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
Growing up has always been about stopping trying to please everyone, the internet supercharges this
Posted bySam Lessin
One thing I have noticed in many peers as we approach middle age — people just really have completely stopped trying to please everyone, and instead focus on what they and their chosen community value. As you get older, more secure in who you are, and your place in the world — most people (or maybe I am just noticing the patterns in a bunch of over-achieving first borns in ...Slow Ventures
So who *should* get admitted to ‘top’ universities?
Posted bySam Lessin
If you hadn’t noticed (or been reading the NYT) … the affirmative action decision by the Supreme Court has lead to a clap back on legacy, donors, athletes, and the like — who could have possibly seen that coming !? The irony of all this attention and focus is several fold: (a) these issues statically impact almost no-one (there is a good graphic also from the NYT on the v...Slow Ventures
The 2 Reasons Price Discipline Really Matters in Seed Investing
Posted bySam Lessin
There are two reasons that I care about the price of seed deals. (1) The first is obvious, it dramatically impacts your ‘take’ when you are right if you are a real seed investor…. THE ABSOLUTE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN AS AN INVESTOR ISN’T BEING WRONG, IT IS BEING RIGHT AND NOT GETTING PAID! Being wrong is fine / that happens - but you must must must be paid when yo...Slow Ventures
It is healthy for Wall Street and ‘Tech’ to be at odds, not reinforcing each other.
Posted bySam Lessin
I saw the other day a love letter from Goldman Sachs to ‘AI’ — talking about their model for massive impact to the positive on GPD broadly, how it would make big company earnings rip — and how there would be a flurry of exciting startups and IPOs. My reaction was… uh oh. If there is one lesson I think we should have learned at this point, it is when Wall Street is hyping ...Slow Ventures
Seed investing can’t turn back on unless the public market changes how it values ‘run of the mill’ tech companies. And that ain’t happening.
Posted bySam Lessin
About 15 months ago I wrote a post on how seed investing was pretty clearly going to be in an 18 month timeout … that the capital ‘factory’ line would be shutdown until the inventory of dramatically over-marked late-stage private deals got worked through / washed out / expired on the line. This is basically how the world has looked for the last almost year-and-a-half with t...Slow Ventures
