintage. Of those, just 5 to 10 percent are led by women. Im one of them.
When I started Female Founders Fund in 2014, I believed that solid returns and conviction would speak for themselves. Strong performance would unlock capital and the industry would reward the achievement, especially from those breaking new groundor so I thought. What Ive come to learn is that venture capital isnt a pure meritocracy. Its a network-driven ecosystem where who you know often matters just as much as what you build.
Cultural and political changes, and a tight market environment, are making it especially difficult for fund managers to maintain momentum. Now is the time for the industry to reflect on how to ensure that these funds, especially those led by diverse managers, can weather these forces and continue to support diverse founders with brilliant ideas.
Investing in women isn’t charity. By yielding powerful, durable returns, it has proven to be smart business. As risk tolerance declines, it could be tempting for institutions to retreat to the familiar. Instead, they should pay attention to the data.
A shorter runway for women
Over the years, a few lessons have become clear. They arent the ones you find in your LPA, but theyre the realities that quietly shape who gets funded, who gets backed again, and who quietly fades away.
Returns are just one part of the picture. While performance is important, other forcesinstitutional change, personal networks, and internal politicsoften drive how capital gets distributed. Once an institution commits to a fund, that relationship can extend across multiple vintages. The incentive to change managers is low.
Check writers want proximity to the next generation of Tier 1 talent striking out on their own. That bias works in favor of spinoutsformer Sequoia, a16z, or Benchmark investors taking the entrepreneurial leap. But for managers without that institutional pedigree, the path looks very different. And for women, who remain significantly underrepresented in those firms partnership ranks, the path is even narrower.Your first fund is often cobbled together from founders, friends, and family offices willing to take an early bet. By Fund II or III, however, the bar shifts. Institutions want scale, systems, and years of realized returns, all of which take time to build. For emerging managers, thats the hardest leap: breaking through a system designed to reward familiarity over conviction.
Venture is a relationship business. It prides itself on data and rigor, but in practice it runs on trust. The capital that fuels our industry still moves through networks built over decades. Who you know, how long youve known them, and what you have to offer, determines access.
This is why new or diverse fund managers often find it easier to raise their first fund on promise than their second on proof. Convincing someone to take the initial bet on someone new can be easier than asking them to break a pattern with subsequent fundsbecause the pattern is still overwhelmingly male.
We must also look at money. Wealth isnt optionalits the price of entry. For example, all new fund managers are expected to invest a GP commit, which equates to roughly 1 percent of their total fund size. On a $50 million fund, thats $500,000 in cash, upfront.
Imagine asking an entrepreneur to invest half a million dollars in their own Series B to show commitment. For many, especially women and first-time fund managers, that barrier is insurmountable without preexisting, generational, or spousal wealth. It is one of the quietest but most enduring structural filters in venture, and it uniquely disadvantages women, who, on average, hold less personal and intergenerational wealth.
Having a financial cushion is also vital to play the long game that venture requires. To stay in the business, particularly through downturns, you need a financial cushion. Big payouts dont happen often. Selling some of the investment early can help a little, but small fund managers cant always afford to take a lower price without making it harder to raise money later.
Its not just about resilience and grit; its about runway. And because women more frequently enter the industry later, without the safety nets that have historically supported male peers, their runway is often meaningfully shorter. Staying in the game long enough to see your conviction validated is, in itself, a form of privilege.
Another challenge that has played out over the years is that while several well-intentioned institutions and corporations have stepped in to support and capitalize diverse managers, the purpose behind many of these checks has been to provide start-up capital designed to help new funds get off the ground, with the expectation that larger institutional investors would take over from there.
That handoff, however, has proven difficult. Even as the tide has turned culturally and politically, theres a real opportunity to rethink how we sustain diverse managers beyond the first fund, widening the base of long-term support so they can weather market cycles and build lasting franchises. The current system still assumes women will somehow graduate into institutional support structures that were never designed with them in mind.
Shaping the next frontier
I started Female Founders Fund as an entrepreneur who spotted alpha in the marketa clear gap between the caliber of women building companies and the capital available to back them. Twelve years later, that thesis has proven right again and again.
At Female Founders Fund, weve seen it firsthand. Maven Clinic became the first unicorn in womens health, defining an entirely new category of care. Billie reimagined modern personal care before its acquisition by Edgewell. BentoBox transformed hospitality tech, leading to a successful exit. Tala, now valued at nearly $1 billion, continues to scale globally, expanding access to financial services in emerging markets. Wagmo created a new category of employee benefits around pet care, while Violette_FR built the first artist-led French beauty brand in decades.
These companies touch millions of end customers and have built products, tools, and services that have scaled across industries proving that female-led innovation drives real enterprise and consumer value. These founders are category creatorspairing big visions with world-class execution.
These outcomes arent outliers. Theyre evidence that backing female founders is a wise investment strategy that generates meaningful returns. We cannot let this moment in time with its tighter markets and shifting market and social priorities create negative momentum.
Women are now leading in industries once thought impossible to break into: Space DOTS, founded by a NASA-trained astronautical engineer; Beyond Aero, reimagining flight through hydrogen-electric propulsion; Amini AI, building Africas environmental data backbone; Waabi, redefining autonomous trucking; and Dacora, making history as the first female-founded automotive company.
From aerospace to AI, from climate to transportation, women are shaping the next frontier and the best is yet to come.
In order to keep seeing new role models of success especially for those living outside the traditional Silicon Valley ecosystem, we need to keep capital flowing. Thats how the next generation of women and underrepresented founders will see themselves in the leaders building toay.
