Mackenzie Burnett is a patriot. She is the CEO and co-founder of Ambrook, whose mission is to build a more prosperous and resilient future for America's family-run businesses. She believes in American values and wants to support independent businesses thrive and be resilient in the face of a changing world.
I first became aware of Mackenzie right around CoViD19. It was through the crypto craziness, when a bunch of people got together to buy a copy of the US Constitution, using the Constitution DAO. I had also thrown in a few hundred dollars (around Thanksgiving 2021) to get a shot at buying a copy of the US constitution which failed.
Mackenzie and I have stayed in touch over the years, though we never got a chance to talk one on one. This conversation was recorded before Ambrook announced their Series A round ($ 26.1 million). Mackenzie is the first guest on SFTW Convo who has been on Packy McCormick and TBPN.
I hope you enjoy this SFTW Convo, as much as I did!
Summary of the Conversation
In this conversation, Mackenzie and I discuss the challenges and opportunities for software engineers in addressing climate change, particularly through the lens of agriculture. She emphasizes the importance of incentive design, the evolving definitions of sustainability and resilience, and the role of technology in financial management for farmers.
Mackenzie and I discuss the role and importance of the American Dynamism moment and explore how it is tied to American Progress.
We touch on the complexities of agricultural ownership, the need for tailored solutions for multi-P&L businesses, and the significance of storytelling in connecting with producers. Ultimately, the conversation highlights the necessity of balancing economic resilience with environmental stewardship in the agricultural sector.
Rhishi: You once said it's difficult to fight climate change as a software engineer. I actually have almost the opposite reaction.
Mackenzie Burnett: In that video, I said it could feel difficult, and I think that’s still true. A lot of conversations I’ve had, with friends, candidates, even team members who ended up joining Ambrook, touch on this idea that there’s a real bifurcation in the kind of work people can do to address something as big and systemic as climate change.
On one side, you have direct solutions, deep tech or hardware-level innovations. And on the other, there’s software. But what I’ve come to see is that software, at its core, is really about incentive design.
That’s where that quote came from. I’ve talked to many software engineers who say, “I don’t feel like I have the skill set to go into deep tech or hardware.” They feel like their role is just building out UI or tools that make things easier, but not doing the actual climate work.
But if you look at incentive design, there are only so many levers to pull, carbon credit programs, policy-driven mechanisms, and so on. At Ambrook, we’ve tried to design something different. I spent a long time searching for a way to work on something that could build a more prosperous and resilient future.
That’s what Ambrook is about, taking a pragmatic approach and actually doing the everyday work that helps business owners across America make better decisions. Whether or not those decisions are explicitly about climate, they still build resilience. And that’s the spirit behind what I said.
Sustainability and Resilience
Rhishi: Incentive design plays a crucial role, especially when we’re talking about climate change or sustainability. How do you define sustainability?
Mackenzie Burnett: To me, sustainability means behaving in a way that doesn’t borrow from our children’s future. That’s the core idea.
Lately, though, I’ve found myself leaning more toward the word resilience. “Sustainability” still has value, it originally captured that idea of acting in ways that protect the future, but it’s also become a bit overused. In some cases, it’s even been co-opted for greenwashing or applied so broadly that it loses clarity or impact.
That’s why I prefer resilience, it gets more directly to the point. Resilience is about future-proofing. It means creating something that can hold up under a range of conditions, that can adapt, survive, and even thrive through uncertainty.
We’ve been talking about this with a lot of our customers, especially in terms of generational resilience. People are often motivated to act not just for themselves, but for others, for their families, their communities, future generations. That’s a fundamental part of how society works.
So while sustainability is still useful, my own definition is really rooted in this idea of resilience: building something that lasts and serves others, especially those who come after us.