In a 2011 op-ed, Marc Andreessen (a famous VC and founder of Netscape) explained “why software is eating the world.” His piece systematically examined every major industry in our economy and demonstrated how software has influenced it. Thirteen years later, it feels even more on point. The nonprofits I talk to are drowning in software, and often, it's doing more harm than good.
I want to create a friendlier way. I don’t want software to eat the world; I want software to help feed it. Nonprofit leaders are rightly skeptical; they’ve been burned. However, software is the most powerful innovation of the last century. Shouldn’t the people doing good in the world get to use the best tools?
Software doesn’t want to eat you. It wants to be your friend. (And I do, too.)