In a moment when the world feels increasingly divided, doubling down on progress isnt just good businessits good stewardship. Because the hardest part isnt raising a fund, its building one that endures. And the longer I stay in this business, the clearer it becomes: investing in women isnt a risk, its a return.
Its a great week to have a disposable income and act like you know how to ski.
North Face x Skims today launches its second winter outerwear capsule, again channeling ski culture with a campaign shot on the powder-coated Chilean mountains. (Skis and airfare not included.)
The 2025 drop expands on its collection from last year with even more silhouettes, like the wrap puffer coat, and a thoughtfully cropped, hooded puffer jacket with drop shoulder that brings some fashion to the line, which is aesthetically more oriented toward sport. It also includes mens and kids styles for the first time (prices range from $55 to $800).
[Photo: The North Face]
Even considering the new styles, the overall brand ID will look very familiar to Skims fans, with creative direction thats nearly identical to last years North Face collaboration. It has a styling and color system approach thats similar to the recent Skims x Nike collab, with muted color tones such as bone, kyanite, gunmetal, phoenix, and onyx, this time inspired by winter color palette.
[Photo: The North Face]
The campaign creative direction again utilizes gradiated layouts and product imagery, featuring models in geometric groupings organized by garment colorway. (Laura Obermeyer and Jackie Nickerson shot this years campaign; the first iteration last year was 2 campaigns, one shot by Vanessa Beecroft and the other shot by Donna Trope.) Part of what makes the Skims marketing such a home run is how it plays with its brand for a distinct visual approach to each of its various campaigns for core product drops. It appears to be less flexible with collaborations.
[Photo: Nike]
A big week for ski fashion
But its not the first to drop a winter collection this week. Nike and Jacquemus expanded their long-running partnership into the winter season by earlier this week announcing their first ever ski collection (some styles are online now). The Nike x Jacquemus’ collab plays into cold weather glamour and offers shapes that are driven less by spandex body shaping and more by a classic, retro aprés style.
The style lines and pattern of the clothes create their own shape on the body, such as in the ful skirt featured on the first campaign image, or the hourglass shape emphasized by the bell sleeve and tailored waist of the ski jacket. Its Audrey Hepburn in Chalet with the functionality of Gore Tex. Prices range from $110 to $700 for whats currently available online, which is half of the total 18 expected styles to be released.
[Photo: Nike]
These drops are an entry point for fashion brands to get in on outerwear sales by tapping into the expertise of brands already in the space (North Face and NIke, respectively). They are also a way for winter sport amateurs to tap into ski styles, without having to spend big on a vacation or premium-level gear they dont really need. I live at sea level, and Id still buy that Nike x Jacquemus jacket, if it wasnt sold out. And though all the North Face x Skims styles have yet to be released, the comments section on the brand announcement posts is already piping.
[Photo: Nike]
This quick sequence of drops is another indication theres appeal in prestige signalling through pieces that have prppy, sophisticated, and stylistic design elements you might see walking around Kemo Sabe in Aspen or a premium St. Moritz chalet.
Its almost as if tennis core and gorpcore had a winter romance (does that give us chaletcore?). North Face x Skims and Jacquemus x Nike have distinct pespectives on this, but one thing is clear: this winter, skiing is a state of mind.
[Photo: The North Face]
Russian authorities said Thursday they have imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online.
State internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that the service is being used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on the territory of the country, to recruit perpetrators (and) commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens. Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Russian regulator also announced that it has blocked Snapchat, a messaging app for sharing photos, videos and text messages, citing the same grounds it gave for restricting FaceTime. It said that it took the action Oct. 10, even though it only reported the move on Thursday.
Under President Vladimir Putin, authorities have engaged in deliberate and multipronged efforts to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply. Technology has also been perfected to monitor and manipulate online traffic.
After Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the government blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Access to YouTube was disrupted last year in what experts called deliberate throttling of the widely popular site by the authorities. The Kremlin blamed YouTube owner Google for not properly maintaining its hardware in Russia.
While its still possible to circumvent some of the restrictions by using virtual private network services, those are routinely blocked, too.
Authorities further restricted internet access this summer with widespread shutdowns of cellphone internet connections. Officials have insisted the measure was needed to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks, but experts argued it was another step to tighten internet control. In dozens of regions, white lists of government-approved sites and services that are supposed to function despite a shutdown have been introduced.
The government has also acted against popular messaging platforms. Encrypted messenger Signal and another popular app, Viber, were blocked in 2024. This year, the authorities banned calls via WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in Russia, and Telegram, a close second. Roskomnadzor justified the measure by saying the two apps were being used for criminal activities.
At the same time, authorities actively promoted a national messenger app called MAX, which critics see as a surveillance tool. The platform, touted by developers and officials as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments, and more, openly declares it will share user data with authorities upon request. Experts also say it doesnt use end-to-end encryption.
Earlier this week, the government also said it was blocking Roblox, a popular online game platform, saying the step aimed at protecting children from illicit content and pedophiles who meet minors directly in the games chats and then move on to real life.
Stanislav Seleznev, cyber security expert and lawyer with the Net Freedom rights group, told The Associated Press that Russian law views any platform where users can message each other as organizers of dissemination of information.
This label mandates that platforms have an account with Roskomnadzor so that it could communicate its demands, and give Russia’s security service, the FSB, access to accounts of their users for monitoring; those failing to comply are in violation and can get blocked, Seleznev said.
He suggested that these regulations could have been applied to both Roblox and FaceTime.
Roblox in October was the second most popular game platform in Russia, with nearly 8 million monthly users, according to media monitoring group Mediascope.
