SWL Week in Review - Venmo, Sling & Techbro Culture

Sam Lessin's end of week roundup ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­  

More or Less: Techbro Takeover - This week is the last More or Less I will miss for a while. Jess, Dave, and Brit held it down - I heard there was some fight about 'womansplaining' bro-culture, which sounds spicy

Acquired Podcast 'Venmo' Podcast with Kortina: I don't usually listen to podcasts (just make them), but Adam Dinwiddie mentioned over email that the Acquired podcast which covers the history of Venmo was excellent... so I listened -- it was indeed excellent, surprisingly relevant, and full of fond fond memories - highly RX... Most of it is a wild history lesson, there are some really interesting / relevant points about how payments worked then that matter for how crypto stuff works today / the next iteration... and it is also fun to hear Kortina's 2018 talk track on Fin and our approach to the 'assistant' then that everyone is once-again after today. Def worth an hour. It is also just an amazing piece of Kortina performance art - one of the great humans and a wonderful friend.

Some Other Hot Takes:

• Sling is the 'thanksgiving' product of 2024? on the topic of venmo -- another new york friend Mike Hudack very very well may have finally cracked the 'crypto' next evolution with sling... which would be really poetic. Especially egotistically for me, since in different ways I got to be there at the beginning of both in my small way. Looking at the growth moment right now, it could be the product that gets shared virally at family holidays this year (yes in the thanksiving celebrating contry of Kenya according to the app store, but not just Kenya :) / as happens every once in a while in consumer. go Sling!


• What really broke the elite Universities... I was up at Harvard last friday and thinking about this.. Love the school, have learned the details on what is 'broken' with perhaps too much detail / resolution of the last year... but talking to students and leaders, and bubbling all the way up -- I think the root of it all is a classic 'tail wags dog' situation.


• Fund Revenge It is just good business... You need good clean revence, served cold... but the right revenge is very profitable (salesforce, workday, rippling, apple 2.0, all spite stores)


• Institutions are failing because they have terrible access to tallent More holiday weekend 'big think'.... but the other problem of the moment is just who on earth is good and wants to work for institutions -- starts with the presidency (thankless job) but itterates all the way down and out. There are so many better ways to live and have impact...


• AI note-taking apps are gonna make in-person meetings more popular I now use / love granola which is single party consent transcription... i assume everyone else does -- which basically means I just assume I am always being recorded when conversations are over zoom... which does want me to do some meetings in person!

Sam

P.S. I give Warren Buffett a lot of shit as 'overrated' (not hard to be overrated when you are seeded #1 btw)... but his website really is the best website ever... I really am quite envious of it.

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sam lessin | @lessin | want to talk | podcast | stop | to get added to the mailing list email sl@wlessin.com