E4: Sam Lessin on Why the Seed & “Factory System” Era of Venture is Dead

What this episode covers

This week Erik is joined by Sam Lessin, General Partner at the early-stage VC firm Slow Ventures, essayist, and former VP of Product at Facebook. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: 🧲 Learn why Craft, Bedrock, NEA and 100s more trust Harmonic’s data to source deals. Harmonic is the most complete startup database, finding new companies as soon as they incorporate and tracking them through IPO. Head to https://bit.ly/harmonicturpentine and make sure to mention Turpentine VC during your demo. Carta is the world’s largest venture fund administrator. Carta’s software-based approach takes fund administration out of the spreadsheet and into 2023 and beyond with powerful solutions and intuitive interfaces, all on one platform. Their suite of products and expert services help funds at any stage with up-to-date insights and automated workflows to get them to that next level. Learn more at: carta.com/turpentine Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s your all-in-one source for alternative data that helps you make better investment decisions. To learn how Synaptic can improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, visit synaptic.com/turpentine Pesto Tech is a hiring marketplace that makes finding great remote developers fast and easy. They use large language models to evaluate developers along dozens of parameters, including code quality, performance, and security. If you need to start hiring developers fast, all you have to do is answer 5 simple questions on their website: pesto.tech --- Join our free newsletter to get Erik's top 3 insights from each episode every week: https://turpentinevc.substack.com/ --- RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with David Weisburd, where David talks to the investors behind the investors: https://link.chtbl.com/thelimitedpartner --- X / TWITTER: @lessin (Sam) @eriktorenberg (Erik) @slow (Slow Ventures) @TurpentineVC --- TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:00) Episode Preview (00:01:22) On Screenshot Essays, writing, and being OK with being wrong (00:04:04) Sam's thesis on the factory system of venture capital (00:07:18) What does venture look like when the factory line is over? (00:10:14) Sam's bearishness on YC and a16z (00:12:36) What are the best firms going to look like in the future? (00:15:36) Sponsor: Carta (00:16:17) The future state of company building and venture (00:21:46) The biggest factors of luck in life and company building (00:23:15) Sam's thesis on constellation software (00:28:38) ​​Team Shares and why that's Sam's most bullish investment (00:31:49) Sponsors: Synaptic | Pesto Tech (00:33:15) Why Sam is bullish on crypto (00:38:32) The different models of finance and investing in creators (00:42:08) Sam's advice for future investors in 2040 (00:45:21) Is the LP landscape going to change significantly? (00:52:17) Lower variance founders (00:56:08) Kardashians and the future of media / celebrity (00:57:42) Sam on Balaji's protech and anti-journalist class (1:01:00) How can we represent social capital on the internet? (1:02:41) On the end of capitalism (1:05:38) Slow Ventures today and where they expect to go in the future (1:07:26) Sponsor: Carta --- This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at [email protected].