Why Trust is Important

/ Chris Collins / 2.25.2019 /

A couple days ago I came across the video below via the AVC blog. It covers what trust is, what it isn’t, and how we can better evaluate and build trust in our daily lives.

“Trust is the currency of interactions.” – Rachel Botsman

It got me thinking about how we think about trust at Human Ventures and Onward Labs. As the world has become more globalized and interconnected, startups have experimented with how to “hack” trust, or how to get a consumer to trust a product/service when they have no first-hand knowledge about them nor has enough time elapsed for trust to develop (the textbook example is sleeping in someone’s home via Airbnb). In the headlines, we’ve seen Facebook take major hits after a string of privacy offences finally led to the tipping point that was Cambridge Analytica. I could go on and on with how big tech has abused consumer trust but you get the point.

Trust is the basic foundation of how humans interact. Without it, relationships fall apart and every interaction is a zero-sum game. Trust plays a critical role in our day-to-day at Human Ventures, and it is reflected in the relationships we have with each other and our founders. At Onward Labs, the entire thesis is around the trust economy. Needless to say, trust is a quality we take very seriously not just because we believe it will help us produce exceptional returns, but also because it is part of being a good human.