Seleznev estimated that possibly tens of millions of Russians have been using FaceTime, especially after calls were banned on WhatsApp and Telegram. He called the restrictions against the service predictable and warned that other sites failing to cooperate with Roskomnadzor “will be blocked, thats obvious.
Dasha Litvinova, Associated Press
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a proposal to weaken vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry, loosening regulatory pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
The plan, if finalized next year, would significantly reduce fuel economy requirements, which set rules on how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline, through the 2031 model year. The administration and automakers say the rules will increase Americans access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can afford.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects that the new standards would set the industry fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon in the 2031 model year, down from a projected 50.4 miles per gallon in 2031 under the Biden-era rule.
The move is the latest action by the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era policies that encouraged cleaner-running cars and trucks, including electric vehicles, and it sparked criticism from environmental groups. Burning gasoline for vehicles is a major contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
“From day one Ive been taking action to make buying a car more affordable, Trump said at a White House event that included top executives from two of the largest U.S. automakers.
The rule reverses a Biden-era policy that “forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices and made the car much worse, Trump said.
Automakers applaud and environmentalists decry rule change
The action is expected to save consumers about $1,000 off the price of a new car, Trump said. New cars sold for an average of $49,766 on average in October, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Automakers applauded the planned changes, which came amid industry complaints that the Biden-era rules were difficult to meet.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said the planned rollback was a win for customers and common sense.
As Americas largest auto producer, we appreciate President Trumps leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities. We can make real progress on carbon emissions and energy efficiency while still giving customers choice and affordability, he said.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said the automaker appreciates the administrations actions to realign the mileage standards with real world market conditions.
Since taking office in January, Trump has relaxed auto tailpipe emissions rules, repealed fines for automakers that do not meet federal mileage standards, and terminated consumer credits of up to $7,500 for EV purchases.
Environmentalists decried the rollback.
In one stroke Trump is worsening three of our nations most vexing problems: the thirst for oil, high gas pump costs, and global warming, said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Gutting the (gas-mileage) program will make cars burn more gas and American families burn more cash,” said Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All program. This rollback would move the auto industry backwards, keeping polluting cars on our roads for years to come and threatening the health of millions of Americans, particularly children and the elderly.
‘People want the gasoline car’
Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV mandate, referring incorrectly to Democratic President Joe Bidens target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. EVs accounted for about 8% of new vehicle sales in the United States in 2024, according to Cox Automotive.
Trump called Democrats’ efforts to promote EVs insane, adding, People want the gasoline car.
No federal policy has required auto companies to sell EVs, although California and other states have imposed rules requiring that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035. Trump and congressional Republicans blocked the California law earlier this year.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged his agency to reverse existing fuel economy requirements, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, soon after taking office. In June, he said that standards set under Biden were illegal because they included use of electric vehicles in their calculation. EVs do not run on gasoline. After the June rule revision, the traffic safety administration was empowered to update the requirements.
The new rules are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and (former Transportation Secretary Pete) Buttigieg want to build, Duffy said Wednesday.
Under Biden, automakers were required to average about 50 miles (81 kilometers) per gallon of gas for passenger cars by 2031, compared with about 39 miles (63 kilometers) per gallon today. The Biden administration also increased fuel-economy requirements by 2% each year for light-duty vehicles in every model year from 2027 to 2031, and 2% per year for SUVs and other light trucks from 2029 to 2031. At the same time, it called for stringent tailpipe rules meant to encourage EV adoption.
The 2024 standards would have saved 14 billion gallons of gasoline from being burned by 2050, according to the traffic safety administrations 2024 calculations. Abandoning them means that in 2035, cars could produce 22,111 more tons of carbon dioxide per year than under the Biden-era rules. It also means an extra 90 tons a year of deadly soot particles and 4,870 additional tons a year of smog components such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds going into the air in coming years.
Mileage rules have been implemented since the 1970s energy crisis, and over time, automakers have gradually increased their vehicles average efficiency.
Weakening fuel economy standards wont do much to make cars more affordable but is certain to make Americans buy a lot more gasoline,” said Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association.
The action also harms domestic manufacturers that have invested heavily in EV technologies and hired thousands of employees to build them, Gore said.
GM CEO skips White House event
Notaby absent Wednesday was General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who was attending a previously scheduled event in New York City, a company spokesperson said. A GM plant manager represented the automaker at the White House instead.
Like Ford and Stellantis, GM has poured billions of dollars into electrification of its fleet. In a statement, the company said it supports the goals of the proposed rule. “We remain committed to offering the best and broadest portfolio of electric and gas-powered vehicles on the market, GM said.
Matthew Daly and Alexa St. John, Associated Press
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
The bill that brought the government back online last month ended the shutdown with an unexpected catch that could crush an entire industry.
A hidden provision slipped into the bill just before it passed has nothing to do with the federal shutdown and everything to do with hempthe version of cannabis thats grown as a food, a fiber, and, in recent years, as the active ingredient in an array of sodas, gummies, and snacks crafted to give people an alcohol-free buzz.
Hemp is legally defined as a variety of the plant Cannabis sativa L. that contains less than .3 percent of the most common form of THC, the psychoactive compound from marijuana that gets people high. In 2018, a multiyear agricultural law known as a farm bill created that distinction, removing hempthe very low-THC version of cannabisfrom being lumped in with the controlled substance marijuana. That small shift gave birth to a booming industry of hemp-based THC drinks and snacks, which quickly hit store shelves even where recreational cannabis is illegal.
