The Promise of Peer-to-Peer Credentials

Soon, Cosign and P2P credential platforms will democratize talent discovery at scale, enabling people all over the world to discover the next Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg (And others in other industries) without having to write a check to prove their talent discovery abilities.

My thesis is “If there’s valuable information in people’s heads, it’ll eventually be on the internet”.

In a world where talent is globally distributed, where we’re losing confidence in the power of our credentialing institutions, a cosign can make all the difference.

Cosign is time-stamped, social capital investing in people.

We all want to be the first person to give someone their shot, to put people in business. Right now, only financial investors can. But imagine a class of social capital investors who could do the same. Cosigning someone is essentially like being the first social capital in. Which in some cases is just as valuable as the first dollar. People always ... See more

Think about someone you didn’t take seriously until someone you respect told you that they think highly of them—how many missed opportunities are there because people miss out on this information? We have inefficient markets for reputation today, and that creates all sorts of market failures as a result.

My bet is that P2P Credentials will emerge as something that will supplement and unbundle the college credential.

Right now, we’re leaving millions of incredibly powerful credentials on the table—peer-to-peer credentials: Think of the best people you’ve ever worked with—your endorsement of them is a credential that you haven’t yet created.