Menu

Marc’s Inspiration Story

We didn’t set out to build a city. But we found ourselves wondering:

With all the progress we’ve made in the last 100 year, why are so many people still barely getting by?

Like many Americans, we’ve watched the country grow more and more divided. And while capitalism has driven so much growth and innovation, it’s far from perfect. There are varying opinions on how to solve this — from increasing taxes for the wealthy and raising wages, to capping the top, reforming the education system, and providing more affordable housing. But across the board, we haven’t been able to agree on a proper path forward. And as time goes on, the gaps in wealth and income inequality only get wider.

So we started asking, how can we do better?

While researching, we came across a late 19th century book called Progress and Poverty. In it, economist Henry George argues that the real problem with capitalism is land ownership. There’s a finite amount of land, and landowners essentially have a monopoly. In addition, once the land has been claimed and given rise to communities, its value continues to increase without the landowners actually having to provide anything.

But what if we did it differently, and that land was owned by a community endowment instead? What if you took that land appreciation and put it back into the community that had actually created the value? It was inspiring to think about the possibilities — what if, for instance, you could pay the same taxes that you do today, but get the best social services of any country in the world?

At first, it seemed impossible to turn back the clock and test our ideas. After all, the land was already claimed, the cities already built. But in reality, there’s actually plenty of land still available in the United States. And we realized that the best way to demonstrate this new economic model would be to start with a clean slate and build a city from scratch.

If we bought, say, 200,000 acres and built a city of 5 million people, then those acres would go from being worth nothing to being worth about a trillion dollars. And if the community sold the land and created an endowment — similar to a university or hospital endowment — they could earn $50 billion a year. $50 billion that would go back to the citizens in the form of healthcare, education, jobs training, affordable housing, and more.

We’re calling this new economic model Equitism, with the mission of creating a more equitable future. 

And once we thought through the model and the chance to build a new city from the ground up, our thinking evolved as we thought about what’s possible when you start from scratch. Our mission soon became not only creating a more equitable future — but a more sustainable one as well…

  • 100% renewable energy
  • 20% (vs. zero) food residency
  • 90% water reduction
  • 0 waste goal
  • 0 autonomous mobility emissions
  • 500 sq. ft. per capita open space (vs. 75 sq. ft.)

To be clear, we’re not building a private city or a political utopia. Nor is this a project that has any sort of return for us personally. But we’re incredibly proud that we’re putting people at its center. We’ve started with a mission and a set of values — open, fair, inclusive — and will be taking demonstrable steps to live these values better than any other city in the world. We’ve assembled a growing, diverse team of experts to ask and address all the right questions. Because it’s not only about creating the city of Telosa itself, which we hope will set a new standard for urban living. It’s also about building a city with a soul, a city focused on actual human beings. It’s about creating opportunity and equality, celebrating diversity and inclusion, and providing a sense of pride for where we live. In the end, whether this project works the way we intend it to or not, there’s an unbelievable amount we can learn. And if we get this right, it could serve as the blueprint for a new economic model to benefit the world for generations to come. Because when you get right down to it, the most important questions are:

How can we create a better world for our kids and grandkids? How much happier could people be?

That’s what it’s all about.

Marc Lore

Marc Lore is a serial entrepreneur and investor having started and sold four companies, most recently Jet.com which was acquired by Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion. Until January 2021, Marc served as the president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce. Prior to that, Marc was also the co-founder and CEO of Quidsi, the parent company of e-commerce websites Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, and more. The company was sold to Amazon in 2011 for $550 million.

Marc is the newest NBA owner having purchased the Minnesota TImberwolves and Minnesota Lynx with his friend and business partner, Alex Rodriguez. Marc and Alex also recently announced a VC firm called VCP (vision, capital, people), focused on investing big and early in moonshot ideas.

He is the lead and largest investor in Archer, an aerospace company building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft focused on improving mobility in cities and Wonder, a company that’s reinventing the at-home dining experience.

Marc’s largest venture is Telosa – a city he is building from scratch to test a new model for society, called Equitism. The city will eventually house five million residents and plans to set the global standard for urban living and expand human potential by becoming a blueprint for future generations.

He graduated from Bucknell University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in business management and economics.

See Marc's Inspiration Story

The Junto Group

Inspired by Marc Lore’s vision for a new city and a new model for society, the Junto Group was formed. We are a diverse team of urban planners, designers, historians, community engagement experts, economists, financial managers, scientists, and engineers from a variety of backgrounds. We are committed to working collaboratively across different ideologies, backgrounds, and perspectives to create a new city that is sustainable and equitable to all. Instead of focusing on our differences, we are using them to work together for a common vision, to make the world a better place, where people can reach their potential and enjoy a meaningful, high-quality life. We are committed to our values of an open, fair, and inclusive community, where we honor diversity, and work toward an inclusive and equitable city.