Now, a provision in the federal spending bill will limit the amount of THC in a beverage or edible to .4 milligramswell below the 10 milligrams promised by some of the hemp-based drinks found on gas station shelves. While hemp contains much less THC than the high concentrations present in marijuana plants, hemp-based THC can still give people a dose-dependent buzz when ingested. Businesses interested in the THC loophole also began converting CBD, a nonintoxicating compound in hemp, into other forms of THC that were not subject to the same restrictions and bottling it up for customers.
The combination of THCs recreational appeal and the ease with which businesses could now sell and ship hemp-based THC products inspired a lot of entrepreneurs to jump into the recreational side of the hemp industry. Now that part of the industry is poised to be regulated out of existence over worries that weed by another name was suddenly everywhere. Whether a looming ban on hemp-derived THC drinks is common sense or a terrible misstep depends on your perspectiveand your business interests.
Beyond booze
With drinking on the decline as the health impacts of alcohol come to light, a wave of new companies view THC drinks as a future proof, zero-proof alternative to booze. That includes breweries large and small, which began experimenting with THC brews to offset their losses as the craft beer boom fizzles.
Xander Shepherd, who cofounded Artet, a company that sells THC-infused spritzes and aperitifs, says that he and his cousin went into business to bring THC to our familys Thanksgiving dinners.
On a deeper level, we were motivated by the belief that THC has an important role to play in the progression of cocktail culture, Shepherd told Fast Company. Our stated mission is to prove to the world that infused drinks belong on the bar cart, or the dining room table, or anywhere else you might find a great bottle of wine or a fine spirit.
Because the farm bills hemp rules appeared to be settled law at the federal level, the regulatory environment looked safe enough for a huge variety of companies to start producing and selling THC-based candies, canned drinks, vape oils, and other products. In the face of an uncertain future, Shepherd says Artet hopes to continue to open peoples minds and palates about its trendy THC sippables.
The THC trends detractors paint a different picture. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell quietly pushed through the regulatory change to purposefully undo a loophole he helped create. McConnell emphasized that the change wouldnt affect the industrial hemp industry, which grows the plant for products like biofuels, fiber, and paper, and was designed to rein in the rise of intoxicating and synthetic THC products.
I am proud to have championed this language that keeps these products out of the hands of children, secures the future of regulated hemp businesses, and keeps our promise to American farmers and law enforcement by clarifying the intention in the 2018 Farm Bill, McConnell said of the bill.
An uncertain future
States are also wrestling with the issue, weighing their worries against the success of a young industry thats creating jobs and pulling in substantial tax revenue. Prior to the bills passage, a group of attorneys general from almost 40 states wrote Congress with their concerns about the proliferation of widely available THC products, cautioning that convenience stores and gas stations are stocked to the brim with psychoactive THC products.
For Artet, the game plan is to continue being a good steward in an industry thats increasingly attracting scrutiny. We feel that providing a good example for consumers and legislators is one way we can help undo this potentially looming prohibition, Shepherd said, noting that many brands in the space work hard to keep their THC products safe. Artets bottles come with a special child-resistant cap and a shot glass for pouring precise servings, two measures it takes to keep customers safe and sipping as intended.
Ultimately, those bad actors are wildly outnumbered by business owners and brands who are trying to do things the right way, even when it makes the job harder, Shepherd said. We do these things because we believe theyre the right thing to do, and were not alone in our efforts.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met separately with President Donald Trump and Republican senators Wednesday as tech executives work to secure favorable federal policies for the artificial intelligence industry, including the limited sale of Nvidia’s highly valued computer chips to U.S. rivals like China.
Huang’s closed-door meeting with Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee came at a moment of intensifying lobbying, soaring investments, and audacious forecasts by major tech companies about AIs potential transformative effects.
Huang is among the Silicon Valley executives who warn that any restrictions on the technology will halt its advancement despite mounting concerns among policymakers and the public about AI’s potential pitfalls or the ways foreign rivals like China may use American hardware.
Ive said repeatedly that we support export control, that we should ensure that American companies have the best and the most and first, Huang told reporters before his meeting on Capitol Hill.
He added that he shared concerns about selling AI chips to China but believed that restrictions haven’t slowed Chinese advancement in the AI race.
We need to be able to compete around the world. The one thing we cant do is we cant degrade the chips that we sell to China. They wont accept that. Theres a reason why they wouldnt accept that, and so we should offer the most competitive chips we can to the Chinese market, Huang said.
Huang also said hed met with Trump earlier Wednesday and discussed export controls for Nvidias chips. Huang added that he wished the president a happy holidays.
The Trump administration in May reversed Biden-era restrictions that had prevented Nvidia and other chipmakers from exporting their chips to a wide range of countries. The White House in August also announced an unusual deal that would allow Nvidia and another U.S. chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, to sell their chips in the Chinese market but would require the U.S. government to take a 15% cut of the sales.
The deal divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad support for controls on AI exports.
A growing battle in Congress
Members of Congress have generally considered the sale of high-end AI chips to China to be a national security risk. China is the main competitor to the U.S. in the race to develop artificial superintelligence. Lawmakers have also proposed a flurry of bills this year to regulate AI’s impact on dozens of industries, though none have become law.
Most Republican senators who attended the meeting with Huang declined to discuss their conversations. But a handful described the meeting as positive and productive.
For me, this is a very healthy discussion to have, said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. Rounds said lawmakers had a general discussion” with Huang about the state of AI and said senators were still open to a wide range of policies.
Asked whether he believed Nvidia’s interests and goals were fully aligned with U.S. national security, Rounds replied: They currently do not sell chips in China. And they understand that theyre an American company. They want to be able to compete around the rest of the world. Theyd love to some time be able to compete in China again, but they recognize that export controls are important as well for our own national security.”
