I'm Lyel. I work with exceptional founders and investors to build companies people can trust.
Lyel Resner is Visiting Faculty at MIT, where he teaches impact entrepreneurship and responsible innovation. He writes the newsletter Salt.
He co-founded Swayable (YC W18), a public benefit corporation and AI causal data platform that works with clients including the ACLU, Airbnb, and Anthropic. At Cornell Tech he built and led the Public Interest Technology Studio and co-founded the Startups & Society Initiative, backed by Ford, Omidyar, and Siegel Family Endowment. Before that he spent a decade building technology education and economic mobility programs, including as an early executive at Flatiron School.
He has advised mission-led companies including Signal, Pachama (YC W19), and Elucd (YC S17). He sits on the board of MEET.org, which brings Israeli and Palestinian teenagers together for technology and leadership education.
He holds an SB in physics from MIT, with a minor in political science and a concentration in applied math, and was a Burchard Scholar.
He co-founded the Responsible Innovation Founders Summit, which has drawn 700+ tech leaders including founders backed by YC, General Catalyst, and Sequoia, and published the Responsible Innovation Primer for Founders, based on 100+ interviews with tech and civil society leaders.
He led efforts to grow Flatiron Precollege to a 60-person team across 13 cities, with 10x year-over-year revenue growth and teacher-training programs rated 100 NPS. He spent nearly a decade building tech education and economic mobility programs in under-invested neighborhoods.
He previously served on the boards of the Centre for Social Innovation and the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering.
A hopeless thalassophile, he continues paddling into heavy surf and complex systems, perhaps irrationally believing technology can still serve the public good, and that one day he will be spat out of a proper five-second barrel. Until then, he is prepared to take the tumbles.
Salt
Notes on capital, technology, and building companies worth trusting.
writing
recent from Salt
other publications
AI is getting new governance. It needs new funding structures, too.
ImpactAlpha • September 2026
Toward a Fair Data Economy: A Blueprint for Innovation and Growth
Project Liberty Institute • November 2024 • Task force member
How impact investments in Anthropic can strengthen responsible innovation in tech
ImpactAlpha • April 2024
Why impact investing needs to prioritize public interest technology
Ford Foundation • September 2023
Public interest tech has a pipeline problem
Stanford Social Innovation Review • May 2022
We need more empathy — Why it’s essential that we craft diverse and collaborative learning environments
Education Week • July 2017
Building a healthy and sustainable social impact bond market: The investor landscape
Rockefeller Foundation / Godeke Consulting • November 2012
speaking & press
some places I've spoken
RFK Investors Summit on AI and Ethics
some mentions in press
podcast conversations
Is VC eating impact’s lunch? Fueling responsible tech investment
SOCAP Global · Panel discussion ·
Responsible tech in business with Lyel Resner
Podcast episode on Spotify ·
What is the future of PPT? A conversation with Lyel Resner and Tanya Filer
Tech.eu · Interview ·
Why developers are demanding more ethics in tech
Stack Overflow Podcast · Episode 291 ·
some nice things people have said
“Few people on this planet have mastered the art, science, and business of social impact and Lyel is one of them.”
“Lyel is amazing. He will add incredible value to your work. I would hire him in a second.”
“Lyel is worth his weight in gold.”
personal
