This post was inspired by two things I saw recently: The connection between these two items is not obvious, but it is interesting. The lemon problem WeFunder, for the uninitiated, is a crowdfunding platform for (primarily) technology companies. It allows community-oriented startups to sell a small % of ownership to their users and supporters. Unfortunately,… Continue reading Larian’s unfair advantage
Category: Article
It’s all about identifying outliers
What startup investors can learn from sports betting Early stage investing is a complex and relatively new practice, which makes it fertile ground for analogies which can help explain the more abstract concepts to both newcomers and veterans alike. In this particular case, grappling with the intrinsic value of pre-revenue startups, there’s an interesting parallel… Continue reading It’s all about identifying outliers
Startups are the clients of Venture Capital
As a founder learning the ropes of venture capital, you might see VCs as asset managers, with LPs as their customers and your equity as the asset being managed. This is heavily implied by the chain of responsibility: you are required to report your progress to your VC investors who want to see milestones crossed… Continue reading Startups are the clients of Venture Capital
LPs should encourage VC evolution
In a previous article I wrote about the threat of consensus in venture capital. A few days later, Eric Tarczynski shared a fascinating thread about the journey with Contrary, his VC firm. He addressed this point about consensus with admirable candour, summarised here in two points: It’s unusual to get such an unvarnished look at… Continue reading LPs should encourage VC evolution
AI as a Utility
Investors don’t really need to invest in net new companies to get exposure to AI’s potential halo effect; If all your portfolio companies start to integrate with the right existing tools on the market, they could bloom too. It’s the promise of horizontal tech. Natasha Mascarenhas, TechCrunch In a previous post I used the games… Continue reading AI as a Utility
Why venture capital should be consensus-averse
In The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Keynes wrote about investment through the metaphor of a newspaper contest to select the six best looking people from a group of photos, with the prize being awarded to the contestant whose choice most closely corresponded to the average of all contestants. Keynes’ point was that,… Continue reading Why venture capital should be consensus-averse
The Negligible Cultural Impact of AI
Good art (including novels, games, movies) is defined by the humanity involved. Emotion, humour, tension. Even when AI attempts to mimic those attributes, we’ll still prefer human experiences over synthetic ones. We’re inclined to believe each new innovation is the ‘best’, and that the technology-driven approach is always superior. To overlook almost anything in pursuit… Continue reading The Negligible Cultural Impact of AI
Growth incentives – web3’s failure
Web3 has largely failed, and we should talk about it There’s an elephant in the room. In the space of just a few months, NFT PFPs have vanished from Twitter, .eth usernames have fallen out of vogue, and a whole category of social media celebrities has vanished. The tech world went from frothing at the… Continue reading Growth incentives – web3’s failure
Ticketing – the model for consumer tokens
I’ve been labelled a ‘Web3 skeptic’. If you’ve read any of my other content here, you’re probably just confused about how I feel. So, let me clarify: Much of the capital that has been poured into Web3, to date, has been wasted. Too many get-rich-quick schemes and half-baked ideas. We need to do better. Specifically… Continue reading Ticketing – the model for consumer tokens
Virtual Worlds – a social, not technological, phenomenon
To begin, a quote from Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine: The metaverse’s history indicates that social immersion is the metaverse’s foundation. Tom Boellstorff Tom is a bona fide expert in virtual worlds, and I recommend reading the whole article.1 Through his work, he has spent a tremendous amount of time in Second… Continue reading Virtual Worlds – a social, not technological, phenomenon