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
Is Raging 2022 Inflation a Result o Post-Covid ‘Wealth is Random’ Consumer Psychology?
Posted bySam Lessin
At the most simplistic level, inflation keeps raging because prices go up, wealth goes down, and yet people keep buying stuff (and hiring people)…. Why? > Here is my question — how much of this just comes down to post-covid consumer psychology? MY THEORY: Consumers are in a post covid ‘fuck it, it is all random’ moment about life and wealth after covid & it makes co...Slow Ventures
You should be skeptical of internet hippies boosting generative-ai-blockchain-metaverse-on-demand-self-driving companies…
Posted bySam Lessin
The era from around 2005 - 2015 was a deeply magical / amazing time to work in technology. While the world writ large suffered from the financial crisis, etc. tech enjoyed an amazing wave ‘double up’ first with the social web / Web 2.0 and then with mobile. Through this whole period a generation of young technologists (which I was lucky enough to be a part of) grew up feel...Slow Ventures
Local Languages as a form of Tech Protectionism
Posted bySam Lessin
I just had a really interesting conversation about Brazil -- and the challenge that basically not only are they behind in the tech talent they need for their own market, but that the US companies come in and scoop up tech talent as well and win both on labor cost arb and just paying in USD... Known Problem (for the country). The interesting part though was talking about ho...Slow Ventures
Are Elon's 'Co Investors' On the Hook?
Posted bySam Lessin
One thing I would love commentary on - Elon is on the hook (phew, rule of law prevails)... but what about people who signed up to co-invest? Twitter at $44B is just an absurd price in Oct 2022, so I would assume everyone possible backs out and Elon needs to fund even more?Slow Ventures
When to Finance People as Individuals vs. Their Businesses / Traditional VC
Posted bySam Lessin
For a while now Slow Ventures have been spending time investing directly in individuals as part of what we do - the deal tends to look (generally) like we will invest $1M no-strings-attached in return for 5% of what a person creates over 30 years…. we do this because (a) there are lots of new formats of ‘business’ that are really good but very hard to traditionally finance, ...Slow Ventures