Other Republicans were more skeptical of Huang’s message.
Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the upper chamber’s Banking Committee, said he skipped the meeting entirely.
I dont consider him to be an objective, credible source about whether we should be selling chips to China, Kennedy told reporters. Hes got more money than the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and he wants even more. I dont blame you for that, but if Im looking for someone to give me objective advice about whether we should make our technology available to China, he’s not it.”
Some Democrats, shut out from the meeting altogether, expressed frustration at Huang’s presence on Capitol Hill.
Evidently, he wants to go lobby Republicans in secret rather than explain himself, said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
Warren added that she wanted Huang to testify in a public congressional hearing and answer questions about why his company wants to favor Chinese manufacturers over American companies that need access to those high-quality chips.
Matt Brown, Associated Press
Every year in the United States, thousands of families face a devastating reality: Their child has a rare disease, but they wont know it until its too late for effective intervention. Thirty percent of children with rare diseases dont live to see their fifth birthday.
For too long, weve relied on limited newborn screening panels that vary from state to state, waiting until symptoms are severe and irreversible before acting. This approach is not only medically irresponsible, its fiscally unsound.Experts estimate rare diseases cost the U.S. healthcare system $1 trillion annually. Beyond the cost to our healthcare system, families too often find themselves in the position of becoming medical experts just to care for their child, taking them away from work and other loved ones, creating an immeasurable burden on the entire family.
As professionals who have spent their entire careers at the intersection of science, policy, and innovation, we believe we are standing at a pivotal moment where the status quo is no longer acceptable. We must approach diagnosing rare diseases at birth differently via genome sequencing. The science has never been more promising. The economics have never made more sense. And the human cost of inaction has never been higher.
EARLY DIAGNOSIS, EARLY TREATMENT
Earlier diagnosis of rare diseases is not a luxuryit is a moral and financial imperative for modernizing our health system. Take the case of KJ, a baby treated at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Born with a deadly genetic disease called CPS1 deficiency, KJ was diagnosed early and became one of the first children to receive gene therapy tailored to his specific mutation.
That treatment didnt just save his life. It also likely saved millions in long-term healthcare, special education, and disability costs that the system would otherwise have shouldered for decades.This is the future we should be building toward: one where precision medicine is equitable, made possible by genomic newborn screening and next-generation gene therapies. One that prevents suffering and reduces the strain on public and private healthcare dollars alike.
We already screen every baby born in the U.S. for certain conditions. But our current panel only scratches the surface. Thousands of serious, treatable genetic disorders go undetected every day because we havent modernized our approach. We can change that. We believe in a future where a single, affordable, and actionable genomic newborn screening at birth can identify hundreds of early-onset genetic conditions with established therapies and treatments. This allows for timely intervention that not only saves our healthcare system valuable resources but, most importantly, spares families unnecessary suffering.
Lets be clear: Earlier diagnosis leads to better outcomes. Children with spinal muscular atrophy, for example, can now receive treatment in the first weeks of life that dramatically improves survival and quality of life. Thats only possible when they are diagnosed before symptoms begin. Delay by even a few months leads to expensive and tragic outcomes.
POLICY CHANGES
We need leadership to ensure genomic newborn screening is available to every child. I applaud Florida State Representative Adam Anderson for championing groundbreaking initiatives in newborn screening by sponsoring the Sunshine Genetics Act (HB 907), which is establishing free, opt-in whole genome sequencing for newborns in Florida. Public-private partnerships, federal investment in data infrastructure, and updates to newborn screening policy can all move the needle without increasing the deficit.
Were already seeing progress with the recently announced BEACONS initiativethe countrys first multi-state genomic newborn screening initiative. Funded by a $14.4 million award from the National Institutes of HealthCommon Fund Venture Program, this program is laying the early groundwork for integration of whole genome sequencing into existing state newborn screening systems by examining the feasibility of incorporating genomic newborn screening into the public health system. BEACONS is just the beginning of a future where we envision a national standard for genomic sequencing at birth, grounded in early intervention, which can transform the lifetime health of the next generation of Americans.
This transformation is about unleashing the power of American innovation in partnership with the families, clinicians, and researchers who are working tirelessly to transform care. Its about enabling the next generation of gene editing and cell therapy technologies to succeed by ensuring we catch the diseases they can treat early enough to make a difference.
Importantly, we have the support of policymakers on both sides of the political aisle. Representatives Mike Simpson (R-ID), Kelly Morrison (D-MN), Nick Langworthy (R-NY) and Kim Schrier (D-WA) reintroduced the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act. This legislation was moved forward in September to the full committee. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) continue to champion the issue on the Senate side. The bipartisan bill will renew and strengthen existing newborn screening programs.
This bill is the first step. The next step is ensuring all newborns have access to the latest genetic tests so we can screen for the full range of treatable rare diseases and genetic conditions. The Genomic Answers for Children’s Health Act, which is awaiting introduction in Congress, will be crucial to these efforts as this legislation would further increase access to critical genomic testing.
CHILDHOOD HEALTH MUST BE ADDRESSED
The current drumbeat of the U.S. government is driven by calls for efficiency and a childhood health crisis that must be addressed. Republican lawmakers have long championed policies that are fiscally responsible, pro-innovation, and pro-life. Supporting expanded early diagnosis of rare diseases is squarely aligned with these values. It reduces long-term entitlement spending, encourages market-bsed innovation, and gives every child a fighting chance at life.
