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
Tech "Disruption" is Over ... Even As Tech Innovation Continues.
Posted bySam Lessin
The narrative of silicon valley for many many years (since the beginning) is that tech creates "waves of disruption" that washes out incumbents and creates new opportunities and techno empires. This isn't an incidental relationship - this thesis is at the heart of Silicon Valley’s culture and economy — ~Tech = Disruption~ is what fuels money into Venture Capi...Slow Ventures
I think a TikTok ban actually is possible now (vs a year ago)
Posted bySam Lessin
here is my thesis - a year ago banning TitTok in the US would have had massive consumer (kid) backlash because the content was great and unique / now that TitTok, Reels, and Youtube shorts are all basically the same product it is kinda a big *meh* seems far more possible a ban will actually happen... creators on tiktok is too small a group to stop anything, their only hope i...Slow Ventures
You should be excited to work past midnight every once in a while, … If you aren’t - you aren’t doing the right thing / have the wrong job.
Posted bySam Lessin
*I made some snide internet remark about this twitter dude sleeping in his perfectly made office-bed yesterday and was surprised by the reaction. Half of people seemed to think it was horrible that anyone would ever sleep in the office / exploitative and ‘unnecessary’…. The other half (which includes me) just thinks its funny he had a full bed with clean sheets when sleepin...Slow Ventures
Understanding Sam Altman’s OpenAI + Worldcoin Mashup -- “I will Destroy Your Identity… in Order To Fix it By Scanning Your Iris :)”
Posted bySam Lessin
I don’t know Sam Altman well, but my sense is that - like me - he is probably a technological determinist… who believes that you really can’t stop technological inevitabilities (like AI), so the most you can do is see where the train is running - and nudge it ever so slightly in the direction you want (just a tad). Which is how you can understand / interpret his role in ...Slow Ventures
Snapchat has its social GPT/AI play wrong; you wont want to chat with a single social AI ... but what you do want tho is tons of AIs commenting on your posts.
Posted bySam Lessin
‘Snap’ announced today that they will have some AI character in chat you can message with backed by a sanitized GPT-3 of some sorts… kinda like replika, or some basic version of ‘Samantha’ from the movie her. I get it… the sci-fi storyline that people will want to build ‘relationships’ with LLMs / think of them as their friends & even lovers runs deep … all the way back...Slow Ventures