Why Interintellect is a for-profit company.
A love for ideas and an empathy for human needs.
Dear all,
It has always been important to me to run Interintellect as a for-profit company. However noble our ideals might be around the art of discussion, lifelong learning, and rebuilding the commons, our system is sustainable and growing because just like Substack, our platform empowers people to make money doing what they love and what we want to see them doing more of.
As a triple immigrant myself, having restarted my life from zero multiple times, I understand well that hosting, or doing any similar form of intellectual labor, for free would tilt the system so that eventually only very rich or crazy people would run events, people who don't care about economic success for one reason or another. I'm pretty sure we hear enough from those groups as it is.
Do you ever wonder how it can be that today there are more smart people in the world than ever, but somehow the world feels like it's falling apart? Well, it’s because the largest chunk of people, hovering somewhere in the middle — brilliant, curious, ethical, busy, eager to contribute and to make friends, like so many of you — will only come and keep coming if they can potentially turn their passion into a business.
In a way, this is the American Dream: merging the common good with rational self-interest for the benefit of all.
It has been my great pleasure watching Interintellect hosts flourish online and offline, earn a (side) income, see how happy their audience is to pay them for their work, even tip them in gratitude. The experience can be transformative; for many this is just the confidence boost they needed!
Also, since Interintellect is home to some very spirited, sometimes worldview-challenging conversations (philosophy, technology, poetry, history), enabling our hosts to charge for their events creates a further safe-space layer. One reason we haven't had any toxic incidents in 6 years (!) is because attendees pay, either via public ticket or by joining our membership tier. This is not just about revealed preference, but about involving the attendees in raising the quality of every conversation.
These are the systems that work, the systems I believe in: equal chance in the game based on your talent and work ethic. And then the reward you so dearly deserve.
Forward!
Anna Gát
Founder and CEO, Interintellect
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