As policymakers debate the future of healthcare and innovation in America, we urge them to look closely at the rare disease community. What theyll find is not just a population in need, but a blueprint for smarter, more sustainable, and more compassionate healthcare.
The tools are here. The evidence is clear. The time is now.
Britt Johnson, PhD, FACMG is the SVP of medical affairs at GeneDx. Katherine Stueland is the CEO of GeneDx.
The world of popular psychological ideas, which is largely the self-help industry, is not short of contradictions. For instance, it simultaneously promotes the benefits of emotional intelligence (the ability to empathize with others and engage in strategic impression management) and authenticity (the tendency to express what you really feel and think without much consideration for others opinions). It also frequently celebrates self-acceptance and constant self-improvement (love yourself as you are but also become the best version of yourself), mindfulness and relentless ambition (stay in the zone, present and serene while hustling aggressively toward big goals), and even self-awareness and self-belief, which pull in opposite psychological directions. Self-awareness requires confronting your flaws, limitations, and blind spots with brutal honesty; self-belief requires ignoring at least some of that evidence to maintain high-levels of confidence, optimism, and drive. One asks you to see yourself clearly; the other asks you to believe in yourself despite what you see.
Yet this isnt a logical flaw so much as a reflection of our human tendency to categorize things as either fully good or fully bad, when in reality most psychological qualities operate in a yinyang balance. As Aristotle argued in his doctrine of the golden mean, virtue itself sits at the midpoint between two vices courage between cowardice and recklessness, generosity between stinginess and extravagance, confidence between timidity and hubris. In other words, even the qualities we most admire become dysfunctional when taken too far, and even the traits we distrust can be valuable in moderation. Human behavior functions the same way: most psychological strengths arent inherently good or bad, theyre dose-dependent.
In line, emotional intelligence isnt inherently superior to authenticity; self-awareness isnt automatically better than self-belief. They each contain the seed of their opposite, and their value depends on the situation, dosage, and context. In fact, one of the most established findings in personality and organizational psychology is the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect: virtually any trait or competency becomes dysfunctional when taken to an extreme. Confidence turns into arrogance, humility into self-doubt, authenticity into impulsive oversharing, and EQ into manipulative charm. Every strength has a shadow side, every virtue has a saturation point, and every desirable trait comes bundled with its own trade-offs. The goal, then, is not to pick one pure ideal authenticity or impression management, self-awareness or self-belief but to learn to calibrate them, blending them in ways that make us more effective, rather than more extreme.
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Hidden drawbacks
At times, even traits that seem to have no downside, such as self-awareness, come with hidden drawbacks. Intuitively, one would assume that we are generally better off knowing ourselves, understanding how others perceive us, and being aware of our strengths, limitations, biases, and blind spots. After all, entire leadership models, coaching programs, and HR philosophies rest on the idea that insight precedes improvement. If you dont know whats broken, how can you fix it? If you dont know how others experience you, how can you expect to lead them? And if you dont understand your own motives, how can you trust your decisions?
To be sure, this intuition is backed by a substantial body of research.
For example, many scientific studies show that:
1) Self-awareness predicts better job performance. Employees with higher self-insight (as measured through multisource or 360-degree feedback assessments) tend to show greater effectiveness at work, including when they are managers and leaders.2) Self-awareness enhances leadership effectiveness. Leaders who are more attuned to their strengths and weaknesses receive higher performance ratings and foster better team climates (note, however, that underestimating your skills and leadership talents is also linked to higher leadership effectiveness compared to people who overestimate themselves).3) Self-awareness improves interpersonal relationships. Individuals who understand their emotional patterns and their impact on others display higher empathy and lower conflict. Its simple: if you know how you impact others, which equates to knowing how others see you, it will be easier for you to adjust your behavior to make a desired impact on others (this is what David Brent and Michael Scott fail to do, which makes The Office great comedy value but their characters an absolute nightmare archetype of a boss).
The value of selective ignorance
However, there are also well-documented benefits to poor self-awareness or, more precisely, benefits to selective ignorance, including being unaware of your limitations or unjustifiably pleased with yourself. Think of people with the arrogance or confidence of Kanye West, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Muhammad Ali but without the talents to back it up!
Consider the following findings:
First, people with inflated self-views tend to be more resilient and less affected by stress, being able to bounce back faster and stronger from setbacks. Along the same lines, decades of research on positive illusions shows that overly optimistic people cope better with adversity and maintain higher motivation.
Second, self-deception can make individuals more persuasive: people who genuinely believe they are more competent than they are often appear more confident and convincing to others. If you can fool yourself, you are much more likely to fool others, since you dont even have to pretend or lie.
Third, low self-awareness can fuel ambition. Many entrepreneurs, athletes, and leaders overestimate their odds of success and this unrealistic optimism propels them to attempt things that a more accurate self-assessment would quickly veto. The worlds innovations are not driven by people with perfectly calibrated self-views, but by those who believed they could fly even when the evidence suggested otherwise.
All of which is to say: the self-help promise of clean, linear psychological virtues overlooks how messy human functioning actually is. A bit like nutrition advice that alternates between demonizing carbs, demonizing fat, and demonizing sugar (sometimes all three, and at times none), the self-help world tends to spotlight traits in isolation, ignoring the context in which they operate. Authenticity is wonderful until its not. Confidence is powerful until it becomes delusion. Empathy is admirable until it becomes people-pleasing. Even mindfulness has a dark side when it becomes an excuse for avoidance or emotional disengagement.
