Sam Lessin

GP Slow Ventures. Intern The Information
Intern
.
Slow Ventures
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.
Skills
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
AN AI company I would actually back: chrome plugin to read and redline website Terms of Service agreements
Posted bySam Lessin
Slow Ventures
Did a fun podcast with Erik Torenberg and Seth Rosenberg on AI startups — Seth’s optimism and my pessimism — coming out soon, but here was the idea I came up with that I would actually back as an AI startup (an easy one) and lots of LOLs. How it works: 1. Build a chrome plugin that grabs all the terms of service you are agreeing to in clickthroughs as you roam around the w...
#modest proposals
2Comments
The Instacart IPO. Three Considerations
Posted bySam Lessin
Slow Ventures
Congrats to Fidji and the Instacart team for getting out there… long time coming. Here are the three things that are on my mind: 1 - Are IPOs a joyous culmination or just a stop on the road? When times are hot they are framed as ‘culminations’ when the early people get rich, the late get tipped and the investors get ‘out’ their capital having done its job. When times are...
#modest proposals
0Comments
CAPITAL efficiency MUST be true north for seed investors
Posted bySam Lessin
Slow Ventures
The industrial model of venture capital that has was built up over the last 15 years, and torn down in the last 3 I think let seed investors be very very lazy about what actually matters the most to them - capital efficiency. If you are an angel or seed investor - you must must get serious about capital efficiency now, if not last year. Why? Well, if you are in the early...
#modest proposals
1Comment
More or Less Episode 11 Takeaways: Boiling Frogs, Ski Jacket Money, Tenured VCs, Slow Services, and Otter Story Time
Posted bySam Lessin
Slow Ventures
Another fun more or less this week with Jess, Dave, and Brit. Here are some of my favorite moments from the conversation: 1 - Boiling the frog: Lots of the big scary boogymen of tech, especially around state control - happen because each mini-step forward actually is super great / feels awesome as a service… it just adds up in practice to a place you don’t like — shoutout...
#modest proposals
0Comments
VCs are the ‘tenured professors’ of the startup world… and just like professors, they can use that status well or very very poorly — especially if they are young.
Posted bySam Lessin
Slow Ventures
I think the best way to think about the VC job is that it is the tenure equivalent of the startup world…. this has plusses and minuses - especially for ‘young’ VCs. The Tenured Class Just like tenured professors, you weirdly get paid no matter what… if you don’t do anything for a week, or more, no one notices or really cares. You really can’t be fired within a fund cycle....
#modest proposals
4Comments