6: Backing Dropouts and Renegades With Zak Slayback

In this episode of Outside The System, I spoke with Zak Slayback, a partner at 1517 Fund, which describes itself as "investing in teams led by dropouts, deep-tech scientists, and founders working outside of tracked institutions". My conversation with Zak centered on how outsiders drive innovation in complex, traditional industries like energy, biotech, and more. We also dove into Zak's thoughts on credentialism, higher education, and how innovation gets stifled.  Zak is a writer with an extensive blog and the author of How To Get Ahead. Zak's website: https://zakslayback.com/ Zak's Twitter: https://twitter.com/zslayback Zak's book: https://amzn.to/3yo1GLi 1517 Fund: https://www.1517fund.com/ Zak's Nirvana Fallacy blog post: https://zakslayback.substack.com/p/nirvana-fallacy Zero To One by Peter Thiel: https://amzn.to/3ngTRRf