Problems.vc

Series

After the Platforms

A short series on what we are actually deciding right now: who owns the data the agents will run on, why the default is a multi-corporation data monopoly forming by compound interest, and what a different floor for the next economy could look like.

The agentic economy is happening. The more important question — the one being answered right now in code, not in policy — is who owns the data the agents run on.

This series traces that question end to end. We start at the structural choice. We walk through a week in a founder's life with agents on both sides of every counterparty interaction. We work out the shape of the data substrate the problem actually wants. And we describe what we are building on top of that shape.

Parts release individually over the coming weeks. Subscribe via RSS to follow as they ship.

Contents

  1. The Floor of the Next Economy

    The most consequential question of the agent transition is who owns the data the agents run on. The default is a multi-corporation data monopoly forming by compound interest — and it's being decided right now.

    12 min

  2. Twelve Costumes, One Problem

    A week in the life of a founder with agents in the loop on every counterparty interaction. The friction is one problem in many costumes: operational facts no one can verify — and agents have made it worse, not better.

    Forthcoming

  3. The Shape the Problem Wants

    If you were starting from scratch, what would the data substrate underneath an agent-era economy actually have to do? Three fields converge on one shape: a metagraph with cryptographic provenance and capability-mediated access.

    Forthcoming

  4. The Work

    Two things that compose into one. Metagraph: an open-standard, sovereign-first substrate for the shape the problem wants. Paperstreet: the first commercial network running on it.

    Forthcoming