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 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
Sora ‘Social App’ Initial Reactions …more Truth Social than Instagram...
Posted bySam Lessin
1. TECH — The tech is cool… and I now get why meta put out their generative AI feed a few days ago to beat them to the punch…. The face/voice super-impose and collaboration features are cool. 2. APP — Practically speaking the app is well optimized for consumption (unsurprising) .. but there are a lot of bugs / issues (fixable) and video generation is too slow to be a good...Slow Ventures
The Three Forms of Content Value & How AI Shifts The Economic Balance of Consumption
Posted bySam Lessin
Fundamentally there are three forms of ‘value’ for a piece of content: 1. ~Chemical~ (Dopamine, Serotonin Release) / individually fun to watch 2. ~Social~ (Helps You Connect With Others) // sharable shortcut for human interaction, identity 3. ~Informational~ (Helps You Do Better / Make Better Decisions) // education, real news, etc. #### PRE-INTERNET :: DEEP BUNDLING TV ...Slow Ventures
Price Anchoring - how spending $4K on a VP made me feel OK spending $1K on a microphone, and is going to sell Quest-3s like Hot Cakes…
Posted bySam Lessin
Yesterday I got delivery of a teenage engineering microphone which is absurdly priced. It is very cool / very nice looking, but it is absolutely absurd to pay $1K for a microphone by any objective measure… The thing is tho, that last week I got a face computer from apple which cost just under $4K… so all of a sudden, that $1K absurd microphone actually seems less absurd t...Slow Ventures
The lesson from Adobe / Figma: "strategic value" isn't valuable, you need to build a fully successful business
Posted bySam Lessin
Figma is going to be just fine... so will Adobe... but if there is one lesson from this failed acquisition (as well as what happened with Plaid / Visa earlier), it is this: You have to build a real / full business these days -- building a great product with 'strategic value' to an acquiring platform ins't a viable strategy anymore. People can be upset about th...Slow Ventures
Why I Don’t Personally ‘Like’ LLMs as Tech Even If They Work: Answers Without Understanding.
Posted bySam Lessin
Here is my truth — all business and practically aside, I personally just don’t ‘like’ LLMs as technology / and what they represent about the future of technology (if they represent anything)…. I want to be clear, they are ‘useful’ — probably more than most, I have actually built practical useful things with them, and I agree that there are obvious places where they will re...Slow Ventures