Introduction: 0:00

• Sean West, Co-founder at Hence Technologies.
• Getting involved with international affairs.
• Looking for ways to make money in politics.
• Working at Deloitte in D.C. and the Eurasia Group.

Working at Eurasia Group: 3:15

• Forecasting geopolitics.
• Making wrong predictions.
• How predictions are made.
• How to create control experiments.

Learning to trust your gut: 7:58

• Apprenticing with experienced forecasters.
• Looking towards the future.

Why general counsels should care about geopolitics: 10:37

• Navigating the unstable global political environment.
• The legal effects of volatility.
• Charting the growing political responsibilities of general counsels.

How general counsels can get better at handling political risks: 16:01

• Visiting Sean’s substack, geolegal.substack.com.
• Balancing geopolitics, law, and technology.
• Writing an upcoming book.
• How geopolitics and tech are undermining international law.
• How technology will change the lawyer role.
• Emerging tech like robot lawyers in China. 

Do CEOs have to be politicians?: 21:31

• The CEO role becoming chief geopolitical officer.
• Whether companies should take political stands.
• Responding to public backlashes.
• Doing business with China.
• Why U.S. companies should be open about it.
• Working with politicians.
• When and why companies should get political.

Building Hence Technologies in Rwanda: 31:42

• Founding a company with a Palantir alum.
• Selling knowledge.
• Building technology around geopolitics.
• Dealing with faulty forecasting tech.

Starting your own business: 25:06

• Managing the stress of being a founder.
• Why Rwanda became their base of operations.
• Building in a place where you can hire the best engineers.
• Finding talent in the global economy.

Imagining the future of Hence Technologies: 42:02

• Looking into strategic options.
• Building products for the rest of his life.

Rapid-fire questions: 43:48

• Sean’s favorite part of the day.
• Sean’s professional pet peeves.

Book recommendations: 45:49

• The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma by Michael Bhaskar and Mustafa Suleyman

What Sean wishes he’d known as a young researcher: 48:02

• Being comfortable in your own skin.