EP 41: FTX Part 2 and the Twitter Breakdown: Aztec’s Jon Wu joins to talk FTX then Former Twitter Director Ryan Sarver & Fintwit Poster Compound248 Break Down Elon’s Takeover, Paid Verification, Advertisers Fleeing and the FTC

The Logan Bartlett Show

The Problem With Twitter Is That It's a Network Effect Business

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The more accounts you open the more you're going to be driving that stat and that's not even counting my my my oj simpson account too so i know now conceptually go this kind of teases out uh an interesting thing of where we are like from a there's this cold start problem that exists right. Can you talk a little bit about the business implications of shifting from brand-based advertising to subscription? There was five billion roughly in revenue from brand advertising and now there's been a big fall off of people it's seemingly leaving the platform. Some people are accusing brand advertisers of cowtowing to the woke which i'm not exactly sure that's true.

In episode 41 we get a visit from Aztec’s Jon Wu to talk briefly about FTX and then former Twitter Director Ryan Sarver joins along with Fintwit Personality Compound248 to try to explain everything that’s happened with the Twitter take private. From Elon firing half the staff, desperately trying to rehire them, advertisers bailing, and paid verification leading to fake companies and celebrities. As well as explaining why this has gotten so bad so quickly, why Twitter is unique, and what could have been done differently.

(0:00) Intro

(1:54) Welcome Rashad

(4:12) “Verified” Twitter Accounts

(7:36) FTX

(10:08) Rashad’s new podcast

(12:43) Welcome back Jon Wu

(14:32) SBF, FTX, and Alameda

(21:33) What was the fraud?

(24:56) Malicious intent or the tipping point?

(30:49) What was the sentiment of SBF by people in the ecosystem?

(34:10) What’s upcoming to pay attention to?

(36:23) CZ

(38:10) Welcome Ryan Sarver and Compound248

(43:04) Recapping what’s happened since Elon bought Twitter

(45:30) Blue checks

(51:48) Why Twitter is a difficult business

(1:00:30) Brand-based advertising to subscription

(1:16:33) Who will pay for verification?

(1:26:51) Why has Twitter been advertising-based?

(1:32:12) How much was pseudonymity a feature?

(1:34:49) What changes would you focus on?

(1:41:22) Twitter’s FTC order

(1:45:40) Elon shifting blame

Subscribe to No Agenda with @corporashid:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2KHruq3qC0IKm5U9wOIjKZ?si=13bab75351d74c70

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBgv57GHyNgjhl3CBB3XtXp2JylaVKdNs

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

🎙 Listen to the show

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars

🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars

About the Show

A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎙 Listen to the show

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.