Sentience with a startup lens. Helping builders get the most out their ideas, stay curious, and solve distribution.
- flexibility
- Open to proposals
Excited to mentor projects on
I'm open to supporting a range of project themes. I’d love to mentor projects that, for instance:
- Consider ecosystems in additional to individual agents
- Turn abstract sentience into evocative art or media.
- Enhance our understanding of sentience and rights of digital minds
- Consider overlooked taxa (e.g., insects) as a lens for fresh alignment metaphors.
- Pursue a product, tool, business model as a path to scale
Who I'm looking for
Curious, enthusiastic, creative. A strong maker instinct (design, code, writing, or visual craft).
Questions for applicants
What are some examples of projects, media, art relating to sentience that have inspired you or that you think are especially well executed (optional: 'and why')?
Support offered
- Ideation → turn fuzzy concepts into a crisp value proposition.
- Strategy → map milestones, scope MVPs, and set impact metrics.
- Accountability → weekly check-ins, clear next-actions, rapid feedback.
- Go-to-market & positioning → leverage my startup experience to craft narrative, identify first adopter segments, and design lightweight launch loops (content, pilots, partnerships) that generate early traction and external proof-points.
- format
- Product & entrepreneurship · Field-building & outreach
- topic
- Post-AGI transition · Neglected animal groups · Tools for advocates
William Wickey
I’ve spent the past 12 years building go-to-market systems (marketing, growth, product, sales development) for early- and growth-stage SaaS companies. I’ve started a couple businesses. Before tech, I worked in crisis communications PR. In graduate school, I taught and wrote about the history of emerging media. I've consulted on book launches and new user acquisition for several New York Times bestselling authors. I am currently working on projects across AI safety, mental health, and ecological intelligence.