Aaron Bare
Aaron Bare is the co-founder and Chief Architect of The Incentives Lab and the creator of Incentive Intelligence™ — the discipline of diagnosing and redesigning the incentives that shape how people, teams, markets, and machines behave.
A strategist who became an architect — and an architect who built a discipline.
Aaron Bare is a strategist, facilitator, and author who spent two decades inside 500+ companies across 100+ countries. He built the III framework after seeing the same pattern: smart strategy fails when the incentives around it are weak.
He is an X-Prize winner and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Exponential Theory, whose new book, Magnetic Zero; The search for the Perfect Philosophy, extends the work: connecting exponential thinking with the practical incentives that determine whether ideas actually get executed.
As Co-Founder and Chief Architect of The Incentives Lab, Aaron codifies Incentive Intelligence™ into diagnostic, design, and simulation tools that help leaders redesign the systems behind behavior.
From facilitating Global 100 strategy rooms to architecting Incentive Intelligence™.
- Early careerStrategist and operator across emerging industries
Built and led ventures in technology, media, and consumer markets — learning at the operator level how incentives quietly determine which strategies actually get executed.
- 20+ yrsStrategic facilitator across 500+ companies
Designed and led strategy sessions inside more than 500 organizations — from venture-backed startups to Global 100 enterprises across 100+ countries and all 50 states.
- X-PrizeX-Prize winner and exponential-thinking instigator
Won the X-Prize for moonshot strategy work, and went on to teach exponential thinking and incentive design to founders, executives, and public leaders worldwide.
- AuthorSix books, including the WSJ bestseller Exponential Theory
Author of Reimagining Innovation and the WSJ bestseller Exponential Theory, with the new book Magnetic Zero; The search for the Perfect Philosophy and the forthcoming Perverse Incentives (2027) mapping the same arc: think bigger, build better, design the incentives.
- DisciplineCreated Incentive Intelligence™ and the III framework
Codified the practice of diagnosing and redesigning the incentives that shape how people, teams, markets, and machines behave — now the operating discipline of The Incentives Lab.
- ConvenerConvened the Consortium and the executive course
Brought together economists, neuroscientists, governors, and operators into a working Consortium, and built the executive course that turns Incentive Intelligence into an applied practice.
- TodayCo-Founder of The Incentives Lab
Co-founder and Chief Architect — leads the Lab's diagnostic, design, and simulation tools, and works directly with boards, CEOs, and public leaders on the incentive systems behind their hardest decisions.
Where Aaron's work shows up in the Lab.
Bring Incentive Intelligence to your institution.
Whether you lead a company, a board, or a public agency, the outcomes you get are downstream of the incentives you've designed. Engage the Lab to diagnose, redesign, and operate the systems behind them.