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.
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
Silicon Valley Startup Culture & Startup Infrastructure is Designed for 20 Year Olds…, Not 40 Year Olds
Posted bySam Lessin
As I approach 40 I have been thinking a lot about age and how it affects your view of the world in general, and how people spend their time in particular. People fall over themselves to not be ‘ageist’ and talk about how silicon valley is open to all, but I think the reality of the matter is that while older people ARE statistically more likely to found successful compani...Slow Ventures
Bloomberg terminal is the best monetized messenger platform in the world (except maybe apple)
Posted bySam Lessin
Chatting with a friend today about information businesses, I was reminded of a very important point that I think far too few people appreciate: The Bloomberg Terminal is not a information business! Nothing they have at this point is proprietary information you can’t get elsewhere… Sure, it bootstrapped with some good information feeds back in the day - but they haven’t had...Slow Ventures
Consumer Startups Are Pivoting to Subscriptions, And It Actually Works…
Posted bySam Lessin
A bunch of young consumer startups I pay attention to have done something interesting recently… they have all pivoted to subscriptions — and it all seems to work to get them ‘ramin cashflow positive’ / alive and playing the game — IMHO this is super healthy. Context is obviously that unless you have an absolute breakout ‘moment’ consumer seed is just plain dead right now… t...Slow Ventures
Figuring out who your audience on ‘threads’, so you can figure out what voice / content resonates…
Posted bySam Lessin
In week 2 of threads, and I am pretty optimistic it is going to be great, but the biggest challenge I am having is figuring out who the audience is and what they want / what I should be posting. This is a challenging thing to feel out, especially at warp speed, especially with the dual complexities of (a) a new audience inherited from IG and (b) an algorithm which doesn’t c...Slow Ventures
How AI & Copyright Gets Resolved…
Posted bySam Lessin
I am enjoying watching these lawsuits fly from people like Sarah Silverman…. They aren’t wrong to push - let me tell you how this is all going to end: 1. Ultimately liability / nexus for infringing on copyright will by default be with the ‘user’ of the LLM not the LLM platforms themselves. Companies are really good at shifting risk away from themselves and on to their user...Slow Ventures