Investors
Scale faster - Find New Patterns - Unlock greater value
Looking for companies that scale fast, grow lean, and no one sees coming?
Tri-Sector Innovation (TSI) is an approach to spotting and building businesses that grow by harnessing the resources and incentives of public, private, and social sectors. These are businesses with models that no one sector could build alone, but that win because they align with how the world actually works.
It helps investors find:
✔️ Markets others misread
✔️ Infrastructure others ignore
✔️ Trust others can’t buy
TSI doesn’t just help you spot the overlooked rocket ship—it helps it fly faster and higher. It can help you drive higher overall returns, reduce risks, and increase the impact that your companies deliver. Put another way: if you and your portfolio companies aren’t using TSI, you may well be sub-optimizing your results.
Better models. Better businesses. Greater returns. Greater impact.
What it looks like
Coinstar unlocked billions in idle coins by aligning and harnessing systems already in place across sectors — federal coin inefficiency, grocery cash-handling infrastructure, charity coin drives, and consumer behavior. It turned the friction of spare change into a $150 billion market.
The business scaled because it created durable value across sectors:
→ Governments saved billions in reduced minting costs
→ Retailers saw increased basket spend and higher foot traffic
→ Consumers gained fast, convenient access to usable cash
→ Nonprofits received over $100M in donations — built into the user flow
Coinstar became the de facto national coin recycling system by connecting a market and resources that no one saw belonged together. It leveraged useful resources by harnessing the powerful self interest of profit, mission, and duty. That’s what made the model profitable, impactful, defensible, able to thrive and sustain at scale..
Most investors saw vending machines. The best ones saw a powerful network effort and pattern unlock.
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Propel built the social safety net's front door for low-income Americans by creating value exchanges across sectors.
The business scaled by embedding into daily necessity, not discretionary behavior:
→ Government provided the rails— Propel added new value improving the USDA SNAP program’s benefits
→ Nonprofits brought content and trust — and gained a new reach through the platform
→ Retailers and service partners delivered grocery savings and services — and gained loyal, repeat customers via a trusted daily-use channel
→ Consumers got real-time benefits access, discounts, job listings, program information, and more with no friction or churn
Propel turned a misunderstood $120 billion market into a scalable platform for the safety net. Most fintechs ignored this market. Propel built for it and won.
a16z, Kleiner Perkins, and Flourish got it. Others didn’t even think to look.
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A Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company used Tri-Sector Innovation to unlock new distribution in a multi-billion dollar market when their mental illness intervention had plateaued in traditional channels.
Instead of burning capital continuing to push through stalled channels, they recognized the deep trust and distribution power of mental health nonprofits and the Veteran’s Administration — and tapped into those existing systems to reach populations that would be the best fit.
The result: a scalable delivery model that reached the right populations — all achieved within a tightly regulated industry.
While competitors pursued conventional patterns of lobbying and marketing, smart money found the path through nonprofits with trusted relationships.
Your move
Where else do government rails + nonprofit trust + private incentives create untapped market opportunities?
Where else are massive markets hiding?
What infrastructure and resources are your competitors ignoring?
Every sector has underutilized resources. Every market has overlooked infrastructure. Useful data often lies ready for the savvy. The question is—will you spot the connections before someone else does?
TSI helps finds billion-dollar opportunities hiding in plain sight. What tri-sector opportunities are hiding in your deal flow?
Take it for a spin
Use our free AI assistant, the Tri-Sector Resource Explorer, to discover resources, connections and tri-sector opportunities. Whether scaling an initiative or building unexpected partnerships, this AI tool helps identify hidden value connections. Quick guide here.
Put TSI to work for you
Explore and Share Free Tools with Your Portfolio
Introduce portfolio companies and leaders to self-serve tools that help them design stronger business models
Encourage them to apply TSI thinking to unlock new value and reduce capital burn
Share the TSI lens to identify opportunities for scalability, resilience, and aligned impact
Explore the Getting Started Page
Advisory for Investors & Portfolio Companies
Strategy sessions for investors on how TSI can strengthen your portfolio
Advisory for portfolio companies looking to apply TSI to their growth, capital strategy, or business model
Connections to tools, consultants, and examples to accelerate application
Workshops & Speaking
Bring TSI to your next LP meeting, fund convening, or portfolio session
Tailored content for investment teams, founder groups, or mission-aligned capital networks
Designed to introduce the TSI approach and build stronger models across the ecosystem