What might it look like for the financing and other fundamental structures underpinning our organisations to truly help them create conditions for life's thriving?

Dr. Melanie Rieback is CEO/Co-founder of Radically Open Security, the world's first not-for-profit computer security company, and the "Post Growth" startup incubator Nonprofit Ventures. She is also a former Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Free University of Amsterdam and was named "Most Innovative IT Leader of the Netherlands" by CIO Magazine (TIM Award) in 2017, and one of the "9 Most Innovative Women in the European Union" (EU Women Innovators Prize) in 2019.

Melanie talks to us here, not only about the non-extractive financing and ownership structures she has experimented with in her own organisation, but about the cultures and structures within the financial industry that often lead it to be extractive and the increasingly political nature of financing. We touch on the importance of collaborating with unexpected allies, letting go of control, opening up to uncertainty, embracing creativity and acting from empathy and love.

If there was ever a conversation to demonstrate the power, breadth and beauty possible in financing, it is this one. Enjoy.

Key Links

• Radically Open Security: https://www.radicallyopensecurity.com/
• Post-Growth Entrepreneurship Incubator: https://nonprofit.ventures/
• Online free version of Melanie's post-growth entrepreneurship course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApINAX7XEqc&list=PL14vcCXv7XVONAwzNv0ApYwZ5iepLzz3S&index=1
• Purpose Foundation where you can learn more about steward ownership: https://purpose-economy.org/en/
• NLnet Foundation: https://nlnet.nl/
• Snowball Impact Investment: https://www.snowballimpactinvestment.com/
• Purpose Ventures: https://purpose-economy.org/en/ventures/
• The book I couldn't remember!: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24097668-alternatives-to-capitalism
• The petition that Melanie and others started to get a steward ownership model debated in the Dutch Parliament: https://www.stewardownershiprechtsvorm.nl/articles/english