A tool box
A more realistic (and scientifically grounded) way of thinking about psychological qualities is to view them as tools in a repertoire. A hammer is useful, but not if you treat every situation as a nail. Emotional intelligence is helpful, but not if it turns into strategic manipulation. Authenticity is refreshing, but not if it comes at the expense of tact, professionalism, or prosocial self-regulation. And self-awareness is enlightening, but not if it becomes rumination, self-criticism, or paralysis by analysis.
The true art of psychological competence, especially in leadership, is not picking the right trait but deploying the right trait at the right time. Its knowing when to believe in yourself fiercely, and when to question your assumptions. When to be transparent, and when to filter. When to push ruthlessly, and when to pause reflectively. When to take a risk, and when to seek feedback. Most importantly, its recognizing that every psychological asset becomes a liability when unbounded, and every liability contains the seed of an asset when calibrated properly.
If the self-help industry were more honest, it would sound far less like a collection of tidy commandments and far more like a user manual for a complex operating system: one with settings, thresholds, sliders, and context-specific modes. But it depends will never be a bestseller, and everything in moderation is hardly a motivational tagline. So instead, we get a contradictory buffet of directives be yourself, but improve yourself; relax, but hustle; speak your truth, but avoid offending anyone; know your flaws, but never doubt your greatness.
The irony, of course, is that mature psychological functioning lies precisely in reconciling these tensions. Not by choosing sides, but by developing the agility to move fluidly between them. In the end, the real contradiction is not in the advice we receive, but in our desire for simple answers to complex questions. Human nature is too nuanced for single-variable solutions, and the qualities that make us effective are rarely pure. They are contradictions held in balance (the yin and yang of psychological functioning) and the leaders who thrive are those who learn to navigate this paradox elegantly, not dogmatically.
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The Bronx stands apart from New York Citys four other boroughs in stark ways. Home to 1.4 million residents and the nation’s poorest congressional district, it once flourished as fertile farmland. Today, were restoring this landnot to its agricultural roots, but as fertile ground for raising healthy, happy, and prosperous children.
And in the process, were cultivating opportunity for a new generation of citizens.
My wife Lizette and I founded and run Green Bronx Machine (GBM). Our nonprofit is dedicated to rewriting the narrative about the Bronx and its residents. Inside Community School 55, just across the tracks from rows of dilapidated public housing towers, sits an unexpected oasis: a thriving garden where fruits and vegetables grow alongside young dreams and possibilities. All year long, grandmothers find respite in the greenery while children eagerly plant seeds, harvest crops, raise chickens, and gather eggs.
But this transformation didn’t begin outdoorsit started in a classroom.
AN “UNEMPLOYED” TEACHER
I playfully call myself an “unemployed teacher.” An educator/administrator since 1984, I left formal employment determined to launch a program that has now spread to more than 1,000 schools across the United States and a dozen countrieswith ambitious plans to scale that impact. Dubbed A Miracle in the Bronx, we combine urban agriculture, project-based learning, and community engagement that transforms educational outcomes in areas where success seems improbable, if not impossible.
GBMs classroom model began almost by accident. When struggling to engage my students, I received a box of daffodil bulbs. Instead of discarding them, I tucked them behind a radiator. Weeks later, the bulbs sprouted and bloomed, and with them, a change in students’ engagement and attendance.
These kids, who wouldn’t come to school to see me, were suddenly showing up to see plants. That was my a-ha moment. We planted 25,000 bulbs all across NYC that year.
[Photo: Green Bronx Machine]
Today, the program features indoor Tower Gardens and Babylon Micro-Farms, where students grow vegetables year-round in classroom settings, along the way learning math, English, biology, even phys. ed. The results extend far beyond agriculture. Participants show improved academic performance, higher attendance rates, better nutritional habits, and increased environmental awareness. Teachers are similarly inspired and engaged.
Meanwhile, the produce students grow is sold to provide much-needed jobs and income, or taken home by students to feed their families.
I learned that when a child plants a seed and nurtures that plant to harvest, they never go hungry againnot intellectually, emotionally, or physically.
THE VISION DEFICIT IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS
It is common to think that America’s educational challenges stem primarily from limited funding. But the more fundamental issue is a clear vision of whats possible in todays schoolssomething increasingly scarce in an environment dominated by misinformation, politics, and eroding social cohesion.
For children growing up today, the harsh reality is that in America, despite our cherished narrative of meritocracy and individualism, ones ZIP code remains the primary determinant of social, educational, and health outcomes. Thats exemplified in marginalized areas like the South Bronx.
This geographical determinism is driven by many things. That includes schools in low-income areas being starved for funding, experienced teachers, and enrichment opportunities. Students also face additional barriers such as food insecurity, housing instability, and exposure to environmental hazardsall impacting their ability to learn effectively.
END ZIP CODE DESTINY
By transforming schools into centers of community wellness, individual excellence, and environmental stewardship, weve demonstrated that innovative approaches can overcome systemic barriers.
We’re growing high performing schools, engaged citizens, responsible neighbors, vibrant communities, jobs, and we’re growing healthy foodall together.
The program has driven impact across a wide variety of communities, national and international, and that impact is captured in a documentary, Generation Growth, which highlights the program’s success and led to GBM being named a 2024 Most Innovative Company by Fast Company.
SCALE A TRANSFERABLE MODEL
What makes GBMs method so impactful is its transferability across states and international borders. Schools in diverse settings, from rural Alabama to suburban Colorado, have successfully adapted it to local needs while maintaining core principles. Were projected to impact 30,000 schools in the United States by 2030.
This isn’t just about the Bronx. There is a Bronx in every American city and around the world; weve built a turn-key program that serves all of them. This is about transforming how we think about education, community, sustainability, poverty, and progress everywhere.
