Social Leverage Weekly
Posts
Defying the Decrease in VC Investment, Decline in Valuation Multiples, The Grand Redesign, and the AI Hype Cycle

Defying the Decrease in VC Investment, Decline in Valuation Multiples, The Grand Redesign, and the AI Hype Cycle

Social Leverage Letter | Issue #74

Pete Weishaupt
January 29, 2023

Get smarter faster with our curated list of thought-provoking content for founders and investors:

3 articles, 2 podcasts, and 1 video.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

READING

Despite a decrease in venture capital investment in the "big three" of California, New York and Massachusetts, states like Florida and North Carolina saw substantial gains in venture funding in 2022, due to factors such as COVID migration, government initiatives and advantages in specific sectors. Texas also held steady with 2021 levels, with industries such as crypto, space, gaming and cybersecurity thriving there.

Better Than 2021? Venture Funding Thrived Like Never Before In These 3 States

While states better known for venture funding saw massive declines, these three states saw significant gains last year, per Crunchbase data.

https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/venture-funding-startups-florida-texas-north-carolina/

Many VCs had been advising startups to extend their runway to 18-36 months since the pandemic began, but now with a decline in valuation multiples, many late-stage companies may not be able to grow into their last round valuation in time and are likely on course for a down round. How it turns out will depend on revenue growth rates and how performance tech stocks perform.

Even startups with lots of runway probably can't grow into those sky-high valuations | PitchBook

Valuation multiples may have fallen too far from their 2021 peaks for many late-stage companies to catch up, according to Pitchbook calculations using IVP data.

https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/startup-vc-valuation-multiples-outlook-2023

To achieve success, it is important to set SMART goals, but qualitative goals such as developing virtues and character traits require a different approach because they’re difficult to measure and may not be achievable as quickly as you’d like. Understanding the neuroscience behind goal setting and achieving can help reconcile the difference between quantitative and qualitative goals.

How to Set Achievable Goals

And why qualitative goals are more helpful than you might think

https://every.to/p/how-to-set-achievable-goals

LISTENING

Trung Phan - Twitter Legend, Content Creator and Startup Founder (EP.238)

Listen to this episode from Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon on Spotify. I’m excited to have creator Trung Phan on the show today. He’s mastered Twitter, even getting Elon Musk to talk to him, and that’s impressive. Trung’s one of the funniest and interesting feeds I follow on Twitter – covering business, the media, and tech. I wanted to find out how it feels to be in the center of a hurricane of memes and pick his brain on what he’s thinking about media moving forward. It’s always fun talking to someone at the top of their game, so I also wanted to find out about his new AI startup, Bearly AI. I've managed to pull a few tips from him on the magical mystery of going viral, and a few twitter feed tips everyone should find useful. Enjoy! Guest - Trung Phan, Co-Founder of Bearly.AI, Co-Host of the Not Investment Advice, Opinion Columnist at Bloomberg howardlindzon.com, www.bearly.ai, trungtphan.com, trungphan.substack.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @TrungTPhan, @NIApodcast, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/tp23 #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:34) Welcome Trung (02:35) Trung’s early life (04:17) First time going ‘viral’ (06:24) Studying at McGill (09:19) Going viral on Twitter (11:04) Is going viral worth it? (13:21) Gas founder Nikita Bier (13:37) 1 degree from Elon Musk (13:56) Putting in the hours (16:40) Attention is a scarce resource (17:36) 10X your tweets (19:39) Hashtag advice (21:47) Twitter is the top one percent (24:11) Managing a massive following (26:12) Why Elon bought Twitter (28:28) Improving Twitter (30:31) Letting Trump back on Twitter (34:45) Interacting with Elon (36:03) Media ‘barbell’ strategy (37:24) Who Trung follows (38:56) Trung’s AI startup (40:13) The first billionaire solo creator (40:25) Build the audience first (43:52) Bearly AI overview (47:32) Wrapping up (50:23) Closing thoughts (52:48)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6xjKrSl57nYEOpBiVyHJNA?si=z1JRwGK3SkaVaN5muL2Ktg

Sam McRoberts — The Grand Redesign (EP.143)

Listen to this episode from Infinite Loops on Spotify. Author, CEO of VUDU Marketing and digital nomad Sam McRoberts returns for his second appearance on Infinite Loops. This week, Sam and Jim discuss Sam’s latest book ