More or Less: The Meta vs. Apple Open Closed Debate (AI edition) && Is Mister Beast Buzzfeed 2.0? — two topics this week… the first discussion was on the heel’s of zuck’s live chat in the chase center about the 20 year vision of meta & open vs. closed AI… the second is an update on creators / how it is increasingly looking like Mr. Beast is on a Buzzfeed 2.0 trajectory (hack algorithmic distribution, build large audience… raise a ton of money on the theme and growth, but find out that big large low LTV audiences aren’t worth much)… also some other fun gems where we go into Bill Gurley's palm pilot spamming origin story, … why jess’s reporter kept calling his gatehouse to get uber news, and more.
Some other podcasts on the week:
With Michael Eisenberg — I did an episode with Michael on a range of topics including telegram, state of tech, poking the ‘asset managers’ pretending to be VCs, etc. https://bit.ly/3AVlOIa
On OK Computer — In particular about the trajectory of social media (why there will never be another Facebook) …. Short answer, your friends were more entertaining than people magazine — but they aren’t more entertaining than professional friends, who aren’t more entertaining than americas funnies home videos (tiktok), which may or may not be more entertaining than your personal AI … so ‘social’ is now about trust and community, not entertainment Sam Lessin on Gen AI, Social Media & Entrepreneurship
Some Hot Takes:
- Is Google Really Gonna Miss the AI Swerve? I was shocked when I asked google what time the debate was to be swamped with SEO/AI enhanced spam and no answer — apparently so were a ton of people on twitter (my most viral post ever?) — everyone is complaining and pointing to perplexity… which I don’t buy because they have no business model — but clearly people went to google originally for the FASTEST way to navigate and get information, and they are right now very obviously missing in the product the AI shift despite having all the technical know-how and tools to nail it. Business model corners are a bitch.
- Mr. Beast is Buzzfeed 2.0 — This one also seemed to have some resonance … at least among the literati if not the mass world… business insider (my second favorite publication) turned it into an SEO article for them :) … Unsurprisingly, I think my hot take here is right — Yes…. And btw from calls with founders, the era of the Karsashians / head generic social media seems to be coming to a rapid close as well (as predicted)
- Evaluate seed funds based on their ‘funnel of ways to make money’ as the funds age NOT based on marks — marks in seed VC are stupid, they are not at all correlated with actual value … but I think the right way to evaluate seed funds until there is real DPI is # of ways they have to really deeply return. & how that funnel evolves
- NAS summit… imprssive — I am really really impressed with nuseir yassin .. creator of this — Israeli-Palestinian, Harvard, Venmo, and then followed the pattern of one of my favorite people casey neistat - made a ton of videos, and built a huge social media ‘creator’ following — went to his conference in SF with thousands of small creators and it was really inspiring … many notes, but most pithy — the number of LinkedIn creators is HUGE — this is a real thing.
- Raw Dogging Zuck at the Chase Center— who knew I would ever listen to a podcast not at 2x?? with respect for the organizers and early speakers, the warm up content was really boring — I get you couldn’t just do a live event with an hour of mark (I mostly listened to the presidential debate on earbuds) —…. Mark was really fun tho… I have had the privilege of spending a lot of time with him over the years, and it has always struck me the difference in vibe between mark in private and public perception — this event / his authenticity and JOY / excitement (and competitive fun spirit) was the closest I have seen to mark in front of thousands of people being the same as mark in private… and it is inspiring.... and great view from the cheap seats :)
Best,
Sam
Onlyfans — I continue to marvel at what an amazing business it really is.
Poking Bears — had a bit of fun this week poking a few bears… why does everyone respect Bill Gurleyy? And the palm pilot origin story…. And you gotta love Garry Tan claiming that ‘5-10% of YC startups are ‘worth a billion dollars’(defiantly not true, even by their own very inflated website PR listed stats)… and then his non-sequitur response to my question about soho house? :)
Aleo -- get psyched for my lick the cookie victory lap on being the first committed seed check on this next week - maybe next time I will have the balls to not wait for Olaf to price... :)
sam lessin | @lessin | want to talk | podcast | stop