We are named after the original Junto Group inspired by a collection of friends that Benjamin Franklin brought together in 1727 to promote the mutual improvement of both themselves and society. It was a diverse group of people from all walks of life, dedicated to exploring ideas through open inquiry, building knowledge and developing solutions to difficult challenges confronting their community. The United States was born from many of the ideas of the original Junto Group.

Telosa will be the ultimate in collaboration, cooperation, and new ideas. We have spoken to experts in 30+ areas and continue to expand our outreach. We look forward to the exchange of different viewpoints and perspectives as we move forward. Join us!

 

Telosa Community Foundation

We are a newly-incorporated Delaware not-for-profit corporation focused on creating a more equitable and sustainable future.

The Foundation expects to further its tax-exempt purposes as a 501(c)(3) primarily by engaging in research and public educational activities related to the development and implementation of a new model for urban living in the United States. The Foundation’s research and educational activities will focus on an initial model city to be called Telosa, which is also intended to serve both as a new model for society that offers people a higher quality of life and greater opportunity and as a sustainable blueprint for other cities around the world.

Junto Advisors

Bjarke Ingels

• FOUNDER OF BJARKE INGELS GROUP, GLOBALLY ONE OF THE HIGHEST REGARDED ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
• COMPLETED ~15 MILLION SQ FT OF PROJECTS
• TIME MAGAZINE’S “THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD” (2016)
• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’S “INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR” (2011)

Netta Jenkins

• LEADING VOICE IN THE DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION FIELD
• FORBES’ TOP 7 ANTI-RACISM CONSULTANTS
• ACCLAIMED AUTHOR WITH A DEEP BACKGROUND IN COMMUNICATIONS, LEADERSHIP, AND BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

Preet Bharara

• LAWYER, AUTHOR, PODCASTER
• FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY AND U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
• TIME MAGAZINE’S “THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD” (2012)

Bob Clark

• ENTREPRENEUR AND PHILANTHROPIST
• FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN AT CLAYCO, A LEADING FULL-SERVICE,
REAL ESTATE, ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING, DESIGN-BUILD
AND CONSTRUCTION FIRM
• HAS DEVELOPED 10,000+ ACRES OF LAND AND DELIVERED 210
MILLION+ SQUARE FEET OF COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL,
INSTITUTIONAL AND MULTIFAMILY ASSETS
• COMMISSIONER GENERAL AT THE USA PAVILION AT WORLD
EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Peter Diamandis

• FUTURIST, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR
• FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, X PRIZE FOUNDATION
• EXECUTIVE FOUNDER, SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY, A GLOBAL
LEARNING AND INNOVATION COMMUNITY TACKLING THE
WORLD’S BIGGEST CHALLENGES
• FORTUNE MAGAZINE’S LIST “WORLD’S 50 GREATEST LEADERS”
(2014)

Partners

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is a Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona, and Shenzhen based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers, and inventors. The office is currently involved in projects throughout Europe, America, Asia, and the Middle East. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. By hitting this fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life forms.

Polco provides community engagement and analytics solutions that enable government leaders to make informed decisions with confidence. Polco makes it easy to capture and evaluate insights that are accurate and reliable through engagement technology and survey research. With an in-house National Research Center, Polco is the first and only platform to bring together validated feedback, local performance data, and nationally representative benchmark comparisons. Polco cuts through the noise to help build community trust, maximize the impact of public resources, and improve resident quality of life.
RCLCO is proud to be the “first call” for real estate developers, investors, the public sector, and non-real estate organizations seeking strategic and tactical advice regarding property investment, planning, and development. RCLCO leverages quantitative analytics and a strategic planning framework to provide end-to-end business planning and implementation solutions at an entity, portfolio, or project level.
Buro Happold is a world-class practice of engineers, consultants and advisors dedicated to creating transformative outcomes for clients and communities alike. We incorporate the fundamental elements of social, economic, equitable, and healthy sustainable solutions into all of our projects through integrated thinking and innovation. As a truly interconnected community of experts, we value human wellbeing, curiosity, embrace mutual responsibility and genuinely care about the impact and legacy of our work.
Archer’s mission is to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. Archer’s goal is to move people throughout the world’s cities in a quick, safe, sustainable, and cost-effective manner. Archer is designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for use in Urban Air Mobility. These aircraft can carry four passengers for 60 miles at speeds of up to 150 mph while producing minimal noise. Archer’s team is based in Palo Alto, CA. 
The Henry George School of Social Science aims to promote the philosophies of Henry George, America’s Gilded Age economist and social reformer best known for his seminal work “Progress and Poverty”.

