01 · Ethical × Impact
Can you prove it worked?
Measured, not asserted A claim arrives with a measure, a baseline, and a date it was taken.
The paper and its three casesThe E.I. Framework
Three E’s, three I’s, nine questions. Every question carries a paper and three real cases.
E is Empathy, Ethical, Ecosystem. I is Innovation, Impact, Investment. Pair one from each side and you get a question worth asking before anything gets built.
Empathy is the middle row and Innovation the middle column, because that is what the name means. The question where they meet sits at the center of the grid: were the people it affects in the room when it was designed? Every other question is read around that one.
Ethical
What will we not do to get there, and can an outsider check what we claim?
02 · Ethical × Innovation
Is there a line you will not cross for money?
Hard stops A written list of harms disqualifies a venture, and nothing offsets them.
The paper and its three cases03 · Ethical × Investment
At the end, who owns the asset?
Ownership at the end The operator ends up holding the asset, not the payment schedule.
The paper and its three casesEmpathy
Whose day does this change, and were they in the room when it was designed?
04 · Empathy × Impact
Can you name one real person this helps?
The first beneficiary has a name One person's day, written down, before anything gets built.
The paper and its three cases05 · Empathy × Innovation
Were the people it affects in the room?
Built with, in the room Design with them, not for them.
The paper and its three cases06 · Empathy × Investment
How long will this take, and does the money agree?
The problem sets the clock The horizon follows the problem, which makes patient money a term structure.
The paper and its three casesEcosystem
Does it still work after we leave, and who holds the asset at the end?
07 · Ecosystem × Impact
Who pays the costs that never reach your P&L?
Measured at the wide boundary Count where the labor, land, capital and care sit.
The paper and its three cases08 · Ecosystem × Innovation
Does it still work when you walk away?
The Minimum Viable Ecosystem The smallest set of parts that keeps working after we leave.
The paper and its three cases09 · Ecosystem × Investment
Do you own what the business runs on?
Own the ground We buy the building, because long-horizon money has to rest on an asset.
The paper and its three casesBefore the framework
For a while we gave every venture two numbers. One for ethics, one for whether the business could work. Both had to clear a bar.
It looked rigorous. It hid too much. A strong number on one side covered a weak number on the other, inside a single digit where nobody could see it.
What the marks mean
Green means we have the evidence and it carries a date. Yellow means someone owns the gap and there is a date to close it. Red stops the work until it clears. Early work sits at yellow for a long while, and we mark it that way.
Green: evidenced and dated
Yellow: a work order with an owner and a date
Red: absent or contradicted
What we got wrong
The first version said a venture had to be green across the board before it could go ahead.
That was wrong. A young venture has designed things it has not yet proved, and the mark should say so. Most marks come back yellow.
Ask for a clean sweep and one of two things happens. Nothing ever passes, or people start calling yellow things green. We have seen both.
So a red stops the work until it clears. Yellows stay in the open with a name and a date against each one. Green has to be earned with evidence.
If you think a question is wrong
Write and tell us, or change your own copy. The license allows it. Every change worth keeping goes in the changelog with a date.