10-08-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

We’re placing the wrong bets on innovation

Leaders can expand opportunities by bringing in those with closer proximity to the problems.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

BY Dr. Eric D. Dawson

I became a social entrepreneur at 14, working in partnership with other students to make our high school a more welcoming home to students with disabilities. We saw what the adults did not: Bullying and harassment could not be wished away with detentions and scoldings. The change required students standing up for one another, changing our school culture one relationship at a time.

For more than 30 years I have supported over a million young people working to change the world. From a water filtration system that uses garbage and a malaria test that uses enzymes, to a training program to reduce violent interactions between youth and police, young people name problems and organize around them. They build solutions long before adults give them much credit. We talk about young people as “the future.” Yet we rarely treat them as innovators worth backing now. Especially those without privilege and connections.

Venture funding offers one example of how concentrated our search for innovation can become. In 2025, California, New York, and Massachusetts together accounted for nearly three-quarters of the dollars invested, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

These established hubs produce extraordinary talent, but our reliance on familiar........

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