Particularly not before they hire their first salesperson, or any of the other more traditional go-to-market strategies that software companies rely on.

We are publishing one anyway, and I want to say why.

Commenda is named for a contract. In thirteenth-century Venice, the commenda was the legal instrument that made long-distance trade possible—a way for an investor and a traveling merchant to share risk on terms that survived the voyage. It was, in modern language, cross-border compliance infrastructure. It was also a document that built our world.

Commenda is a journal of global commerce.

The history of commerce is the history of the systems that govern it. The double-entry ledger. The joint-stock corporation. The shipping container. None were glamorous when they were built. All of them changed what was possible.

We cover the great economic game of our time — China planning, America improvising, and the rest of the world deciding whether and how to participate. Our view is that the West still has the better answer: rule of law, property rights, the freedom to contract across borders. But the West must win on merit.

Commenda is published for the people building and operating the governance layer of the global economy. They deserve a record of what they are actually doing.

Lex et Libertas.