Amit @NextFive

People usually remain stuck in sub-optimal tracks because they often self-exclude from wider set of options, knowingly or otherwise. They don’t apply, don’t ask, don’t even imagine the alternatives because they either are not even aware of these. Or Because they do not feel like it’s for them.

Cross-strata mobility requires two things working in parallel: raised aspirations and expanded opportunities.

Aspirations

Aspirations are shaped by two mechanisms:

Awareness - knowing that certain options and paths exist.

• This is what CareerMap addresses: making visible the full landscape of career possibilities, especially non-obvious options or non-linear routes.

Belief via normalization - seeing people like yourself taking those options, so those paths feel real and attainable rather than fanciful.

• This is the core mechanism Orbit targets. Repeated, low-stakes exposure to people from different worlds makes those worlds feel normal and reachable. When something feels normal, people stop self-selecting out.

The two are distinct and both necessary. Awareness without belief produces information that doesn’t change behaviour. Belief without awareness produces aspiration toward a narrow set of options. Together they expand the space of what someone can truly want and pursue.

Opportunities

Opportunities come through the relationships and conversations that Orbit produces. Specifically, the serendipitous ones like a passing remark or a question or a resource offered. Things that couldn’t have been predicted or engineered but that occur frequently enough in the right conditions.

• Discovery problem comes before the access problem. People can’t pursue what they don’t know exists - and most people’s map of what’s possible is bounded by who they already know.

• Cost of showing up is high and uneven for both with and without existing network capital. Those without - often do not realise they need it. Those with it wonder about trust-inflation: vouching and introducing someone to your network carries the weight of your own credibility and risks diluting if if the introduction does not go well.

• Lack of social / network capital is not as high on top of minds of people, even in sectors I had imagined it would be different.

• The serendipitous benefits of a diverse network is considered less efficient compared to “classical networking events”.

1. Curated intros:
   1. Reduces the cost of showing-up from regular meet-ups to one-off catch-up online / offline
   2. Addresses trust-inflation by making a system introduce people instead of people introducing each other to their networks
   3. Experimenting with 2 different cohorts (FITO / EA community)
2. One-on-one conversations with selected underserved individuals over a longer time to observe effectiveness