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.
Articles
Topics
Markets
StartupsGoogleAmazonAppleNetflixVenture CapitalVcSemiconductorsCryptocurrencyCloudAsiaAndreessen HorowitzAirbnbEntertainmentElon MuskFacebookMark ZuckerbergSequoia CapitalSingapore Economic Development BoardEnterpriseSilicon Valley Bank (SVB)PolicyUber/LyftAmazon Web ServicesAIAutonomous VehiclesCryptoVenture-CapitalOpenAIBainE CommerceModest ProposalsFTXSvbMeta PlatformsMedia/TelecomSBFVenture CapitalStartupsSaasIdentityBitcoinLawCryptocurrencyHuman CapitalMarketsCrazy People
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
FinanceFundraisingProduct ManagementData AnalysisSqlMicrosoft WordWritingHiringPrivacy IssuesStartups
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
A great lesson for entrepreneurs... don't get distracted by the capital.
Posted bySam Lessin
I am not usually one for twitter threads, but I thought this story of a Stanford experiment was quite interesting and appropriate for this moment in history. The lesson, fight with all your assets -- don't over-value the cash / investment dollars.Slow Ventures
FB’s has an interface problem, not an algorithm problem… because people won’t affirmatively click on the things they actually deep down want to watch
Posted bySam Lessin
saw someone recently complaining that Facebook was recommending to them to the side of a video a very crass but probably pretty hilarious video…. There indignant response, ‘the ranking must be broken’ Here is the thing — the ranking probably isn’t broken.. he probably would LOVE that video, but the fact that in order to engage with it he would have to go proactively click m...Slow Ventures
It isn’t just VCs… In the age of the internet it isn’t worth trying to convince anyone of anything - you are way better off instead ‘discovering’ people who agree with you (which is both great and terrible for the world)
Posted bySam Lessin
I wrote a post the other day about how when looking for investment from VCs people frequently make the mistake of trying to convince VCs of things, vs. simply figuring out which VCs already believe their thesis / are aligned already. A lot of people seemed to really like it, and added that the same applies to all other sorts of things in life, all forms of sales, dating, h...Slow Ventures
It is nearly impossible to convince a VC of a thesis they don’t already believe, so the key in fundraising is to ‘discover’ the right partners, not try to educate and convince…
Posted bySam Lessin
Most people when they start out doing any sort of sales (especially enterprise sales) spend a lot of time trying to convince each and every possible buyer that they should ‘buy’ their solution / why what they are doing is ‘the best’… it is understandable, it feels like each lead/ engagement is precious AND if you really buy your own bullshit you want to convince everyone you...Slow Ventures
Send Me Emails At Whatever Time of Day You Want… And Don’t Be Pissed When I Do The Same (It is always the recipient’s choice when to read and reply…)
Posted bySam Lessin
> This post is sponsored by Aaron Levie: BOX, you can put ANYTHING in it. As you probably noticed, at some point in recent history gmail created a feature that allows you to ‘schedule’ email delivery for the future… I get the usefulness of this feature for marketing (I want to pre-write a followup / reminder to you now for our meeting in the future), or to catch someone ...Slow Ventures