Starting Good Tech Collective
I've spent over a decade in tech: building products, leading teams, working with AI. I love this industry. And I think we can do better.
Not in the way that gets said in keynotes and then forgotten. Actually better.
It's not that we lack responsible AI frameworks, or ethics guidelines, or well-intentioned founders. We have plenty. The problem is that knowing what's right and doing what's right are very different things, especially when the pressure
hits. The investor wants faster growth. The competitor just shipped something you were agonizing over. The deadline is tomorrow and the ethics review can wait.
I think three things need to change.
- How we build technology. Responsible practices exist, but we need to close the gap between principles and practice; not just in AI, but across everything we build.
- The structures we build within. Ownership models, incentive design, governance: these shape decisions more than any mission statement. When the structure rewards short-term extraction, good intentions lose. We need structures that actually support good choices.
- How leaders make decisions under pressure. You can have the right frameworks and the right structures, and it still falls apart in the moment, because the person making the call is burned out, reactive, or disconnected from what they actually believe. I think there's a real, practical, evidence-based case for developing the kind of inner capacity that helps leaders hold their ground and make wiser decisions. Turn inward to move forward.
These three areas — responsible technology, ownership and incentives, embodied leadership — are usually separate conversations happening in separate rooms. I think they're the same conversation.
Good Tech Collective is my attempt to bring them together. It's a community of practice, not a consultancy. I don't have all the answers, especially on the ownership and structures side, where I'm learning as much as anyone. But I
believe these fields need each other, and I want to find others who see it that way.
This is early. I'm building it in the open, starting with conversations and seeing what emerges. If any of this resonates, whether you work in one of these areas or you've just been sitting at an intersection that doesn't have a name yet, I'd love to hear from you.
-- Iris
