Patri Friedman

Patri Friedman is the founder and general partner of Pronomos Capital, a venture firm that invests in charter cities and new jurisdictions. In 2008 he co-founded The Seasteading Institute, which promotes autonomous ocean communities; a former Google engineer, he is the grandson of economist Milton Friedman.

He co-founded The Seasteading Institute in 2008 with Wayne Gramlich and with early backing from Peter Thiel, after leaving a job as a Google engineer, and spent the following decade arguing that new jurisdictions would have to be built at sea because the land was all claimed. The institute produced designs, legal research and a movement rather than a permanent settlement.

Pronomos Capital, founded in 2019, follows from what he took away from that: building on land, with a host government’s agreement, is cheaper and faster than building against the ocean and against international law at the same time. The fund invests in charter cities and new jurisdictions, its backers include Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan, and Próspera in Honduras is its best-known holding.

He is the grandson of Milton Friedman and the son of David Friedman, which makes him the third generation of a family arguing about how far markets can replace the state, and the first to try building the answer.