Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Granted, I am just 10 minutes into the podcast. But I am really looking forward to how this turns around in my head.
10 minutes in, I have an image in my head of the guest that is pretty close to the youngster investment people in the movie “Margin Call” (Margin Call Best Quote by Will Emerson - YouTube) in the iron-clad confidence of Nicholas Cage in “Lord of War”. To my ears - which are in no way, shape, or form representative to any other listeners - there is so much justifying, rationalising, forward-defense, and impression management going on that it just rings all of my commie-European alarm bells. Feel free to call me Vlad and paint me red.
This cannot even be intended as criticism (I am not that deep into the podcast yet to truly substantiate it), but rather a curious reflection of me not trusting the gentleman who invests with really no strings attached and all risks borne by him and his company. Why on earth would I not trust such a line? Maybe I am critical since the idea of investment / management networks for YouTubers (or musicians, or boxing stars, or…) that end in scandals is not exactly new - but then again, it may be entirely unwarranted to throw his efforts into the same pot with them. He will have a different, better take.
I am sure Sam is a great guy, his company is a god-sent to budding internet personalities like Hank, and his ideas will win me over in the end (not that this would matter to anyone… ). The team wouldn’t have brought him on, otherwise. But it’s fascinating how the introductory line of “I started a venture capital firm in high school” can set you off on a, say, particular track. Then again: it might just be my European ears. There’s a reason why entrepreneurship is stronger in the US than in the EU. More and more I think it’s not red tape, but what different parts of the world choose to believe in and / or choose to distrust. I suppose, many people from over here tend to distrust growth and believe in stability. It’s a sobering thought to realize to have been brought up to distrust such a positive thing as growth and glorify stagnation. Then again, there’s always the question of how healthy that growth is.
Anyhow - seems to be another rambling Friday - on with the show! Thanks for producing podcasts that get my wheels spinning! Waldorf out.
PS: Thank you, Stacey! Outright calling venture capital “the devil for building any business that you want to be sustainable” - to its face - at 30:00 greatly eases my bad conscious for sounding like a grouch. And even Sam himself “generally agrees”. To a slightly different part of what Stacey said, but by inference close enough. Fair game to be sightly more positive afterwards for the sake of good spirits.
That segment was great. I was curious to hear his thoughts and reactions of the panel
Hank may want to think carefully about wedding his logo branding to his mustache so prominently. Consider how Bob Ross was stuck with having to maintain a perm for 40+ years.
I think Sam’s idea of funding creators sounds interesting, but boy does 30 years seem like a long time for him and his fellow investors to wait for the big returns. I would love to see him sketch out some numbers on how many creators, over what period, given certain levels of investment actually brings back a healthy return. Otherwise I turn to dark thoughts of creator portfolios being packaged up and resold like the collateralized debt obligations that cratered the economy in 2008-09.