An Introduction to The Entelechy Letter

Exploring the architecture of transformation

Since transitioning from investing at General Catalyst to helping build Mural Health, I’ve quietly remained steadfast in something deeply personal: backing founders solving problems that keep me up at night—and give me hope for the future.

Today, I'm launching this Substack to share stories from these founders, their approaches to society's most critical problems, and how they're building inspiring futures worth believing in.

In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle introduced a concept that would prove remarkably prescient for understanding human progress: ἐντελέχεια (entelechy)—the condition of something having achieved its full potential, the realization of what was previously only possible.

For Aristotle, entelechy represented the culmination of a process whereby potential (δύναμις, dynamis) becomes actuality (ἐνέργεια, energeia). The acorn contains within it the entelechy of the oak tree; not merely its blueprint but its true purpose and ultimate expression. This was no mere semantic distinction—it represented a fundamental understanding of how transformation occurs in the world: not as random change, but as the fulfillment of inherent purpose.

Two millennia later, we find ourselves in an era of unprecedented technological possibility. Yet possibility alone is insufficient. Our society faces profound challenges—in healthcare, climate, education, and beyond—where the gap between what could be and what is remains unconscionably wide. The potential for transformation exists, but its actualization remains elusive.

This is where I find myself drawn to participate—not in the shimmering mirages of technological possibility, but in the difficult, necessary work of bringing potential into actuality. The ventures that matter most are not those that ride the ephemeral waves of innovation fashion, but those that labor at the critical fulcrums where human need and technological capability converge.

The name "The Entelechy Letter" captures the essence of what I believe creation at its best should aspire to be—a catalyst that accelerates the transformation of potential into its fullest expression. Too often in our ecosystem, we measure progress by velocity rather than vector—how quickly companies grow rather than where that growth leads. The result is a proliferation of solutions seeking problems, technologies without purpose, effort without consequence.

The founders I back—and whose stories I will share here—understand intuitively what Aristotle formalized: that the path from potential to actuality is not accidental but essential, not arbitrary but purposeful. They build not because they can, but because they must. They see problems not as abstract challenges, but as moral imperatives. And they approach the work of building with a craftsman's patience and precision, understanding that the most consequential transformations rarely appear overnight.

In an age where attention increasingly flows toward operational lightness—software eating the world because software is easy to scale and hard to break—these founders choose a different path. They build in the material world, in the complex systems where humans live and work and suffer. They embrace operational complexity not as a burden but as a necessary condition for addressing our most intractable problems.

This is not to valorize difficulty for its own sake. Rather, it is to recognize that the gap between potential and actuality in our most critical systems—healthcare, education, energy, transportation—will not be closed by technological solutionism alone. It requires a deeper engagement with the messy realities of human institutions, physical infrastructure, and entrenched behaviors.

Periodically, I will share the story of a founder or company working at this critical intersection—where technological possibility meets human necessity, where potential begins its journey toward actuality. These will not merely be profiles or business models, but explorations of how transformation happens in the real world, with all its friction and complexity.

My hope is that these stories will illuminate not just what is being built, but why it matters, and how the difficult work of bringing potential into actuality unfolds. In doing so, I aim to contribute to a conversation about how we might direct our remarkable technological capabilities toward our most pressing human needs.

For in the end, the measure of our progress is not how many new technologies we create, but how effectively we deploy them to fulfill our highest purposes—to alleviate suffering, expand opportunity, and enable each human being to achieve their own entelechy.

My first piece spotlights ANNA Autism Care, where Aimun Malik and his team are confronting a staggering healthcare crisis: 2 million children with autism face months of critical developmental delays in a fragmented system that fails them at every turn. ANNA is rebuilding this broken pathway from first principles.

What they're building isn't just another healthcare service—it's a lifeline for families who have been failed by a broken system. Every child deserves the chance to develop to their fullest potential, and every parent deserves a partner in that journey. ANNA is creating exactly that, with compassion and evidence at the center of everything they do.

Their story isn't just worth reading; it's a masterclass in building something durable and deeply impactful in an era obsessed with operationally light solutions. What ANNA represents is how we should be building—with intention, in the hardest spaces, and where transformation fundamentally alters human potential.

I feel so lucky to be among ANNA's earliest supporters. Coming Monday.