The Global Edge with Sophie Krantz

How can global hard problems be transformed from permanent systemic liabilities into defensible, billion-dollar market positions? This episode outlines the Three Calculations framework - developed by Global Strategist Sophie Krantz - which uses the Crossover Point, Chokepoint Map, and Voltage Test to evaluate whether a structural solution is commercially rational to pursue. To demonstrate the mass...

It can feel as if the lights are going out across the global economy. Outside big tech and winner-takes-all platforms, that is not the whole picture. New market positions are forming inside the largest, hardest, longest-running problems on earth - and the economics of holding those positions have shifted decisively in the past three years. This article is a map of where structural opportunities si...

For a number of organisations, it is now structurally cheaper to solve problems affecting millions or billions of people than to leave them unsolved. The old aid architecture has exited; they are building the replacement. And yet the most significant gaps remain open – in twelve hard problem domains that, unlike much of the global economy, are still relatively uncontested. The economics of hard pr...

Some hard problems remain hard because the cost of solving them is too high to act on. Others remain hard because no one can agree on what leaving them unsolved is costing. Carbon has been the second kind for most of the last two decades, which is why it has largely been treated as a compliance obligation rather than a market position. The argument has long been about the number. That argument now...

Hard power, deployed through money and mandate, is no longer enough to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Health, education, climate, financial inequality, and justice remain the largest underserved market opportunities of our time. Institutional players are retreating. Building a market position in these spaces means drawing on the capital, talent, and soft power that already exist in p...

Leaders who care about solving a hard problem that affects millions or billions of people often start with the same questions: Who has the money? Who has the mandate? How do we get close to them? There’s an alternative: Begin with a calculation that tells you whether the economics support you building a commercially viable solution. Starting from money and mandates consumes significant time and re...

Hard problems - the ones affecting millions or billions of people - are becoming market positions. Most people with the resources and the ambition to build inside one have already done the market analysis. They know the scale. They have a view on the technology. They understand, at least in outline, what a solution would require. What they often have not yet done is map the chokepoints. A chokepoi...

Global strategist Sophie Krantz introduces a transformative framework for tackling massive systemic issues across health, education, and climate: The Crossover Point . This is defined as the specific economic moment when structurally solving a problem becomes cheaper for society than leaving it unsolved. Instead of just looking at the massive scale of a problem, leaders and innovators need to comp...

Most people working on hard problems, the kind affecting hundreds of millions of people across health, education, financial access, and climate, have calculated the size of the market. The number of people affected, the scale of unmet need, or the Total Addressable Market (TAM) if this were a venture pitch. That calculation is usually large and usually correct. Almost none have calculated the cost...

Soft Power Brief Q1 Report tracks organisations that have turned hard problems into defensible market positions. Rather than chasing grants, they have done this by building models that make solving the problem cheaper than maintaining the status quo. The same logic is available to any leader serious about solving billion‑person problems commercially. Once you can show, in numbers, that fixing the...

The Soft Power Brief is a twelve-part series on the problems the world is still waiting to solve. Each edition takes one hard problem from current expert analysis and runs three calculations on it - the Crossover Point, the Chokepoint Map, and the Voltage Test. The job is always the same: turn it into a map of leverage for the leaders this problem most needs. This is Edition 1. Briefing at a Glanc...

Hard problems aren't waiting for more resources or more political will. They're waiting for leaders running a different set of calculations. When we run them, hard problems stop looking like moral obligations and start looking like market positions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sophiekrantz.com

Soft Power spent on a Hard Problem doesn’t fix the problem. It shifts the terms on which the problem gets fought. Which companies, funds, alliances, and multilaterals are actually doing it - and is yours one of them? The Soft Power Index is here: https://softpowerindex.lovable.app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi...

This edition explores recent work by global strategist Sophie Krantz where she makes the case that soft power should be viewed as a strategic weapon rather than a passive background signal. We live at a time when hard power often fails to solve complex global issues, trust and reputation are essential for forming the coalitions needed to tackle challenges like climate change and technological gove...

The 2026 paradox: more force, less progress Looking around the world, raw power is back: wars, sanctions, aggressive industrial policies, and tight controls on critical minerals and technology. Yet, despite these hard moves, progress on our most important shared goals is stalling or reversing. Climate risks are compounding, and many SDG targets are slipping away. This shows a power paradox: more f...

In this episode, we explore the concept of the ‘Velocity Gap, a framework developed by global strategist Sophie Krantz to explain the diverging realities of 2025. While the world faced stagnation in some areas, there is a parallel track of positive-sum breakthroughs accelerated rapidly, removing structural friction across trade, energy, health, and work. We discuss the 2025 acceleration map” which...

In this edition we explore the work of Global Strategist Sophie Krantz on a strategy for leaders seeking to act beyond local surroundings without the strain of global expansion. The episode highlights Maido , a Lima, Peru, restaurant rated the world’s best in 2025 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, as proof that you can achieve world-class standing - and draw the world to you - from a single loca...

Maps are fundamentally reflections of our worldview, not just navigational aids. Historically, maps placed what was central to a civilisation at the physical centre: the Babylonian Map of the World (c. 6th Century BCE) placed Babylon itself at the heart, reflecting belief and geography. Medieval maps later centered Jerusalem using symbolism over scale. The appearance of Terra Incognita on early Eu...

The world’s oldest surviving map was etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around the 6th century BCE. Known as the Babylonian Map of the World or Imago Mundi , it shows the city of Babylon at the centre, the Euphrates River flowing through it, and the known lands encircled by a “Bitter River” - the ocean. Beyond that ring sit small triangles labelled as distant, perhaps mythical, regions. It was...

This episode summary focuses on the three essential founder and leadership questions: “Why this? Why me? Why now?” . Building on work by Global Strategist Sophie Krantz, the podcast explores these questions, noting that while they gained prominence in venture capital for assessing startup founders, they are now vital for any leader driving change or challenging the status quo. These questions test...

The questions “Why this?”, “Why me?”, and “Why now?” sit at the heart of startup investing and founder assessment. Increasingly, they’re just as relevant for any leader trying to drive change or get a new idea over the line, especially when it challenges the status quo. They’re the three questions founders are expected to answer when pitching a new venture or seeking investment. Each tests for ins...

It’s a wrap! Elena Verna and Whitney Menarcheck celebrating with particiapants from around the world, markingt he conclusion of the 48 hour Lovable SheBuilds Buildathon. Today we deep dive into Lovable, the Swedish-founded tech startup that achieved US$100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in a record-breaking eight months . This growth, which outpaces giants like OpenAI and Perplexity, ma...

In 48 hours, I experienced how a fast-growing tech company turns an idea into a movement. Here we break down why and how they did it. See What’s Shifting Lovable is expanding faster than most startups. To understand this, and for a crash course in vibe coding, I spent time with the company. During the recent SheBuilds hackathon, the company invited women from around the world to turn ideas into fu...

Are you a brilliant founder whose opportunities constantly stall after the first introduction? You’re great at making connections, yet struggle with the follow-through. Global Strategist Sophie Krantz is tackling this exact challenge. Her initial approach started offline in early 2023, sending physical “Colour Your World” cards and pencil packs to 100 people around the globe. The goal was to encou...

At the start of 2023, one hundred people around the world received a card and a small pencil pack in the post. Inside was an invitation to pause, look outward, and consider the bigger picture of their world. The Colour Your World card asked them to reflect on where their markets were, where opportunities lay undiscovered, and where knowledge or networks were missing. Colouring in their world was m...