Sam Lessin
GP Slow Ventures. Intern The Information
Subscriber since 2013
About
Sam is currently an intern at The Information and a General Partner at Slow Ventures. He has co-founded two companies, Fin and drop.io (acquired by Facebook in 2010). Between 2010 and 2014 he was a VP of product management at Facebook, where he managed the People, Places, and Things product group and the Identity product group. Sam started his career at Bain and Company, and attended Harvard ('05). In his spare time Sam enjoys skiing and kite-surfing. He is married to Jessica Lessin, founder of The Information.
Open to
Looking to invest in startups / private companies
I have been an early investor in many notable companies and projects including (solana, venmo, birchbox, makerbot, teamshares, tonkean, blockdaemon, airtable, etc.) At slow we look to back ideally things that are a bit crazy but important.
Looking to hire team members
TI is very much looking for engineers, product, design folks. Slow doesn't really have many opportunities but always open to hearing from folks.
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StartupsGoogleAmazonAppleNetflixVenture CapitalVcSemiconductorsCryptocurrencyCloudAsiaAndreessen HorowitzAirbnbEntertainmentElon MuskFacebookMark ZuckerbergSequoia CapitalSingapore Economic Development BoardEnterpriseSilicon Valley Bank (SVB)PolicyUber/LyftAmazon Web ServicesAIAutonomous VehiclesCryptoVenture-CapitalOpenAIBainE CommerceModest ProposalsFTXSvbMeta PlatformsMedia/TelecomSBFVenture CapitalStartupsSaasIdentityBitcoinLawCryptocurrencyHuman CapitalMarketsCrazy PeopleSkills
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Weekend
Favorite Vacation Spot
British ColumbiaHawaiiCape CodJackson Hole
Favorite Sports to Play
TennisSkiingSurfingFoilingKitesurfing
Favorite Sports to Watch
Mma
Favorite Books
The HobbitThe Biggest BluffSnowcrashDuneThe Hero With A Thousand FacesBusiness AdventuresThe Three Body Problem
Favorite TV Shows / Movies
Game Of ThronesCasino RoyaleCurb Your EnthusiasmIt's Always Sunny In PhiladelphiaFor All MankindLetterkennySuccessionCaddyshackBlazing SaddlesZoolander
Forum Posts
Modern ‘Social Apps’ look more and more like consumable fashion vs. enduring networks…. It isn’t just downloads, engagement alone is no longer enough.
Posted bySam Lessin
Poparazzi is shutting down and went from 4M MAU to 2K MAU in months…. Clubhouse is a ghost town, BeReal when nuclear and then fizzled. If you haven’t noticed, the story about modern social is that if you have a nice mechanic you can grow faster and bigger than ever before — but ultimately unless you do something very very very special, that growth and engagement is fleeti...Slow Ventures
Risk of Growth Hacking ‘Bridges to Nowhere’, with the creator economy, for the 3rd time…
Posted bySam Lessin
From Viral Growth Hacking 1.0, Social ‘Commerce’ 2.0, and Social ‘Influence’ Building 3.0… bridges are great, but make sure they are going somewhere worthwhile… We have been through at this point three ‘eras’ of digital growth hacking. 1. The first pioneering era was the ‘viral’ digital era. It started with ‘SEO’ and social optimization, notifications, email and conta...Slow Ventures
“Money is for interacting with people you don’t know”
Posted bySam Lessin
My ‘older’ kids (6 and 4) have recently been very interested in money… they have a few dollars from minor chores and gifts, and are constantly asking about what they can do with the money - where they can take it to school? Can they give it to another kid? To a teacher?- and when it is acceptable to trade or not (usually for fruit rollup cards at the moment)…. Is the amazo...Slow Ventures
Why people love ‘bicycles for the mind’ but fear ‘ai’: the ‘Single Player’ vs. ‘Multi-Player’ tech conundrum
Posted bySam Lessin
Steve Job’s 1981 analogy that the PC was a ‘bicycle for the mind’ is perhaps the best known, and best loved, pro-tech metaphor in Silicon Valley history. What walking stiff if offered wouldn’t want a new shiny bike of their very own? … oh the places you will go! Contrast that with the reality of tech in 2023… Today’s tech narrative isn’t a question of ‘do you want a bi...Slow Ventures
To Regulate AI, Focus on Controlling Access to Data - not Compute.. it isn't that hard.
Posted bySam Lessin
As the power of next generation AI tools has become more and more obvious and immediate, leading voices have begun to rightly call for regulation. The question shouldn’t be if AI should be regulated, the question is only how to approach the problem and if regulators can get their act together on an esoteric topic fast enough to make a difference. There are broadly two pat...Slow Ventures