Transparency is the new black

Delivered June 13, 2025 @ 5:00pm ET

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Table of Contents

• Doriot® product innovations 🧧

• Democratize Venture Corner: Transparency is the ne …

  • Structured Transparency = Startup Discipline

My name is Gerry Hays, Founder & CEO of Doriot® (pronounced “Doe-ree-oh”), a movement to break open the gates of venture and expand innovation and wealth beyond an elite few. Democratize Venture is my platform to explore the venture markets and share the insights, strategies, and frameworks I bring into the classroom. It’s where education meets execution—for anyone ready to play the startup game.

Doriot® product innovations 🧧 

VentureStaking™ - a zero-to-one innovation in venture investing — designed to put the smallest investors on the same playing field as the largest.

FantasyStartup® - #1 global startup investing simulation with more than 14,000 downloads worldwide.

QAI - Qualified Accredited Investor™ - An exam and certification program for anyone serious about launching a venture-backed company or investing in high-growth startups.

Democratize Venture Corner: Transparency is the new black ⬛️ 

For decades, venture capital has operated behind closed doors—defined by stealth, secrecy, and selective disclosure. Founders share only what they must. Investors share only what they choose. And the most valuable currency in this high-risk game—information—is rationed on a strict “need-to-know” basis.

That era is ending.

I admire what AngelList has done to open up venture investing—to millionaires. But even within that innovation, transparency has been painfully absent. It’s a core flaw in a system that’s scaled within Silicon Valley, not beyond it. Across 12 AngelList investments, I’ve received fewer than 500 total words in updates from founders.

And it gets worse.

I’ve made over 50 investments through RegCF platforms like Wefunder, Republic, and StartEngine. Fewer than 10 companies have sent structured, meaningful updates. And most of those only did so when raising again.

That’s not just disappointing—it’s corrosive. I didn’t just invest to make money. I invested to learn. To track how these founders are building, what’s working, what’s not. It’s a huge, untapped area of founder education—and it’s being squandered.

A lack of transparency and accountability:

• Erodes investor trust

• Encourages sloppy habits in founders

• Blocks the reflection essential for growth

• Kills accountability—the hidden engine of early momentum

These are bad habits seeded by the Silicon Valley model and exported to the rest of the world. But what works in the Valley won’t anywhere else. We need new systems. New models.

Some will argue for secrecy—claiming that transparency risks giving away your edge. But that’s a design flaw in our thinking. Stop obsessing over competitive advantage. Lock it in with IP, contracts, and execution. And start contributing to what I call the Cooperative Advantage—sharing experiences openly so everyone learns along the way. A rising tide raises all boats.

Structured Transparency = Startup Discipline

To be clear, transparency isn’t about oversharing or performative vulnerability. It’s about structure. Rhythm. Discipline.

The best model I’ve seen? Y Combinator. In its early days, Paul Graham said YC’s most powerful tool wasn’t money or network—it was weekly accountability. Simple structure:

• What did you say you’d do last week?

• What did you actually do?

• What will you do next week?

Founders showed up every week. If you stopped showing up, you started drifting. The ones who kept showing up—no matter how rough the week—were the ones who made it.

At Doriot, we’re baking this rhythm into the DNA of every company that gets VentureStaked™.

This isn’t optional.

Every VentureStaked™ founder must commit to a weekly update cadence during the incubation period. Because:

• It builds trust with investors

• It creates a habit of execution

• It forces reflection that reframes setbacks and amplifies wins

• It trains the success muscle

We use two simple frameworks:

• Did / Didn’t / Doing Next (Y Combinator style)

• Rose, Bud, Thorn (Win / Opportunity / Struggle)

I’m the first founder to be VentureStaked™, and I’m living this discipline in real time. Every week, I send an update to everyone who’s backed me. And after a few months of this rhythm, one truth stands out:

It’s not just about accountability to others. It’s about accountability to myself.
And that’s a powerful shift.

Looking ahead, our vision is bold: over the next 10 years, we want 100,000+ VentureStaked™ founders to follow this blueprint of Cooperative Advantage. And it all starts with a commitment to transparency and accountability—from day one.

This isn’t just good governance. It’s startup training. It’s education for the VentureStakers™. It’s the engine behind compounding momentum—and a foundational feature of the new venture model we’re building.

Over time, as a company grows and complexity increases, weekly updates will naturally evolve—shifting to monthly, and eventually to quarterly cadences. That’s normal. But in the earliest, most formative stage, the Y Combinator model is best: keep it weekly.

Why? Because the pace of learning is highest at the beginning. Weekly updates help reinforce rhythm, surface friction early, and build the habit of consistent execution—before bad habits can take root.

Transparency is the new black. In this new venture era, if you can’t share consistently, you won’t scale.

Wishing you a focused and fulfilling weekend,

– Gerry ([email protected])