In six months, President Obama will be leaving the White House and be in search of a new job. In an interview with Bloomberg back in June, Obama surprised us when he expressed interest in joining entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
“Had I not gone into politics, I’d probably be starting some kind of business,” said Obama. “The skill set of starting my presidential campaigns—and building the kinds of teams that we did and marketing ideas—I think would be the same kinds of skills that I would enjoy exercising in the private sector. …The conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying.”
And in Ari Bloom’s (CEO of Avametric) words, “He’s kind of perfect for the job.” With the world’s best network and the ability to motivate and mobilize people, Obama could really succeed at a VC firm. While he may have a couple of things to learn about the industry, being the former leader of the free world is not a bad thing to have on your résumé.
Although we don’t know what Obama’s post-presidency plans are of yet, we can hope that he takes advantage of his influence and puts his efforts towards changing the world through social good. Rob Nail, who leads Singularity University, suggests that he lead a new Impact Fund that addresses the world’s biggest problems and measures return on investment in terms of global impact rather than profits.
We here would love to see Obama create his own Impact Fund to tackle issues like the ones we are still feeling from the housing crisis which, for many places throughout America, is not over. Cities like Detroit and Cleveland are still working to deal with the blight that has resulted from the housing bust. Or he could take to doing some neighborhood rehab, following examples like LeBron James.
What do you think about Obama becoming a venture capitalist or a social good capitalist? Do you think he could make his mark doing neighborhood rehab/revitalization?
Read the original Quartz article here.
