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 History of Verification

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Twitter has been trying to shift the business from ad centric brand advertising to a subscription model for years. The verification process is one of many changes that have taken place as part of Twitter's new monetization strategy. It was always important on twitter being able to be an anonymous or pseudornonymous account, but i think it just created a big storm internally they are still trying to dig out from day one.

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

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Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir

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Music: Griff Lawson

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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

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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.