Sam Lessin on What Entrepreneurs Don’t Realize About VCs, When the State Should Intervene with Tech, the Future of Crypto and the Evolution of Truth

On this episode of Invested, Michael hosts Sam Lessin, a General Partner at Slow Ventures.

Sam is currently an intern at The Information and has co-founded two companies, Fin and drop.io (acquired by Facebook in 2010).  Between 2010 and 2014 he was a VP of product management at Facebook, where he managed the People, Places, and Things product group and the Identity product group. Sam started his career at Bain and Company, and attended Harvard ('05).  In his spare time Sam enjoys skiing and kite-surfing. 

Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! 

KEY TOPICS 

• [00:00:00] Intro 
• [00:03:15] Core Personal Values
• [00:08:40] Dealing With Bad Investments
• [00:10:30] The World as a VC Model 
• [00:13:40] The Chaos of AI 
• [00:15:55] Relationship Between Investing and Family 
• [00:20:35] The Risk of Pavel Durov
• [00:24:00] When Should the State Take Action?
• [00:29:40] Safety of Tech Leaders in a Borderless World
• [00:36:30] The Evolution of Truth
• [00:42:18] Communities as Brokers of Trust 
• [00:45:45] Crypto Replacing Trust 
• [00:49:15] Investing in Solana 
• [00:51:40] The Silicon Valley Narrative 
• [00:56:38] Being an Outsider-Insider 
• [1:01:30] Making Change at Harvard 
• [1:07:15] Antisemitism on College Campuses 
• [1:10:10] Personal Lessons and Motivation
• [1:16:30] Closing thoughts on Future of Tech

RESOURCES

Follow Sam on X: https://x.com/lessin

Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested

Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc 

Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/

For the transcript of this episode, go to: https://content.aleph.vc/podcast-episodes/sam-lessin---episode-29

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/

Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg

Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/

Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg

‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/

‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/

CREDITS

Executive Producer: Erica Marom 

Producer: Sofi Levak & Yoni Mayer

Video and Editing: Ron Baranov

Music and Art: Uri Ar 

Design: Rony Karadi