More or Less: Meta Connect Victory Laps and Special Pool House Guest Dan Feder Michigan Director of Investments — We talk Meta Connect and glasses (this is all very embarrassing for apple isn’t it!) … and did a little short-medium-long term meta victory dance (AI makes the money now, VR and rayband medium term-hardware, Orion long-term can-has-win) …. Dan takes us through thinking about venture from the institutional LP world (and why my obsession with DPI isn’t exactly right) — Dave and brit wax poetic on their love of Japan, and I obviously take the under.
Some Hot Takes:
- The SaaS Era is Over ; Software is a Business Tool not a Business Model This got a lot of people steaming on the internet … but it was kinda my take on the direction we have been heading at slow for a few years now… after talking to a bunch of our LPs this week feeling a bit spicy on our takes.
- CNBC Meta fun did 2 segments on CNBC during the meta connect thing — as they kept pointing out ‘when was the last time we covered a Facebook launch live…. My favorite part was the t-up they gave me to jeer at the Vision Pro (which has to be the most expensive device-per-miniute-of-consumer-use… literally in history) — it makes G650s look downright cost effective.
- Why are all the LPs at YC?. it seems like a bunch of institutional LPs showed up for YC demo day this week in SF… kinda surprising… isn’t that what you pay your GPs to waste their time doing? Is this just a boondoggle opportunity? …. or do you want to witness the AI money lighting fire party first hand for yourself? :)
- Rudy god - what an awesome movie. I watched it last Sunday on a long long training run, and I realize - that is the America I love and miss…. I wish Hollywood was still in a position to provide that collective cultural platform / narrative vs. the splintered self-hating anti-western crap of the last decade … after Rudy on the next long treadmill run I went to Good Will Hunting — also 100% the right American message.
- Trapping vs. Hunting … I have been thinking about this a lot - macho VCs love hunting analogies all about ‘bullets’ and ‘shot selection’ etc.. but I actually think the successful strategy for investors / especially seed investors … is less big game hunting and more ‘trapping’ / ‘net fishing’ —
- “Speak to me like a small child, or a golden retriever” we quote this line all the time from margin call… if you can’t explain it the way a golden retriever would understand, it probably isn’t gonna work.
- Stan Armies of Yes Men not a Girlfriend — I came back to this thesis from 18+ months ago on a call with a founder… the point of AI in social is going to be to give to everyone what Elon has today — a huge army of bots / NPCs who like what you say and tell you how great you are on social media… this is a way more likely direction and outcome than Samantha from Her.
- All the real world friction on college campuses honestly makes sense --I don't love it, but I get it... The social-economics of frictionless digital spaces vs. traditional high-friction physical spaces operate completely differently; which is why the issues on college campuses are just so predictable.. we need to acknowledge it and teach the kids to be multi-social-lingual.
Sam
Sriracha the Movie isn’t quite ‘cannon of western civilization’ important.. but what a great story about real American entrepreneurship…. Huy Fong Foods, Inc. founded by a refugee does $150M+ in sales now, still zero marketing…
Mile Repeats… & Dexa-Scan-Dating — prepping for December marathon… ran my first mile repeats at a track in probably 20 years… those suck. Did a dexa-scan… seems inevitable that dexa- will become a dating app where you match people by their bone density and where they store their body fat... all it is is strava dating on steroids.
Lick-the-Cookie-Victory-Laps-On-Crypto-Seeds - Solana $160 (our entry $0.04… Aleo up 15% to $4.95 (our entry $0.02... don’t pay any attention to the float… just look at the headline price thx.)
SWL
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