Remarkably, George’s vision is still very much valid and vibrant for today’s world.  George sought to establish fundamental economic justice and sustainable prosperity for all. He advocated for free trade and saw that monopolies are detrimental to the health of the economy and society. George is best known for his “Single Tax” proposal on land values which would replace all other taxes.
Winston Churchill, Leo Tolstoy, John Dewey, and Albert Einstein were among the many intellectual luminaries who endorsed George’s proposals.
Explore George’s progressive ideas and proposed solutions to 21st century problems such as economic justice, urban decay, environmental policy as well as tax policy via our free classes, interviews, seminars, and online events. Learn more about our mission at hgsss.org.

Telosa Name Story 

Telosa is derived from the ancient Greek word used by Aristotle meaning “highest purpose.” For the Greeks, the highest purpose of a great city was to have the individual and society as a whole flourish together. They believed that no individual could reach their full potential unless they lived within a strong cohesive society. This was achieved by both the individual and the community working together to create new opportunities to prosper.

Every great human achievement throughout history has been a result of an individual or group unified by and dedicated to a clear purpose. Telosa will be unified by its founding purpose, to create a more equitable and sustainable future.

Telosa Logo Story

The Telosa logo symbolizes our future city in many ways.

The star located in the center signifies our highest purpose, the meaning behind Telosa. It is our North Star, an unwavering guide on our mission to create a more equitable and sustainable future. The four sections of our logo represent the voices that will shape the direction of our city: people, government, business and endowment. The logo also signifies our three values: Open, Fair and Inclusive. The circle speaks to our open and welcoming culture. Each section is equal in size, representing our promise of fairness and access to opportunity and the coming together of the sections signifies our commitment to an inclusive society.

Equitism

Equitism (eq-ui-tism) 

noun

An economic system in which citizens have a stake in the city’s land — as the city does better, the residents do better.

Imagine if all the land in Manhattan was owned by a community endowment focused on improving the quality of life for all citizens. At current estimates, the endowment would be worth over $1 trillion and could generate over $60 billion every year in income to invest back into building the physical and human capital of the city — that is 2x the current annual spend. Just imagine for a moment the impact these additional funds and resources could have on individuals and the entire community.

Land is a finite resource that appreciates in value over time in large part because of the growth and activity of the community. The land value also increases from the tax dollars that residents pay to support the city for roads, bridges, tunnels, subways, and other infrastructure. Therefore, since the community is the primary growth driver of land values, it seems fair that the community should benefit from the increase in land prices.

Equitism is a new economic model based on the premise that citizens should have a stake in the land and as the city does better, the residents do better. It retains the same system of Capitalism but with an additional funding mechanism for enhanced services — through the land. With Equitism, we will create a much higher-level of social services offered to residents, without additional burdens on taxpayers.

Equitism in Telosa starts with land — and will be driven by the city’s values. Initially, we will find uninhabited land that will allow us to fully demonstrate the power of this idea. The land will be donated to a community endowment which will use the increasing land values to fund enhanced city services — the building blocks of prosperity: higher quality education, greater access to home ownership, improved health and wellness, more innovative business opportunities, and expanded jobs and retraining. This will provide wider access to opportunity and a greater shared prosperity for all citizens.

There are many successful examples of the endowment model and the concept of land value return being reinvested back into the community to fund essential public services. Some of these examples including Alaska, Utah, nearly twenty cities throughout Pennsylvania, and leading universities, such as Stanford, are using land and other finite natural resources to provide essential support in education and other key areas that strengthen communities. While we plan to focus on a much larger scale and a broader social mission, their success gives us confidence with this strategy and approach.

Simply put, Equitism is inclusive growth.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement

Telosa will advance our mission statement by creating, implementing, and maintaining an equitable and inclusive city that facilitates the integration of diversity, fairness, openness, belonging, and care in our policies, practices and workplaces.  This will be reflected in the four priorities listed below:

 

  • Honor mutual respect and shared dignity in all city operations
  • Support businesses and organizations in developing policies and protocols to create opportunity and close equity gaps 
  • Eliminate organizational and administrative barriers to equitable opportunity 
  • Recognize and appreciate individual uniqueness as assets to the Telosa community

 

Telosa will accomplish these priorities through the development of a DEI dept, city DEI plan, annual assessment of the plan, and bringing in resources for continuous improvement of the outcomes of the plan. Through our commitment to DEI, Telosa will lift up all individuals and create a strong community.