How might we uncover prosperous paths to a beautiful future?

At Yoxi, we don’t presume to know, especially as the rapid pace of global change intensifies and interconnected systems become more complex. But we are driven by a passion for mastering the art of asking better questions in order to create better solutions. And, with the support and resources of TTSL, our parent organization, we employ a variety of tools to conduct our experiments around creating positive social impact via innovative market solutions. We see our investments in extraordinary leaders as humble yet heroic, arriving at a critical moment in time, and right-sized for what’s needed to deepen and extend meaningful inquiry.

We invite people into our process who bring unlike minds with like hearts, a passion for pattern recognition, and a curiosity across industries and disciplines. Like the Mars Rover, Yoxi is designed to probe. Our mission is to celebrate exploration itself, because we believe that inspiration can come from anywhere, and impact demands a long view. As a media-savvy organization, we synthesize our learnings into compelling narratives that link the explorers we support across the ecosystems they operate in. As these stories unfold, a beautiful future is revealed through our deep commitment to embracing the unknowns in humanity.

In short, Yoxi is a social innovation explorer. We invest because the art of questioning is mission-critical to creating real impact.

Who is behind Yoxi and its mission?

How do we remember the future?

Sharon Chang, Founder

Throughout her career, Sharon Chang has been a catalyst of social innovation, a creator of groundbreaking entertainment, an advocate for regenerative lifestyle, a leader in creative education, an artist, philanthropist, entrepreneur and investor in transformational ideas and technologies.

Sharon is a Future Architect. With a diverse range of building blocks, she envisions a blueprint for how we can all experience and manifest positive change in the world. Boldly questioning narratives that shape our culture, she reimagines systems that power our everyday activities – the way we eat, shop, travel, learn, work, think, dream, and create – today and tomorrow. From a film that inspires gender equality to a fashion brand that drives conscious consumption, all her projects challenge the status quo and delve into life-changing subjects with a gentle touch of optimism.

She founded Yoxi to explore the nexus of capital, creativity and impact. Her approach to funding is artistic – focusing on questions rather than answers, intention rather than outcome. She has jokingly said that she only invests in people who are likely to fail because their dreams are too audacious. Yet in all seriousness, without blindly celebrating failure, Sharon is one of the very few people deeply committed to investing in creativity that might have latent yet profound effects on humanity. 

With a passport as thick as the September Vogue, Sharon is a true global citizen addicted to tracking down the most spectacular dining experiences around the world. She makes the perfect (and most unusual) martini, loves the challenge of making the impossible possible — and seems to believe the two are related.
 

What would a world look like that eliminated false dichotomies?

Jennifer Brandel, FoI Collaborator

Jennifer Brandel is Co-founder and Board Chair of Hearken, a company that helps organizations around the world develop and operationalize participatory processes. Hearken took home the prize for "Best Bootstrap Company" at SXSW and won the News Media Alliance Accelerator. Brandel received the Media Changemaker Prize by the Center for Collaborative Journalism, was named one of 30 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business, is a Columbia Sulzberger Fellow, an RSA Fellow, a member of the Guild of Future Architects and the National Civic Collaboratory.

Jennifer is co-founder of Zebra’s Unite, a global movement and network of entrepreneurs, funders, investors and allies creating a more ethical, inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for mission-based startups. She also co-founded Civic Exchange Chicago which brings together civic startups in a collaborative learning community, and Dance Dance Party Party, a womxn-only, body-positive, free-form dance gathering that has spread to more than 20 countries.

How do we make it easier for people to change their behavior for the common good?

Mark Beam, FoI Collaborator

Mark is a Managing Partner of Heartland P5 Holdings, a Public Benefit Corporation aggregating, strengthening and deploying regenerative strategies and technologies for carbon drawdown and community equity in the Midwest. The primary driver is StudioLab, an R&D driven design firm aggregating regenerative capabilities into a sharable guidance and operating system for local regenerative economies.

Previously Mark was Maverick in Residence and Director of Innovation & Design for the Kauffman Foundation. He founded a pivotal human-centered media & technology event series in San Francisco just as the Web was born (New Minds); co-founded the largest Impact Investment gathering globally (SOCAP), an international music festival for social innovation in Oaxaca, Mexico (CATAPULTA), and other initiatives through his social architecture firm beaming.com.

