20VC: Slow Ventures' Sam Lessin on How VC Forces Certain Companies To Exist and Makes It Difficult To Finance Others, Why Cities Won't Let Scooter Companies Be Profitable and Why Dapps Are A Concern and Where Emphasis Should Be Placed In Crypto

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Lessin is a Founding Partner @ Slow Ventures, one of the leading early-stage funds on the West Coast with a portfolio including the likes of Robinhood, Gusto, Pinterest, Casper, Postmates and many more incredible companies. Sam is also the Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Fin Analytics, the startup that provides precision measurement and coaching for high-performance operations teams. Before founding Fin and Slow, Sam spent 4 years at Facebook as a VP of Product Management following their acquisition of his prior company, Drop.io.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Sam made his way into the world of venture with the founding of Slow following the acquisition of his company and 4 years in product at Facebook?

2.) How does Sam think about the difference between investing small personal checks vs managing institutional funds? What is the subsequent effect on mindset when investing? How does one prevent an increased conservatism? What does Sam mean when he says "VC forces some businesses into existence and makes others hard to fund?

3.) Why does Sam believe that man + machine must have a symbiotic relationship in the future? What does this look like in reality? When comparing today to the industrial revolution, is Sam concerned by the increased rate of adoption today? What does this mean for different categories of work? Why does Sam believe we will need more philosophers?

4.) Why does Sam believe that too much emphasis in the world of crypto is placed on Dapps? Why is he concerned by Dapps? What are of crypto does Sam believe is most exciting and investable today? Does Sam agree with Elad Gil that we will see the re-centralisation of talent back to the valley with the scaling of crypto co's?

5.) On governments, why does Sam not believe that both local and national governments will allow scooter companies to become meaningfully profitable in the future? How does Sam think about the balance and trade-off between privacy and security that faces many governments today?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Sam’s Fave Book: Lessons of History

Sam’s Most Recent Investment: Fetcher.ai

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Sam on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We are back and it's my favourite time in the week, release day here at the 20 minute VC with me,
0:04.0	Harry Stebbings. It'd be awesome to see you behind the scenes, where we're cooking up some really
0:07.4	fun projects and so I'd love to see you there on Instagram at H. Stebbings, 1996 with two bees.
0:13.1	But to the episode today, and I love doing the show for many, many reasons.
0:16.6	But building friendships with incredible people who I really respect and admire has to be the
0:20.8	single biggest joy.
0:21.9	And that's the case with our guest today.
0:23.3	I met him over three years ago.
0:25.0	And so I'm thrilled to welcome back to the hot seat, Sam Lesson, founding partner at Slow Ventures.
0:29.7	One of the leading early stage funds on the West Coast, with a portfolio including the
0:33.3	lights of check this out.
0:34.5	Robin Hood, Gusto, Pinterest, Casper, Postmates, and many more incredible
0:39.0	companies. Sam's also the co-founder and co-CEO at Finn Analytics, the startup that provides
0:44.2	precision measurement and coaching for high performance operations teams. And before founding Finn and
0:49.4	Slow, Sam spent four years at Facebook as a VP of product management following their acquisition of
0:54.1	his prior company, Drop.io. I'd also want to say a huge thank you to the wonderful Mr. Manifax. Sam spent four years at Facebook as a VP of product management following their acquisition of his
0:54.2	prior company, drop.io. I'd also want to say huge thank you to the wonderful Mr. Matt Mazio,
0:59.0	who made this intro over three years ago. Matt, you're a hero, and I really do so appreciate that.
1:03.6	But before we dive into the show with Sam today, and we mentioned some incredible companies in the
1:08.0	intro there, and I want to spend a minute to talk about Brex. The first corporate card for startups. Brex founders, Henrique and Pedro, built a payments business
1:15.3	in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
1:19.6	They decided to build Brex. With instant online sign-up, no founder liability required,
	...

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