I gave $16 million dollars away

I gave $16 million dollars away.

I thought it was simple. There was a formula: make money, get rich, give it away, do good.

It turns out, it's not so straightforward. There's no clean equation where $1 given = $1 of impact.

Early on, I went to a cocktail party with ~100 of the world's biggest philanthropists. I asked everyone the same question:

"What are the most important things I should keep in mind when doing philanthropy?"

If this were a business conference, you already know the answers I'd get:

Hire great people.

Track everything.

Build in a growing market.

Create a repeatable playbook.

Instead, I heard things like:

"I've given away a billion dollars and still don't know if it did anything."

"Just trust your gut."

"It's just… hard."

These are people who built massive companies with ruthless precision. And yet here, they sounded uncertain.

Why?

Because unlike business, "good" is fuzzy. There's no profit line. No clean ROI.

Almost all philanthropy does something. The real question is: how effective is it?

Take $5,000:

It might save a life in sub-Saharan Africa.

Or fund 20 hours of trauma therapy in Canada.

Or pay for nonprofit overhead.

Or put your name on a building.

Each option has a defensible argument. Local vs. global. Immediate vs. long-term. Tangible vs. abstract.

There's no obvious answer.

I've been doing this for about seven years now and it's been humbling.

We've definitely lit money on fire. But I think we've also done some real good.

One area I keep coming back to is scientific research, which I've often funded in partnership with smart friends like Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Andrew Huberman.

I like science because of the asymmetry.

A relatively small grant can occasionally lead to a breakthrough that helps millions of people.

The flip side: you often won't know for decades whether it worked.

It feels a lot like venture capital. Most bets don't matter. A few change everything. And you can't tell which is which upfront.

Our grantees are working on problems the world desperately needs solved, but often won't fund:

Alzheimer's.

PFAS contamination.

Treatment-resistant depression.

We recently launched a site to share more of what we've been up to. Check it out here.

PS: If you've made a lot of money and are trying to figure out philanthropy, I'd be happy to help you muddle through and share some lessons. Email me.

Originally published in the I wasted my twenties... issue of Never Enough.