The Best Way to Predict the Future

(And, What Kind of Founder Will Raise a VentureStakingTM Round?)

April 04, 2025

Delivered April 4, 2025 @ 5:00pm ET

Weather in Bloomington, Indiana - Cloudy/Rainy, 150 C / 530 F

Table of Contents

Welcome to the Democratize Venture Community!

My name is Gerry Hays, and for lack of a better description, I’m the custodian and convener of Doriot, a movement to break open the gates of venture and expand innovation and wealth beyond an elite few.

I’ve been in the game of venture as a founder, investor, researcher, inventor, author, game designer, and professor. I’ve built companies and developed a global venture portfolio entirely from the great state of Indiana, all while teaching over 6,000 undergraduates and MBAs at Indiana University, as well as in Croatia, Hong Kong, Slovenia, and Singapore.

Latest Doriot Updates

  • VentureStaking™ - an unheard-of approach to startup investing is being revealed on April 15, 2025 at noon ET. The official link to the Zoom is ready. We’d love to have you join for the live reveal! https://lu.ma/o7vnkkju.

  • We’ve just dropped our first introductory video on Instagram as we start warming up the algorithms to bring younger adults into the fold. Give it a watch, give us a follow, and stay tuned — there’s so much more to come!

  • Huge shout out to the Doriot Reveal Team. They’ve been working around the clock to bring this home. It’s been incredibly chaotic — no sugarcoating it — but we’re getting there. The model is sound. The value proposition is solid. Now it’s all about making it easy to digest, easy to understand, and compelling for the world to see. And it’s going to be great. That’s a credit to this amazing team — their grit, their creativity, and their relentless commitment to getting this right. Couldn’t be more proud.

  • This week, I had the chance to join the Get IN podcast — a show that highlights everything Indiana. Nate Spangle, the host, brings incredible energy and passion for our state, and I loved the conversation. Something that’s deeply important to me is making sure this story reaches as many Hoosiers as possible. There’s something special about this place. Hoosiers have this wild combination of "you better bring the real thing" pragmatism, plus ridiculous levels of creativity and innovation. When you earn trust here, you’ve really earned it. And if we get Indiana behind us — watch out. The Podcast should go live right before the Reveal!

“The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It”

Peter Drucker’s words feel especially relevant right now, in the midst of so much uncertainty.

Human beings are wired for agency. We thrive when we feel we can influence outcomes, no matter how small. Psychologists call this the locus of control — and those with an internal locus live with more optimism, resilience, and a greater sense of purpose.

When we commit capital, time, or creative energy to shaping the future, a few remarkable things happen:

  • We reframe uncertainty as opportunity.

  • We develop a builder’s mindset, focusing on progress, not perfection.

  • We attract and connect with others who share our proactive spirit — and networks of belief compound.

  • We shift from passive forecasting ("What will happen?") to active creation ("What can I help make happen?").

Psychologically, this matters. A lot.

Because humans aren’t wired to flourish as spectators. We are builders by nature. And the simple act of participating — of backing something, building something, or even staking our energy behind someone else's idea — creates an internal feedback loop of growth.

The future is uncertain. But our relationship to it doesn’t have to be. When we help invent the future, we strengthen not just our world, but our inner architecture: belief, agency, and connection. This is the promise of VentureStaking™ and anyone will be able to participate, regardless of net worth.

What Kind of Founder Will Raise a VentureStaking™ Round?

Howard Thurman

In nearly every conversation I’ve had with market experts about the VentureStaking™ model, the same question comes up: "What kind of founder will want to raise a VentureStaking™ round?"

The honest answer? We don’t know exactly. And that’s the point. What we do know is this: if we build the right environment for innovation, the right founders will find us.

In Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson teaches us that breakthroughs rarely strike like lightning. Instead, they emerge from environments where ideas connect, evolve, and multiply. Ideas live in what he calls the adjacent possible — what’s just one step away from becoming real, given the right conditions.

You couldn’t build YouTube in 1995. But fast-forward: broadband arrives, video codecs improve, social networks connect billions of people — and suddenly, YouTube becomes inevitable.

Our goal with VentureStaking™ is exactly that: to create the conditions for inevitability.

More to the point, we want to channel capital and energy toward people who are ready to fully express themselves through entrepreneurship and innovation. In the words of Howard Thurman:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

We’re not here to play gatekeeper or fortune teller, trying to predict the next breakout founder. We’re here to build a platform that allows new ideas to surface and grow — especially for founders who have been overlooked by traditional venture capital systems.

And there is no shortage of ambition in the world.

  • The Thiel Fellowship receives up to 30,000 applications a year — from young people eager to skip college and build their future.

  • Y Combinator sees over 40,000 applications per batch — a tidal wave of entrepreneurial energy waiting for an opening.

What does this tell us? The desire is already there. The ideas are out there. What’s missing is capital and a community at scale to unlock those who are ready to fully express themselves through entrepreneurship and bold innovation.

And now, more than ever, the world needs this.

Right now, venture capital operates like a closed club. Warm intros. Private circles. Selection biases that limit access to a narrow few. VentureStaking™ is designed to flip that script — shifting from a world of gatekeepers to a liquid network of believers, discovering and backing founders on their own terms.

We’re building a place where:

  • Founders and innovators can build in public.

  • Early believers — regardless of net worth — can support ideas they care about.

  • Opportunities aren’t filtered by pedigree, geography, or privilege.

As Johnson writes,

“Ideas rise in crowds. They rise in liquid networks, where connection is valued more than protection.”

We’re not claiming to know exactly who the next breakout founders will be. We’re building the system where they will emerge. We’re 10 days out from the reveal.

Have a great weekend!

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