The Founders Summit convenes ambitious founders building the next generation of technology companies, from day one to teams of 500+.

Responsible Innovation Founders Summit 2022 

On November 10th, the Responsible Innovation Founders Summit convened nearly 500 global tech leaders across San Francisco, New York, and online. 

Co-hosted by Responsible Innovation Labs and the Startups and Society Initiative, the Founders Summit convenes the best early stage founders, funders, and other leaders to share their stories of using responsible innovation to scale world-class companies. Speakers included: Cityblock Health CEO Toyin Ajayi, Guild CEO Rachel Romer, Gusto CEO Josh Reeves, and many more.

Check out the RIFS Sessions

Beyond the Tech: Innovating Responsibly Across Your Company

Responsible Innovation is about more than technology — It is a lens that informs every decision across product, business model, culture, and operations. Hear from leaders who have built structures to bring responsible innovation to every function across their company and how these activities have supported growth and long term value.

Check out the Session

Responsible Innovation for Venture Capital: How can we shape an industry to build and scale responsibly?

Venture-backed technology is a powerful force in our world -- properly wielded it can be a true super power for humanity. At the same time, the industry hasn't done enough to guard against its downsides, exacerbating some of society's biggest problems, from income inequality to the marginalization of people, to misinformation and more. From climate technology to enterprise SaaS and more, how can investors support the next generation of companies to innovate responsibly?

Check out the Session

Responsible Innovation for Early Stage Founders: What can we really do?

Being an early stage founder is hard. You're worried about product market fit, runway, and making payroll. With such limited time and resources, responsible innovation can become an afterthought. Ultimately, you can’t retrofit equity, purpose, or ethics. What are the concrete tools and tactics available to founders for building good into the DNA of your company?

Check out the Session

What can we do differently to advance inclusive prosperity?

Technology reshapes how we work and who benefits from our economy. What does it look like to be thoughtful about this in how we build technology and teams? We spoke with founders and investors who are doing it and scaling products to help others get there faster. What did they get right? What had they wished they’d known? And what do they think lies ahead?

Check out the Session

Big Questions in Emerging Tech

We are on the precipice of a number of technologies that can redefine the internet and how we live, work, and play. To build the future we want, we have to optimize for intended consequences and guard against unintended ones. This session will focus on what we should be asking today to support the world we want tomorrow.

Check out the Session

Building to Endure: The Business Case for Stakeholder Value

What do tech companies that have a strong sense of mission and center stakeholder value look like? Can it exist at scale? Hear from founders who have built big and impactful businesses by taking a stakeholder value approach and how it has driven innovation and led more differentiated products and resilient businesses.

Check out the Session

Founder Stories: Responsible Innovation Tools and Methods

The best founders and operators want to do the right thing. And it’s hard to do. That’s why we brought together founders to share their stories on how they’ve put responsible innovation into practice – from data ethics to product decisions to board management.

Check out the Session

Tools + Frameworks for Founders

Let’s face it: this is a challenging time in the technology industry, but if history is any guide, we know that downtimes like this are also when many of the most important businesses get started. The Responsible Innovation Founders Summit provided resources to build and scale companies responsibly. Here are some examples: