Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Jens Molbak’s “new way of doing business” is tri-sector innovation: building a venture that combines resources and aligns incentives across business, government and nonprofits. He points to Coinstar, the coin-recycling company he founded, as an example of a commercial service designed to benefit customers and the company while also serving public goals. The idea is not simply to add a charitable program to a business; it is to make shared benefit part of how the model works.
What tri-sector innovation means
Tri-sector innovation is a way to design a business model around the strengths of three sectors: private companies, public institutions and nonprofits or other social-sector organizations. Each contributes something the venture needs, and each should have a reason to participate. Molbak describes the model as one in which “each sector, government, nonprofit, and company contributes something to the model and get a benefit so that they all want to play together.”
That makes it different from treating government only as a customer or putting social impact in a separate corporate-responsibility program. The starting question is whether the core operation can use existing resources in a way that creates value for the business and advances a public or social outcome.
Why Molbak uses Coinstar as the example
GeekWire’s 2022 profile reports that Molbak founded Coinstar in 1990, left the business in 2001 and later founded NewImpact to promote tri-sector innovation. In his account, Coinstar gave people a convenient way to exchange accumulated coins and offered a way to donate their value to charities. The company earned revenue from a consumer service; customers could turn coins into usable value; and donated proceeds could support nonprofits.
#1 Best Overall
Molbak also argued that returning coins to circulation could benefit government by reducing the need to mint coins. He described public-sector relationships as helpful to understanding and expanding the model, including a UK rollout supported by introductions to retailers and public institutions. These are Molbak’s descriptions in the interview, not an independent evaluation of Coinstar’s financial or public-sector results.
The case illustrates the framework’s logic: a business opportunity may also address a public need when participants’ interests can be aligned. It does not establish that every venture can produce the same combination of benefits, or that the approach necessarily outperforms other business models.
How to assess a tri-sector opportunity
Molbak’s practical advice is to understand what each sector is trying to accomplish, then identify resources that could be put to a useful new purpose without undermining a partner’s interests. A founder can use these questions to test whether a concept is genuinely collaborative rather than simply asking another sector to subsidize it.
- Business: What does the company contribute—such as operating expertise, technology, distribution or capital—and what durable business value does it receive?
- Government: Which public goal or existing capability is relevant? Is the institution a collaborator in the model, rather than only a purchaser?
- Nonprofit or social sector: What expertise, relationships, services or mission capacity does a nonprofit contribute, and how does the arrangement advance its work?
- People served: Does the service work for the customers, residents or beneficiaries who use it or depend on it?
- Evidence: How will the partners measure outcomes, costs and claimed savings? Are the results demonstrated in operation, or is the proposal still a concept or prototype?
A useful test is whether every participant can explain its benefit in its own terms. If one party bears most of the cost or risk while another captures the value, the arrangement may need redesign. Shared benefit does not mean identical benefits; it means that participation makes sense for each partner.
What NewImpact set out to teach
Molbak founded NewImpact to make tri-sector innovation teachable and usable. In the GeekWire profile, the organization described a three-part aim—“inspire, enable and activate innovators”—using stories, catalyst projects and case studies. Molbak said NewImpact had prototyped a course at Kent State and was speaking with universities.
In a separate Care More Be Better interview, he described a tri-sector extension of a familiar business model canvas, along with PDF tools and an interactive version in development. These interviews document what NewImpact described at those times; they do not establish whether a course, canvas or other resource is currently available.
Rank #4
- New
- Mint Condition
- Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
- Guaranteed packaging
- No quibbles returns
How to interpret the figures Molbak cited
In the 2022 GeekWire interview, Molbak referred to 127 social safety-net programs and described roughly $250 trillion in U.S. assets, citing NewImpact research and including buildings, cars, roads and other assets. He also characterized Social Security as a trillion-dollar program. These are his statements in that interview, not independently established current statistics or an official national balance-sheet measure. In the undated Care More Be Better interview, he separately referred to an approximately $500 trillion global balance-sheet estimate based on what he called the organization’s “best research”; it is a different claim and should not be confused with the U.S. estimate.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the idea does—and does not—promise
Tri-sector innovation offers entrepreneurs a lens for finding overlooked resources and aligning incentives. Coinstar is Molbak’s central illustration of that lens, while NewImpact’s teaching work sought to turn it into a repeatable planning method. The interviews and a 2025 Yale Podcast Network episode show Molbak continuing to discuss the approach, but they do not provide a controlled assessment showing that the model consistently produces better results, nor do they confirm current NewImpact offerings.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
