#6: Mark Lutter on the State of Charter Cities and the Future of American Governance

The Long Game with Mehdi Yacoubi

My guest today is Mark Lutter. Mark is the founder of the Charter Cities Institute, which is building the ecosystem for charter cities. He is also the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for the Victoria Harbour Group, a firm building a new city for the people of Hong Kong. Before this, he worked as Lead Economist for a fund investing in early-stage charter cities. He has a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.

The whole work of Mark evolves around Charter Cities, which are cities where the governing system is defined by the city's own charter document rather than by general law.

Mark thinks charter cities are underrated. because they:

1. Spread good institutions which cause economic growth to help alleviate global poverty.
2. Provide a regulatory sandbox for technological innovation.
3. Demonstrate the power of cosmopolitan liberalism.

We start the conversation with the state of charter cities and what Mark is trying to achieve with the Charter Cities Institute; we talk about why creating an ecosystem of charter cities is essential. Then, we discuss why Silicon Valley and the tech world should start to think more about politics and institutions. We also explore all how charter cities would lead to more innovation. We finish the conversation talking about serendipity on Twitter.

Please, enjoy my conversation with Mark Lutter!

You can find the show notes here.

Find Mark online:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• The Charter Cities Institute

Topics we discuss:

• What are charter cities?
• What is the 'Why Now?' of charter cities?
• Why it's important to build better institutions
• Creating an ecosystem of charter cities
• Why today is an inflection point in history for charter cities
• Why Silicon Valley should start to think about politics
• How do we get people like Mark Andreessen to be part of the rebuilding of our institutions?
• Will charter cities help spark more innovation?
• How better institutions impact economic growth
• YC for institutions
• Twitter as a Viennese café

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