CHANGEMAKERS: Raina Kumra on Venture Capital and Unexpected Consequences

Raina Kumra is a partner at The Fund LA, an early stage venture fund, and the CEO of Juggernaut, a brand movement agency and organizational change bureau. She recently launched a Tech Ethics course on LinkedIn Learning and previously led strategy and investments for the Technology Ethics portfolio at Omidyar Network. She is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business. Raina spoke with All Tech is Human’s Andrew Sears about the role that venture capitalists play in the tech ethics ecosystem, the relationship between ethics and human-centered design, and more.

Andrew: What were some of the key steps in your professional journey to the tech ethics space?

Raina: I think my time in programmatic advertising was foundational, it showed me how good intentions can lead to the wrong outcome quickly if left unchecked. Another key moment was my time as an operator in a startup -being a founder is fraught with so much worry, that I can see how adding an ethical lens to product and data and AI is an added challenge.

You’re a Managing Partner at The Fund. In what ways does your approach differ from other venture capital firms?

I apply an ethical lens to both the founders, product and team. A culture of doing things right truly matters, especially in early stage startups, and we look for the founders who can go further into the future and plan for risk and downsides as much as for upsides.

What ethical responsibility do venture capitalists have in the technology ecosystem? What should VCs do to exercise this responsibility?

Investors hold a critical lever in normalizing technology ethics. We need our investors to be as aware as our founders in order to change the ecosystem for the better. Else, more companies doing things that aren't good for users, the environment, for our social fabric will continue to get funding, and that's not moving the needle in the right direction.

As the CEO of Juggernaut, human-centered design plays an important role in the consulting that you provide to clients. What what relationship have you observed between the practice of human-centered design and ethical technology outcomes?

I really think of ethical design and human centered design to be completely linked - by applying empathy and putting the user or customer at the center of the intention and designed outcome of a product, you can fundamentally shift away from a lot of the problems we see happening in technology products today.

You teach a LinkedIn Learning course for general audiences titled Tech Ethics: Avoiding Unintended Consequences. For this course, why did you decide to approach tech ethics through the lens of consequences?

I think everyone who is a builder has the best intentions. We want to move beyond intentions to having a new found understanding of "What happens if?" and a new relationship with personal responsibility in the tech ecosystem. We have passed the buck for too long, and its important for each and every player to grasp the impact of each of their decisions at scale. The course is a great and easy way to understand the basics of what we have for so long forgotten to integrate into our daily standups, board meetings and product launches.

You can connect with Raina on LinkedIn and Twitter.

WATCH Raina on a recent livestream for All Tech Is Human about unintended consequences & human-centered design.

Andrew Sears is an advisor at All Tech Is Human and the founder of technovirtuism.