When entrepreneurs launch start-ups, should they be thinking politically? Should “policy risk” shape their core products and strategies?

Yes, they should – at least according to Dan Rosenthal, a senior staffer in the first Clinton administration and now a Principal at the global consultancy firm Albright Stonebridge Group.

Entrepreneurs need to think about local regulations and policy landscape, Rosenthal insists. What he calls the “Utopian” view of the Internet as a single market has now, he reminds us, been replaced the splintered realities of our contemporary world.

And “disruption” – while viewed positively in Silicon Valley – implies “disturbance” to many people outside the tech community.

It’s a timely message, of course, especially given the news from Europe over the last few weeks. And as Rosenthal implies, politicians are likely to shape innovation more and more as technology radically reshapes traditionally regulated industries like healthcare, energy and education.

As always, many thanks to CALinnovates for their help in the production of this interview.