Mark is a Board Member of the Guild of Future Architects and advisor to Haskell Indian Nations University to create a center for Indigenuity.

Mark calls Kansas City and Oaxaca, Mexico home.

How can we use our imaginations more fully to understand our interdependencies?

Penelope Douglas, FoI Collaborator

Penelope Douglas was the Chief of Strategy for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where she guided a multifaceted approach encompassing artist centered investment programs, art and health partnerships, philanthropy, technology, and measurement of impact. Along with the leadership team, she plays a key role in implementing YBCA’s engagement strategy. Douglas is the founding Director of YBCA’s CultureBank, a national pilot program that positions artists as central actors in community investment strategies. Throughout her career Penelope has performed executive roles and established networks across banking, community development finance, social enterprise, impact investing, arts, and culture. She served as the visionary co-founder and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures, a community investment organization supporting small businesses to create good jobs in low-income communities. At the heart of her work for the last 25 years is her belief in communities to build the best models for themselves, and her interest in new systems of investment for our equitable, healthy future. Penelope serves as an advisor to several arts and social enterprises, and has served as a Board member of numerous businesses and nonprofit organizations. She is an artist.

How might we discover, regenerate and deploy our individual and collective sense of agency to design and enact a better future for ourselves, our communities, and the world-at-large?

Oona Eager, Project Lead, The CURRENT

Oona is both a collaborative and entrepreneurial leader. She’s in her element when bringing visionary ideas to life and does so through the practice of community-building, which utilizes her skills in communications strategy and experience design, and her love of connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and places. She has worked in these capacities for organizations such as THNK.org, NOBL.io, GoFA, BYCS.org, Tony’s Chocolonely, Booking.com, and many more. She has always been curious about the ways humans (can) organize (better), specifically how employees and citizens can be supported to design better futures for themselves and for the world. Since June 2021, she's been working passionately in service of justice at the intersection of money systems, new technological infrastructure (I.E. web3), and the ‘economics of participation’ movement (I.E. DAOs, Cooperatives) in her role as the Project Lead of The Current. She is a Canadian, having grown up on the sacred and unceded land of the Coast Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples. She is currently based in Amsterdam, but sets off on frequent excursions to other cities in Europe and Latin America.

How has Yoxi evolved and what efforts has it supported?

We invest in journeys of the unknown, support explorers with a commitment to pursue truth and beauty, and conduct experiments of our own. We believe learning is the most valuable ROI - and we are open and honest about our findings. Dig in below!

2022

  • Building The Current Community

2021

  • Yoxi 10.0 The Current

2021

  • Incubating The Current

2021

2021

  • Developing various prototypes for the Money Project

2020

  • Introduced the Future of Investment Alignment Tool

2020

  • Supporting the Inaugural Shared Future Incubator at the Guild of Future Architects

2020

2019

  • Yoxi 9.0 Investing in Shared Futures

2019

2019

2018

2018

2018

2018

2018

2017

2017

2017

  • Yoxi 8.0 Explorers of Beautiful Future

2016

2016

2016

2015

  • Investing in L.

2015

2015

2014

2015

2014

  • Yoxi 7.0 Social Innovation Sandbox

2014

2014

  • Yoxi 6.0 Creative Philanthropy

2014

2014

  • Incubating LQD

2013

  • Yoxi 5.0 Talent Investment

2013

2012

  • Yoxi 4.0 We Love Bold

2012

2012

  • Post-Sandy Thinkathon

2011

  • Yoxi 3.0 Social Innovation Rockstars

2011

  • Yoxi 2.0 Trim the Waste of Fashion

2010

  • Yoxi 1.0 Reinvent Fast Food

2010

  • Yoxi was born in NYC on Summer Solstice

2022

  • Starting the co-design process for The Current

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To get in touch or submit work for consideration, send us a signal

A few things to keep in mind: we believe there is a difference between funding questions and funding research, and our resources are directed towards real-time, market-driven experimentation. We are not a think tank, and we see entrepreneurial drive as a means to improve understanding of the field, as we cross-pollinate our findings toward catalyzing broader impact. If you feel your pursuits might be a good match given these parameters, please note that we review submissions on a quarterly basis and will contact you if we’re interested.