Positioning
The argument only you can make.
Together we clarify what you stand for, who needs to hear it, and where you can make a useful contribution.
Partners in Public Life · New York
Standing to lead.
In your own right.
We partner with founders, senior operators, and frontier researchers to put their ideas to work—in public, and through the institutions they build.
The firm
An idea needs more
than an audience.
Some ideas call for a public position. Others need a prize, a fund, or an institution of their own.
Trust Collaborative works alongside you to decide what to pursue, bring the right people together, and undertake the work. Strategy and execution belong in the same conversation.
The practice
What the work is.
Counsel
A standing conversation.
Ongoing judgment on the substance of your public life: what to say, where to contribute, and when to wait.
Placement
Few rooms, chosen carefully.
Introductions to people, conversations, and institutions where your experience has something to contribute.
Building
When the idea needs a vehicle.
A prize, a philanthropic fund, a convening, an institute. We establish and run it with you, then build a team ready to take it on.
Working together
How the work begins.
A clear purpose, an agreed scope, and a plan for putting it into practice.
A first conversation
We start with what you are considering, what you want to accomplish, and the decisions in front of you.
A scope and a roadmap
Together we define the priorities, the work to be done, and the people it will involve. Discovery becomes a roadmap with a sequence of actions and milestones.
Work carried through
We combine ongoing counsel with execution, review progress, and adjust the approach as the work develops. The scope and pace follow the assignment.
The founders
A life’s work
in the company of ideas.
Victoria Montgomery Brown and Peter L. Hopkins co-founded Big Think in 2007 and built and led it for thirteen years, through 2020.
They built a company around a simple conviction: serious ideas deserve a wider life. Trust Collaborative brings that experience of developing ideas, building an organization, and bringing people together to the work of its clients.
Victoria Montgomery Brown
Co-founder
Victoria co-founded Big Think and led it as chief executive officer. She helped turn an idea for an educational media platform into a business, securing its early backing and developing the relationships that brought leading thinkers to its audience.
Her experience spans raising capital, building a team, and the daily decisions of running a company. She is the author of Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
LinkedIn
Peter L. Hopkins
Co-founder
Peter co-founded Big Think and served as its president. His work connects strategy, communications, and operations: developing ideas and building the platforms through which people can put them to use.
An entrepreneur with a background in educational media, he helped develop Big Think’s work in learning as well as its public conversation. He graduated from Harvard University, where he studied political economy and served on the executive board of The Harvard Crimson.
LinkedInIntroductions
A conversation,
by introduction.
Our engagements begin by referral. If someone suggested you contact us, please mention them.
A brief note about what you are considering is enough to begin. The work is confidential.
inquiries@trustcollaborate.com