Ep 113: Why Sam Lessin Believes AI Isn't Disruptive & Venture Capital Is Fundamentally Changing

After leading the product team at Facebook, Sam Lessin became one of the top seed investors in Silicon Valley, known for cutting the first check into Venmo and seeding Solana (a 2,000X return!) Why does he think crypto is more disruptive than AI? Why does he believe the VC model is fundamentally shifting? And why are we, together, building a new company focused on taking merit to the extreme in corporate America?
We discuss this and more with Sam, co-founder and General Partner of Slow Ventures, a leading early stage venture fund. Prior, he was the VP of Product at Facebook during its hyper growth years. Sam is also heavily involved in fixing Harvard, his alma mater, including a recent campaign for the Board of Overseers and building a new alumni network to help return the university to veritas and its founding principles.
Sam first met Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard and watched Facebook being built firsthand. But, as he explains, fell prey to conventional status games and spent two years at Bain & Company, before breaking out and going on to play a critical role at Facebook. He then launched Slow Ventures to take big bets on unconventional ideas. Learn why he believes AI is overhyped; where venture capital is headed next; and what we're building at Meritfirst (meritfirst.us) to unlock hidden talent and overhaul how companies source and hire the best and brightest.
00:00 Episode intro
01:50 Harvard & the wrong career choices
05:13 Lessons learned at Facebook
10:15 The challenges of an open internet
14:48 Venmo, Solana & Sam's investment thesis
16:55 Sam's contrarian take on AI
19:15 How venture capital is changing
24:56 How to fix Harvard
34:13 Building Meritfirst together

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