Evan Burfield
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Washington Office. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
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Evan Burfield is the co-founder and former co-CEO of 1776, a Washington, D.C.–based startup incubator and seed fund, and later served as CEO of Union. He authored the 2018 book Regulatory Hacking: A Playbook for Startups, which details strategies for startups navigating regulated industries.
1shows
1appearances
15statements
2resolved
1supported
1contradicted
50%fully supported
Everything Evan Burfield said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Healthcare AI is blocked by missing decision layers on EMRs
“We're not really even at the point yet where we can start to apply all these amazing advances in AI and all this kind of stuff to healthcare, because we still haven't really created that, that decision layer on top of the billions that have been spent on EMRs.”
Every Elon Musk business is fundamentally based on regulatory hacking
“Every one of his businesses is based on a regulatory hack.”
Next 20 years of venture won't be driven by consumer social
“Our number one thesis is that the giant investment opportunities of the next 20 years are not going to look at all like the last 20, right? It's not going to be as nearly as much lightweight social and”
Regulatory friction stems from policymaker ignorance, not regulatory capture
“There is some of that. There's regulatory capture, but in a lot of cases, it's like policymakers are trying to achieve an objective, and they have no idea.”
Lobbying is exceptionally rarely a necessary part of startup regulatory hacking
“Part of your regulatory hacking strategy is maybe you need to go lobby, but that is exceptionally rare.”
Burfield: Corporations quietly use regulatory changes to build competitive barriers
“If some large auto, you know, automobile manufacturer very carefully gets a rule change that helps them open up more markets at less cost and maybe even potentially erects a bit of a barrier for one of their competitors, They are never going to talk about that…”
Burfield: Energy and water startups require regulatory hacking for market entry
“In a lot of sectors like energy or water, you're not going to get market entry without some form of regulatory hacking.”
Burfield: Ignorance of regulatory power dynamics puts startups at a strategic disadvantage
“If you are operating in one of these sectors, and you don't know that there's a chessboard and a game of chess being played, you are at a very significant strategic disadvantage.”
Mayors offer startups the ideal mix of authority and citizen responsiveness
“Because actually, mayors, in our entire political system, in the U.S. Context, in our political system, mayors are pretty much the perfect blend of very, very powerful, and yet incredibly responsive, the very immediate citizen, yes.”
Burfield: Municipal civic infrastructure is entering a 20-year radical reinvention
“I mean, all of that, that sort of civic infrastructure that, that is just in the early phases of going through a radical twenty-year reinvention.”
Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley are inevitably smashing together
“And so we think very, very much about the fact that DC and Silicon Valley are inevitably smashing together. In a whole bunch of different ways, but one of them is actually methodologically.”
Burfield: Silicon Valley and D.C. are both fundamentally relationship businesses
“As wonderfully collaborative as the Valley is, it still matters who you have a relationship with. And people still have, like, they're just, they're both relationship businesses. They're just different networks, and they're different languages.”
Burfield: Healthcare delivery is 1776's most active startup sector
“The delivery of healthcare is, is massive and probably the most active sector we see.”
Burfield: 80% of Sub-Saharan FMCG and Produce Flows Through Informal Markets
“80% of all fresh fruits and vegetables and fast-moving consumer goods in sub-Saharan Africa go through informal markets.”
Kidde built the carbon monoxide detector market via pediatric health partnerships
“They ended up partnering with a lot of the pediatric nursing and pediatric groups and said, in fact, kids all across the country are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, and this is a public health issue, and they used that to ultimately get mandates in place…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Evan's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 a16zLEDGER | Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Washington Office | 1 | 15 | 50% 1/2 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |