This is Dave Kim

I'm an innovation leader, strategist, investor, and advisor. I'll also be your biggest fan.

Helping organizations cut through AI hype to find what actually works today. Treating AI as a creative medium and exploring through play. Obsessed with how people and groups make decisions. Curious about how this will change with more non-human actors. Still embracing marginalia and marking up my books.

A bit more about me →

Location A small island in the PNW, USA
Focus Applied AI
Thinking About New metaphors for AI, craft and care, and plurality

Notes

A collection of working notes, hunches, and delights in various states of synthesis.

01 On Decisions

The Million Dollar Question: Deciding How We Decide

We spend enormous energy debating what decisions to make, but almost none examining how we make them. It's a blind spot hiding in plain sight — and it might be the most important question facing communities today.

JAN 2025 / 9 min read 02 Philanthropy

On Giving Circles

AUG 2024 / 6 min read 03 AI

On Writing

Why do we write?

JUL 2024 / 4 min read 04 Progress

Shape of Progress

Imperfect pendulums and the physics of ideas

JUN 2024 / 3 min read

The hardest moment in early-stage work isn't having the idea; it's the silence right after, when it could go anywhere.

I've built my career on knowing what to do in that pocket: when to stress-test, when to sketch, when to pause, and when to give the nudge that all of a sudden makes it real.

I love working with teams to explore ideas at the earliest stages.

You know the feeling: the air is electric, the vibes are good, and the room is full of potential. The hairs on your arm are standing up, and the right note at the right time can create magic. But the wrong note can collapse the superposition and suck out the air and potential in the room. This is the moment when what you say and how you say it makes all of the difference.

People typically come to me for the "this might be crazy, but" and "what do we do now" types of questions because they're looking for someone who can help explore the edges of the possible from a deeply human, technical, and commercial perspective and make it real and practical today.

My background spans innovation, venture, social impact, and building communities, and my work has taken me across five continents (Australia and Antarctica, I'm coming for you!) where I've partnered with startups, enterprises, nonprofits, and governments to navigate uncertainty and unlock new possibilities.

I've built global innovation labs, award-winning public goods, and research initiatives that shaped national and G20 policies. I'm equally at home sketching concepts with founders, building AI-powered prototypes, making strategic decisions in boardrooms, or sitting with mango farmers in rural Kenya to understand what needs to be true for emerging technologies to actually make a meaningful difference.

Select Experience

AI, PE Shore Capital Partners

2025 – Present

Venture Capital, Emerging Technologies, Platform IDEO CoLab Ventures

2022 – 2025

Innovation, Financial Inclusion, Strategy, Research Gates Foundation

2014 – 2022

Innovation, Design, Strategy ?What If! Innovation

2012 – 2014

Management and Strategy Consulting Opera Solutions

2007 – 2012

Principles

Progress is possible, but not inevitable.

A small team of brilliant, creative, hardworking, and kind people can make a world of a difference.

Sometimes, you have to be the captain. Other times, you have to be the pirate. Knowing when and how to be one or the other is the key to making things happen.

The best teams are the ones who have the most fun.

Play is strategic, but be wary of places where you have to frame it that way. Some things should be self-evident.

Commercial strategy alone is sterile and insufficient for creating lasting change. Creative sparks by themselves flame out. The best teams know how to combine the head and the heart to make their visions of the future a reality.

Most things ultimately come down to people negotiating with others – whether it is other people or with our own future (or prior) selves. Be kind. Be generous.

Tennyson said it best: I am a part of all that I've met.

I (still) believe we can create a more just and joyful world through design, technology, and community.

And a fair bit of luck.

Notes

The Million Dollar Question: Deciding How We Decide

On Giving Circles

On Writing

Shape of Progress

Signals

The hardest moment in early-stage work isn't having the idea; it's the silence right after, when it could go anywhere.

I've built my career on knowing what to do in that pocket: when to stress-test, when to sketch, when to pause, and when to give the nudge that all of a sudden makes it real.

Select Experience

Principles

Should we be penpals?

I (still) believe we can create a more just and joyful world through design, technology, and community.

And a fair bit of luck.

Notes

The Million Dollar Question: Deciding How We Decide

On Giving Circles

On Writing

Shape of Progress

Signals

The hardest moment in early-stage work isn't having the idea; it's the silence right after, when it could go anywhere. I've built my career on knowing what to do in that pocket: when to stress-test, when to sketch, when to pause, and when to give the nudge that all of a sudden makes it real.

Select Experience

Principles

Should we be penpals?

The hardest moment in early-stage work isn't having the idea; it's the silence right after, when it could go anywhere.

I've built my career on knowing what to do in that pocket: when to stress-test, when to sketch, when to pause, and when to give the nudge that all of a sudden makes it real.