The $150 Billion Market in Your Pocket: 4 Surprising Lessons on Building a Better Business from the Tri-Sector Model

Modern entrepreneurs and leaders face a persistent challenge: how do you build a business that is both exceptionally profitable and genuinely impactful at scale? It often feels like a choice between doing well and doing good. But the answer may lie in a hidden economic engine that powers our daily lives, one that most of us never even notice.

Most of us experience a "tri-sector day" without a second thought. As entrepreneur Jens Molbak describes it, you might wake up in a private sector hotel, take a shower using water from a public utility, and drink a cup of coffee certified by a nonprofit organization. This seamless integration isn't just a coincidence; it’s evidence of a powerful framework for innovation called the Tri-Sector Model. It challenges us to see the private, public, and social sectors not as separate worlds, but as a unified ecosystem of untapped resources. This post will distill four impactful takeaways from this model, based on Molbak's work, to help you build a stronger, more resilient, and more profitable business.

1. Your Biggest Untapped Resource Isn't New Tech—It's an Old Government Program

Entrepreneurs are conditioned to chase the next disruptive technology. But the most brilliant innovators often look in the opposite direction, finding massive market opportunities hiding in plain sight within existing public sector programs—dormant assets that most businesses overlook or dismiss. The playbook is simple but profound: identify a scaled asset created by the government, then build a for-profit service layer that unlocks its value.

This was the masterclass behind Coinstar. As a business student, Jens Molbak discovered a colossal, underutilized asset created and maintained by the U.S. government: billions of dollars in coins sitting idle on America's dressertops. As he put it, "I found a 150 billion dollar market in my pocket full of pennies." Coinstar was built to mine the inefficiency in this public system, creating a for-profit recycling service that made it easy for consumers to convert dormant coins into cash. By bringing these assets back into circulation, Coinstar not only built a thriving enterprise but also saved the U.S. government millions in minting and distribution costs.

More recently, a company called Propel followed the exact same playbook. They found another massive market hiding inside a federal social safety net program: the $70 billion food stamp (SNAP) system. Propel identified a core user problem—recipients had no easy way to check their card balance—and created a simple app to solve it. In doing so, it unlocked access to a huge user base and valuable data, allowing it to layer on other underutilized government benefits, like a program that doubles the value of SNAP funds at farmers' markets.

This lesson is powerful because government programs represent problems and user bases that have already achieved scale. The common business instinct is to avoid the public sector, but for the savvy innovator, these established systems are fertile ground for building a better business.

This model of finding value in unexpected places only works, however, if the "impact" is baked into the business itself—not bolted on as an afterthought.

2. Stop Thinking 'Charity.' Start Thinking 'Core Business.'

The Tri-Sector Model is not a new name for corporate social responsibility (CSR). While CSR often treats impact as a separate, "nice-to-do" activity that creates a drag on profits, this model embeds positive societal outcomes directly into the core, profit-driving engine of the business. It’s not about donations; it’s about designing a business where impact creates lift.

As Molbak explains, this is a fundamental distinction about the source of value:

"We're really talking about your core business—the things that help you grow, scale, be more profitable, and create a bigger, stronger business. The point is you get to do that because you actually embed impact into the core model. It's not sitting off on the side as something that's nice to do; it's actually fundamental to the value of the business."

The key to making this work is the principle of aligned self-interest. A perfect example is the partnership between Coinstar and UNICEF. UNICEF's trick-or-treat fundraising program was inefficient; processing thousands of small donation boxes was a logistical nightmare. Coinstar offered a simple solution: kids could pour their coins into a machine, and the funds would be wired directly to UNICEF.

This was a huge win for UNICEF, which gained a far more efficient fundraising method (its self-interest). It was also a huge win for Coinstar, which received free advertising, promotion, and new users for its machines (its self-interest). Unlike traditional philanthropy, which is a one-way street, this alignment creates a self-sustaining, scalable system where impact-driven activities also drive customer acquisition and revenue.

This powerful alignment isn't built from thin air. It requires a fundamental shift in how you view the world's resources—not as things you must create, but as components you can assemble.

3. Society Is a Giant Box of Legos (And We Only Use a Few)

Jens Molbak offers a brilliant analogy for this new innovation mindset: imagine society has three giant "buckets of Legos," representing all the assets ever built by the private, public, and social sectors. These "Legos" are everything from databases and infrastructure to physical assets, established programs, and trusted relationships.

The core idea of tri-sector innovation is to repurpose, don't rebuild. Instead of trying to build everything from scratch, the smartest innovators find existing Legos from all three buckets and assemble them in new and valuable ways. Why build a new distribution network when a government agency already has one? Why create a new user database when a nonprofit has already collected the information you need?

This isn't just a handful of spare parts; Molbak identifies a staggering $1.7 quadrillion on the global balance sheet—a virtually infinite pool of economic leverage waiting for a clever assembler.

This redefines the entrepreneur's primary role: you are no longer a creator of assets, but a brilliant assembler of them. Your competitive advantage lies not in what you build, but in what you see.

This assembler's mindset doesn't just make you faster and more capital-efficient; it allows you to build something truly defensible. When you build with Legos from all three sectors, you create a competitive advantage that is nearly impossible to copy.

4. The Ultimate Competitive Advantage Is a Model No One Else Can Copy

In a crowded market, the most durable competitive advantage isn't a single product or feature—it's a business model that is fundamentally difficult for others to replicate. The Tri-Sector Model is a blueprint for creating exactly that.

Consider Propel again. How would a purely for-profit tech competitor challenge them? They could build a similar app, but they could never match Propel's full value proposition. Propel's moat isn't its technology; it's the unique combination of public, private, and social sector Lego bricks it has assembled. It offers users not just a core service but also seamless access to government benefits and connections to social service organizations.

A traditional tech company cannot easily replicate this ecosystem. It lacks the trust, relationships, and fundamental alignment with public and social sector resources. This deep integration creates a powerful competitive moat built on holistic value and profound user trust. As Molbak states, the model itself becomes the ultimate strategic advantage:

"Try to compete against Propel if you're not using a tri-sector model. This is actually a better way to do it."

By weaving together the unique strengths and assets of all three sectors, a business can create a system where each part reinforces the others. This leads to superior outcomes, deeper customer loyalty, and a resilient organization that competitors simply cannot touch.

Conclusion: Your Turn to Be a Tri-Sector Innovator

The four lessons from the Tri-Sector Model point to a single, powerful conclusion: a new mindset—one that sees the private, public, and social sectors as collaborative partners in a shared ecosystem—unlocks a new paradigm for innovation and growth. Your next big opportunity might not come from a new invention, but from a new connection.

The resources to solve our biggest problems and build our most powerful businesses often already exist, waiting to be assembled in a new way. The only question is who will be clever enough to see them.

What untapped assets are hiding in your community's "Lego buckets," and what could you build if you started connecting them?

More about the Tri-Sector Model

More details on www.newimpact.care