Waymo and The End of Urbanism, Writer Coins, Momentum and Live Events…Sunday Reads and Listens

Good afternoon from Coronado.

I was having lunch a few weeks back in New York with Fred Wilson to catch up on all things venture and we had a fun conversation.

He was telling me about how much he loved his new self driving $TSLA ( ▼ 1.05% ) because of some neck pain and limited range of motion. Like Michael Saylor ‘almost’ convincing me that Microstrategy was the go to way to hold Bitcoin, I am almost convinced to get a Tesla. I will probably just buy some Bitcoin.

The good news is Fred is back writing the last week after a few years off and detailed why he is so excited about ‘self driving’ and Waymo ( $GOOG ( ▲ 3.34% ) ) in New York.

My friend Mike Marquez and I talk shop all the time. Mike is a wily veteran of consumer internet investing dating back to the 1990’s who I met through Fred Wilson. Way back in 2017 he would tell me that self driving going to be a thing and I never believed because I have no idea how things work and I am a cynic regarding regulation and lawyers.

But, here we are and as Fred points out in a link to is partner, the downstream effects are massive…

Twitter tweet

Ben Thompson has a great essay on the subject of Waymo, Uber, Robotaxis and the ‘end of urbanism’. Have a read here.

One thing Fred and I did not talk about was writing, because he had stopped. Turns out Fred came back last week announcing a ‘writer coin’ (called $AVC – love that Fred uses Cashtag). Fred is a media geek at heart and loves creativity. He has been investing in blogging platforms forever (Twitter, Tumblr). His writer coin idea has been around for a while in the crypto era but it’s still pretty complicated. He wrote about some of them in his ‘next day’ thoughts. If it was easier I would do the same for my ‘degenerate economy’ research and community so I will be keeping my eye on this as Fred and his community guinea pig the idea and launch.

Next up…

I can’t believe I never bought Howie.com which is now an AI secretary. Way back at the beginning of Stocktwits I was just going to call it Lindzon.com because you know …Bloomberg. So many coulda, shoulda, woulda’s lately.

Next…

I rarely read something new on the subject of ‘momentum’ that makes me think. Until this tweet…

Twitter tweet

I am in constant search of momentum in the world of brands and public markets. Momentum is fascinating because it is so hard to measure, hard to ride and hard to keep. Momentum is fleeting and not respected enough.

So many companies and founders of the web 2.0, ZIRP era mistook the incredible conditions that created momentum for their own genius. Growth and momentum is not ‘brand’. Robinhood had 10 million customers when the ‘Gamestop’ silliness happened. The brand meant zilch and the momentum was gone. People wanted Vlad’s head. It took three years for the company to regain momentum.

I love the idea that momentum is a ‘boat’, not a ‘moat’.

Seed investing is the opposite of momentum. As seed investors we are looking for people, teams, products that can create momentum to build their fortress.

Last but not least ..live events.

Ari Emanuel is bullish on live events and entertainment. Me too. We have had yearly live events for Stocktwits and Social Leverage for the last 17 years and a few years back we invested (Fund 4) in Punchup.live which has a lot of ‘momentum’ 🙂 in the comedy live event space.

Ari was interviewed by Patrick O’Shaugnessy and it is worth a listen.

Have a great rest of your Sunday.