The Urgency of Urban Challenges: Introducing Team UrbanDev
Flying taxis. Autonomous vehicles. Drone delivery. Modular housing. Smart IoT infrastructure. Carbon neutrality. Remote work. Pedestrian-focused streets.
These are just some of the UrbanTech “moonshots” that make the future of cities so exciting, particularly for this group of future-minded Stanford GSB MBA students, passionate about improving our urban spaces for generations to come.
And while this futuristic reality is undoubtedly approaching, 2020 — and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular — has reminded us of the urgency and magnitude of the problems that cities face today.
The most vibrant urban areas are the ones teeming with life, inviting people out onto their streets through beautiful architecture and art, trendy restaurants and talented street performers. And while COVID-19 lockdowns largely forced us inside in 2020, the gravity of today’s urban challenges brought people out to the streets like never before.
Newly laid-off employees took to the streets, as long lines for unemployment relief reminded us of the fragility of the American economy and our shallow social safety nets. Essential workers took to the streets, risking exposure to deliver groceries, packages, and meals to those of us sheltering in place, a manifestation of the socioeconomic disparities within our cities. Hungry families took to the streets, as hours-long queues of people lined up at food banks, underscoring the depth of food insecurity in American cities. Radicalized citizens took to the streets to commit insurrection, highlighting the dangers of disinformation in civic life.
If we learned anything from 2020, it is this: The challenges cities face today are pressing and urgent. However, street-life in 2020 also gave us reasons for hope.
Advocates for racial justice took to the streets, galvanized by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, bringing renewed attention to, and commitment to confront, systemic racism in policing and the justice system. Volunteers, activists, and organizers took to the streets for momentous get-out-the-vote efforts, resulting in unprecedented civic participation and a renewed respect for facts, science, and civility in public discourse. Finally, heroes took to the streets, thanked by thunderous applause from urban balconies, as frontline healthcare workers ended their shifts, uplifting us with their bravery, compassion and resilience.
Our city streets were the stage for so many of 2020’s significant moments. And with that context at top of mind, our mission this year is this: to invest in impact-first startups, led by diverse teams, that are driving meaningful progress towards healthier, safer, more sustainable, more participatory and more inclusive urban spaces. We are looking for companies that are clear-eyed about the urgency of this moment and resolute in their conviction to solve cities’ most pressing challenges.
Specifically, we are focused on sourcing investments aligned to five key themes that affect both where we live and how we live:
How we live:
- Urban Wellness: Food companies that are tackling food insecurity and HealthTech entrepreneurs who are improving access, equalizing healthcare outcomes, or better managing emergency first response.
- Urban Empowerment: Future of Work startups that are building inclusive post-COVID work environments and Financial Development companies democratizing financing opportunities and cultivating better economic outcomes for underserved communities.
- Vibrant Democracy: CivTech entrepreneurs building innovative solutions to civic engagement that encourage discourse and combat disinformation and GovTech startups bringing local governments into the 21st century with cutting edge technology.
Where we live:
- Accessible Living: Transportation innovators working on future-of-mobility solutions bringing more people into cities in a sustainable way and Real Estate startups tackling homelessness and urban housing shortages, which disproportionately affect lower-income households.
- Sustainable Environments: Construction Tech companies focused on sustainable, affordable housing and infrastructure projects and Energy & Grid startups bringing smart IoT to the built environment and moving cities towards carbon neutrality.
Common to all these themes, we are seeking companies that aspire to meet the following social and environmental impact criteria:
- Intentional, Deep Impact: Many urban innovations will lead to tremendously positive externalities. Nevertheless, we prioritize startups who proactively highlight and measure their social impact potential as one of their core objectives.
- Socioeconomically Inclusive: We are looking for businesses that (1) have an explicit intent to create solutions that benefit underserved communities and/or (2) are led by founders from backgrounds underserved by traditional VC.
- Environmentally Sustainable: We are most excited about innovations that can help move cities towards carbon neutrality in an intentional way.
- Global Focus: The problems American cities face are not uniquely American. As such, we are agnostic in terms of where in the world impact ultimately materializes.
- We are Additional: We want to invest in startups to whom the Stanford Impact Fund provides material, strategic additionality — whether through our capital or our expertise.
Our mission is ambitious, but we have assembled the right team for the job. Collectively, we have industry expertise across Mobility, Construction-Tech, Architecture, Economic Development, Real Estate, and urban-focused Journalism. We have deep experience in the public sector, the private sector, and even public-private partnerships. We’re a team of investment bankers, venture investors, impact consultants, entrepreneurs, architects, journalists and diplomats. But most importantly, we are mission-driven Stanford GSB students laser-focused on directing our capital and energy towards changing lives, organizations, and the world.
If you believe your startup might be a good fit for our fund, please reach out to us at gsb_urbandevelopmentdealteam@stanford.edu.
Let’s get to work,
Team UrbanDev,
Nathan Jacobson (Team Lead), Edison Ding, Claudio Gonzalez, Tara Haase, Jill Lanney, Nicole Miles, Paola Retes, Michael Saadine, Ben White
