Before we were partners and founders, we were friends; and as we've built Brink over the past seven years we have held tightly on to the idea that great relationships are critical to making things happen.
Brink has always been lean by design, open to emergence and adaptability, and ready to help others build the muscles they need to be the same. But we know these capabilities only matter when they rest on something deeper: real trust, psychological safety, and the kind of strong relationships that hold fast when the wind picks up.
As the world becomes stranger, louder and more polarised, this belief hasn't weakened. It's become stronger. Real change still depends on how people build trust, learn together, and make decisions.
For us, this is a timeless truth.
This video is our articulation of the beliefs we hold dear, and how, in this current climate, these beliefs feel more vital than ever.
Something else we noticed in Brink's early years were the gaps between innovation theory and how people actually behave.
We didn’t know it yet, but we were circling a central idea: innovation only works when it’s human. We call it Behavioural Innovation; a discipline we’ve shaped to combine innovation methods with the stuff that actually drives change - motivation, emotion, habit, trust. Not just for the 'end user', but across the whole ecosystem. Funders, partners, governments... Everyone.
Seven years in, that belief has powered work many thought impossible. We've achieved that through:
> Helping bureaucracies become agile.
> Building teams that experiment with rigour and curiosity.
> Moving systems faster - not by cutting corners, but by deepening connection.
We’re proud to be the team behind accelerating the development of new and innovative oxygen concentrators in low-resource settings, funding critical implementation research to advance foundational learning, and applying innovation methods to test how frontier technologies can address global challenges.
On top of these deep foundations, we're seeing glimmers of what might come next: Opportunities for deeper agency across Africa, a shift toward shared responsibility across public and private sectors, a growing role for the diaspora and faster-moving philanthropy.
These things are signals - not of reinvention but recommitment. To people. To practice. To the hard, human things that have always moved the needle.
That’s why, over the coming weeks, we’ll be hosting a series of conversations with friends, partners and fellow travellers. We’ll reflect on what’s worked, where we’re stuck, and what comes next.
We’re ready. We're sure you are too. So come talk with us.
