Zoe Weinberg (Founder, ex/ante)

In this episode, I spoke to Zoe Weinberg, founder and managing partner of ex/ante, a venture fund focused on technology that enhances human agency.Zoe actively invests in a growing number of founders committed to empowering users by giving them control over their data and digital identities. Our conversation explored the ever present threat of digital authoritarianism, the product tradeoff between privacy and convenience, the potential of portable digital identities, and how emerging technologies impact democratic values.I hope you find this conversation insightful. Chapters:00:00 Cold open 03:15 Human agency and technology12:30 Zoe's thoughts on digital authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism20:18 The product tradeoff between convenience and privacy25:40 Portable digital identities30:05 Zoe's take on tech and the state of democracy36:20 The importance of user agency in emerging tech40:12 Zoe's journey to founding ex/ante45:00 Business models that support user agency50:15 The potential of AI-driven privacy solutions54:45 Closing reflectionsThe Slow Hunch is produced by the team at Spectral.