Carter Blogfontaine

I believe I share many beliefs with Jacquelin Novogratz when it comes to "saving the world." I believe firmly that many people in this world are born into a situation in which they are limited. I truly believe that freedom is a human right, and unfortunately, not everyone has it. Whether it be an oppressive government or limited resources, something is holding many people back from achieving self-actualization. I think that emerging technologies will do a great deal to "even the playing field" and eliminate geographical-disadvantages by living in a completely interconnected world.  The economy is evolving, the classroom and the office are dying, and many things are changing. Blockchain, online learning resources, and the market increase for freelance work are aggressively changing the narrative of growing up in America, and I think we will see a similar change globally. A blockchain economy and the internet together alone create massive opportunities for many.  ...

I'm sure many of you all are familiar with this headline from a month ago: Ninja Makes $500k a Month Playing Fornite Battle Royale . If you're anything like me and would have already done the math before reading another word, yes, that's $6M a year for playing video games. For those of you who don't know anything about that headline, Fortnite is a viral video game that has become extremely popular as of late. Many people, even celebrities, realize a hefty stream of revenue by streaming their game time on the Twitch platform. Twitch is a streaming platform for anything video games. Like YouTube, the more subscribers you acquire, the more money you make. Many folks from the older generations critique the Millennial Mentality. In their eyes, these extreme examples have corrupted our minds and have caused us to lose respect for hard work. However, I'd like to disagree. I think we all grew up in the startup era, hearing story after story of people going from zero t...

This book is tackling an old issue in a refreshing way. I often find my self thinking about how difficult it is to actually enact societal change or cultural change. Words often fall on deaf ears. A world where all of the 1% stand up to fight for equality seems like a bit of an oxymoron at first. However,  I think we need to come to appreciate the deeper message. People of power, wealth, and especially influence should feel some sort of responsibility for their cultural impact. What I mean by this is that any individual with the means to influence a culture or social dynamic in a positive way should do so. Peter Parker from the first Spiderman movie said it best, "with great power comes great responsibility." This conclusion does leave me wondering if this motto to live by is too simplified. Why don't the big guys stand up for the little guys? Will greed always be a part of our social behavior? Is it the structure of our government or economy what causes us to act selfi...

As many of you know, I'm extremely passionate about entrepreneurship. I spend a lot of time reading about the latest startup news and listening to Podcasts. A great one comes from the Andreessen Horowitz company, a16z. Recently I came across a really great episode about health, and wanted to share my opinions on it! You can find the episode here . There has been a long trend of scientists studying what causes us to age, and there is a large body of evidence that it has to do with the accumulation of senescent cells in the body . These build up with age and after there has been some significant damage done to our DNA. There has been treatment done on mice in a lab where they "reset" these mice by eliminating these cells. The mice are very rejuvenated after treatment and live 10-15% longer. Mice studies often discourage people, but the reason they are done is that mice are very similar biologically to humans. So, this is extremely promising. An opinion of mine has to do...

This past week I traveled up to San Francisco for a series of interviews at venture capital firms. They all went quite well. An alumnus of my high school, Luke, completely took me under his wing and made all these great introductions for me — I owe him one. However, there was one caveat to the great weekend. All the people I got to meet had the same advice: don't start out in venture capital. They made some great points that you are limited in your investment abilities and analyst abilities when you don't truly know how the guts of a company work. For this, they suggested I work at a startup for a few years. Additionally, there are a lot of hard skills that can be gained from working in banking, consulting, or private equity. So, venture capital is still my destination, but where to from here? I believe I may have missed the train for consulting. I could pursue banking or private equity, but those are tough sectors to break into with no previous experience and little time le...

Disrupting Technology Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation Everything is about to change. In today’s modern world, technology is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. What many of us considered science fiction as children will become part of our reality sooner than you may think. Big data, artificial intelligence, and automation, together, will soon reshape our day to day lives. Between contrarian opinions and a decent amount of misinformation, these technologies are causing a serious amount of paranoia for many. In my previous venture capital internship, I discovered a long list of fears shared by many that include, but are not limited to: Job loss The death of the combustion engine Privacy invasion A market crash Even an A.I. apocalypse However, today’s entrepreneurs are not evil scientists that are out to get you — they’re simply people that want to build incredible things for the world. I hope to share some insight on how our world is changing,...