Jan 11, 2024 | 2 min read

The Inevitable Economics of Trust with Mark Achler

By: Patrick Emmons

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Today we’re sharing an insightful presentation from our most recent Innovative Executives League Summit, where Mark Achler, Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners, spoke about the central role of trust in a successful company—with customers, employees, and partners. 

In this presentation, Mark details three experiences involving broken trust. He shares his journey remaining optimistic in the face of negativity and an array of reasons to embrace cynicism. Mark touches on several occurrences in which trust, ethics, and standards have been at the center of faltering companies and outlines why trusted companies perform better. 

  • (01:11) – Three stories and a question
  • (20:34) – Optimism and cynicism
  • (25:22) – Economics of trust
  • (30:50) – Loss of trust and manipulation
  • (37:37) – Trust as offense and defense
  • (39:25) – Breaking promises

About Our Guest

Mark Achler is the Managing Director at MATH Venture Partners, a VC fund focused on technical and digital companies. Mark is a faculty member at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management in entrepreneurship and innovation and co-authored Exit Right with Mert Iseri. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from Purdue University.

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About Patrick Emmons

If you can’t appreciate a good sports analogy, movie quote, or military reference, you may not want to work with him, but if you value honesty, integrity, and commitment to improvement, Patrick can certainly help take your business or your career to the next level. “Good enough,” is simply not in his vernacular. Pat’s passion is for relentlessly pushing himself and others to achieve full potential. Patrick Emmons is a graduate of St. Norbert College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Patrick co-founded Adage Technologies in 2001 and in 2015, founded DragonSpears as a spin-off dedicated to developing custom applications that improve speed, compliance and scalability of clients’ internal and customer-facing workflow processes. When he is not learning about new technology, running a better business, or becoming a stronger leader, he can be found coaching his kids’ (FIVE of them) baseball and lacrosse teams and praising his ever-so-patient wife for all her support.

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