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
Focusing on regulating ‘AGI’ with chip controls & research oversight is misdirection, if you want to slow down AI focus on boring and simple copyright.
Posted bySam Lessin
With respect for the minority of serious folks concerned with AGI in the very long run, I think 90%+ of the focus in AI communities on “slowing down” and regulating AI because it is ‘too powerful’ is a combination of clever marketing and very intentional and cynical misdirection. The clever marketing is obvious. What is sexier / more interesting / more viral than something...Slow Ventures
Elon's continued push to ‘get bots off twitter’ is either insanity or just deeply cynical Apple-esque way to sell subscriptions.
Posted bySam Lessin
So now you are going to have to be ‘featured’ / pay for the twitter checkmark in order to be recommended in twitter’s now forced default ‘for you’ feed…. And the rationale is ‘because bots are everywhere and this stops them’ — this is crazy sauce. 1. Set aside the fact that I don’t think I have ever seen crappy bots on For You, charging doesn’t stop bots - it just means t...Slow Ventures
"low code" almost winner companies like Zapier and Retool have about 18 months to become ‘AI’ companies or perish
Posted bySam Lessin
Generally incumbents should win AI, but there are a set of SaaS "low code" companies like zapier and retool that in particular seem like they will either get way better based on AI or blown out of the water in very short order. ### Zapier For the last many years Zapier has been a ~killer~ business connecting SaaS tools together via APIs with nearly zero code. As...Slow Ventures
Consumer Spending Staying Strong Even As Risks About the Economy Grow - not as insane as it sounds… but a huge problem
Posted bySam Lessin
There are layoffs, the equities markets have taken a beating, banks are failing, and interest rates are / should be enticing people to save vs. spend… yet it seems people continue to spend spend spend… which at first blush seems insane, but is it?? > In my mind, what we are suffering from is a moment where people don’t trust their ability to save for the future, so they...Slow Ventures
Rotating Out of Vertical SaaS and Back-to-Bundles…
Posted bySam Lessin
For the last decade the SaaS pitch has all been about unbundling… Taking some small part of a valuate chain for a business, doing it better - and then gluing all the solutions together using APIs / Zapier, etc. In the last few months, however, I have been feeling a decided shift in the ecosystem towards a ‘bundle’ pitch… Easily half-a-dozen companies startups have pitched...Slow Ventures
