What Is It About Your Writing That Helps You Understand the Future?

I’m excited to bring my good friend Om Malik back for a third round of Panic. Om is a partner at True Ventures, a $2B venture capital firm in San Francisco. They have made over 300 investments including WordPress, Peloton, Fitbit, and Blue Bottle Coffee.

He’s a super smart guy to talk to. He worries about the future, invests in the future, and talks about the future. It’s important to talk about the future especially when the current situation is bleak – with a tech crash and valuations coming down. I don’t think there’s a panic, we’re just witnessing the end of an era. We could whine about it, or we could look past it and figure out where technology is going next; which is what I’m doing. I don’t think what’s worked for me over the last 12 years will work going forward. Om is here to help me sort it out. 

Guest - Om Malik, Partner Emeritus at True Ventures 

howardlindzon.com, trueventures.com, om.co

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @trueventures, @om, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/ommalik

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Show Notes:

• Introduction (00:42)
• Welcome Om (02:52)
• The world aligning to new technologies (04:01)
• Valuation and tech decoupled (04:51)
• The core thesis hasn’t changed (6:06)
• Today tech is bigger, bolder, more impactful (07:26)
• 5 trillion dollar companies created in the last 12 years (07:37)
• The unknowns make the future of tech exciting (08:43)
• Moving towards a 3D interface with data (09:38)
• Apple M1 chip changes everything (10:02)
• Identity and Authentication are key (14:14)
• Understanding the future of tech (16:07)
• Fixating on ‘labels’ instead of the tech (17:55)
• The digital wallet is the future (18:33)
• The ‘MetaMask’ of the future may come from Apple (19:28)
• The future doesn’t have to be Instagram and Twitter (20:31)
• Trust and Big Tech (21:54)
• Apple is one Tim Cook away from things falling apart (22:01)
• The disappearance of the App store (22:44)
• The wallet is tightly connected to your Smartphone (23:16)
• Policy always lags tech (24:15)
• The ‘Wild West’ analogy for Web3 (25:57)
• Software is important, authentication will be key (26:32)
• Distinguishing between the artificial and real ‘us’ (27:52)
• Metaverse is a euphemism for next gen tech (29:12)
• How will China define the future (30:11)
• Globalization versus Deglobalization (30:44)
• End of one-size-fits-all tech (31:32)
• The current reality of centralization (32:44)
• Twitter is social media marketing (33:17)
• Small subsets of decentralized social networks (33:49)
• Opportunity comes after a crisis (36:47)
• Silicon Valley is a state of mind (37:24)
• Closing thoughts (39:08)
• Wrapping up (41:55)