[Photo: Green Bronx Machine]
Many think I have a larger-than-life personality, but you dont need that to be effective. Its about community engagement. Ana Christina Garcia of Sloan Kettering and a GBM board member notes that “Green Bronx Machine capitalizes on community assets and unlocks the potential, desire, and passion that children, principals, and teachers already have. Community engagement is about making organizational resources more accessible to unlock people’s existing talents and power. It’s a two-way street where everyone benefits from sharing their wonderful talents as human beings and creating stronger community connections.” I call this social vitamin fortified with human capacity.
We’re not just growing plants, we’re growing hope. And hope is the most powerful seed we can plant. In 2026 Id like to shake hands with other thought leaders to continue bringing this proven program across the country. It takes a village, of course, but it also takes an inspiring vision. Join me please.
The author thanks Joel Makower and Jeff Senne for their contributions to this article.
Stephen Ritz is founder of Green Bronx Machine.
The rise of artificial intelligence is transforming every industry, but it also creates enormous demand for digital infrastructure and natural resources. Data centers, the engines of this transformation, consume vast amounts of water and energy.
A single hyperscale data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of potable water every day. In Phoenix, 58 centers together demand more than 170 million gallons daily, enough to serve up to several hundred thousand households.
This is the internets hidden water footprint, amplified by AI, cloud computing, and data-heavy services. Training a single large AI model in a Microsoft data center can require about 185,000 gallons of clean water. By 2027, AI-related data centers could consume 1.7 trillion gallons annually, nearly matching the domestic water use of some developed nations.
Most data centers still rely on evaporative cooling, which consumes massive volumes and discharges chemical-laden wastewater. The challenge is not only scale but also geography. More than 40% of U.S. data centers are located in water-stressed basins.
AIs rapid growth demands a new approach. Water cannot become the bottleneck to the next chapter of human progress.
FROM COMMUNITY PUSHBACK TO BUSINESS RISK
Public concerns are already reshaping the industry:
Oregon: Google faced lawsuits over water secrecy.
Indiana: Amazons Project Rainier is under state scrutiny for allegedly draining wells while pumping millions of gallons per hour.
Georgia: Families near Metas complex report unusable wells.
Virginia: Utilities now require new data centers to secure their own water sources or adopt closed-loop systems.
Investors are paying attention. Water use per AI training cycle is emerging as a core accountability metric, alongside carbon intensity. Communities are responding with moratorium requests.
THE CALL FOR INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP
The industry can no longer rely on incomplete data, inconsistent reporting, or distant offsetting schemes. Declaring a water positive target by some far-off date is no longer enough. Communities demand tangible action where the water is drawn.
The technology exists today. Around the world, data center and cloud providers are proving that sustainability and scalability can coexist, with each breakthrough setting a new benchmark for what is possible.
Microsoft has deployed closed-loop systems in Arizona and Wisconsin, saving up to 125 million liters per site.
Google used reclaimed wastewater at 22% of its campuses as of 2023.
Amazon is building new centers with closed-loop treatment, recycling every drop used for cooling.
NVIDIA is partnering with Singtel to deploy next-generation liquid and immersion cooling systems designed to achieve industry-leading water efficiency in Singapores new AI data centers.
The opportunity is clear: Water must be engineered into AIs growth, not treated as an afterthought.
THE TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING SUSTAINABLE AI
Building a sustainable digital future requires bold adoption of both proven and emerging solutions that reduce environmental impact while enabling continued growth. The tools already exist. What we need now is the conviction to scale them.
Smarter cooling technologies
Closed-loop and liquid cooling: Advanced systems can reduce water consumption by as much as 30 to 50% while maintaining the high-performance environment that AI workloads demand.
Water recycling at scale: Leaders like AWS plan to deploy treated wastewater at more than 120 data centers by 2030, setting a new baseline for responsible water use.
AI-Driven optimization
Smart workload scheduling: By applying AI to manage computing loads, operators have shown they can cut water consumption by a third without increasing carbon emissions. This type of efficiency breakthrough makes sustainability scalable.
Alternative water sources
Seawater desalination: In coastal or arid regions, seawater offers an abundant alternative. Advanced desalination technologies convert it into a reliable cooling supply without burdening municipal drinking water systems.
High-value water reuse: Modern treatment technologies can transform sewage, brackish groundwater, and industrial effluent into high-quality process water, eliminating dependence on limited freshwater supplies.
This is our approach at Gradiant, where our feedwater-agnostic treatment systems enable data centers to operate using seawater, wastewater, or other unconventional sources, reducing dependence on fresh supplies. By recycling blowdown and cooling tower reject, we achieve zero-liquid discharge and drastically reduce freshwater withdrawals, even in the largest hyperscale AI facilities.
With the right technologies, sustainable AI data center growth can align with both environmental and business imperatives.
AIS GROWTH HINGES ON WATER
The next era of AI will be defined by those who treat water as critical infrastructure. Companies that lead will gain faster permitting, avoid regulatory shocks and operational disruptions, and build lasting trust with the communities that host them.
Water is not compliance. It is resilience. It is innovation. It is license to operate.
AIs future depends on leadership that recognizes water as the defining resource of our digital age, one that must be safeguarded through innovation rather than depletion. Advanced recycling, seawater desalination, and next-generation water treatment will be the pillars of responsible growth. The companies that act now will determine not only how AI grows but whether it grows responsibly, securing both digital progress and planetary resilience.
Prakash Govindan and Anurag Bajpayee are the cofounders of Gradiant.
