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Key Takeaways Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions prioritize impact, equity and public trust.
If entrepreneurs want to work with the public sector (and they should), they need to adjust their lens, which means seeing beyond short-term wins and looking toward long-term impact.
They must stop pitching purely in business terms and start connecting to public outcomes. They must ask better questions, show up differently and build relationships as contributors to something larger than themselves.
We often talk about markets, innovation and disruption when we talk about entrepreneurship — but we rarely talk about government. The public sector is usually seen as slow, bureaucratic and risk-averse. For many entrepreneurs, it’s not even on the radar as a potential space to work in.
But that’s a mistake. Not because government is easy to work with — it isn’t — but because it operates with a completely different mindset, and when entrepreneurs understand that mindset, a whole new set of opportunities can open up.
Understanding the difference in purpose
Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact — especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn’t measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn’t mean budgets and spending don’t matter — they absolutely do — but money is not the goal. It’s the tool.
This difference in purpose leads to a difference in how performance is measured. In the private sector, the big question is “Are we making money?” In the public sector, the question is closer to “Are we making a difference?” And that difference might not show up in a financial report. It might be an increase in access to clean water, a drop in unemployment or simply delivering basic services fairly and reliably across a community. These are outcomes you can’t always capture in numbers, especially not in the short term.
What often gets misunderstood is that the public sector isn’t just focused on outcomes — it’s also focused on fairness. Efficiency matters, but not at the cost of equity. If a service is fast and cheap but only works well for part of the population, that’s a failure. Governments have to think about the whole population, not just the easiest to serve or the most profitable. That’s one reason public projects take longer, cost more or involve more regulations. They’re designed to avoid shortcuts that might leave people behind.
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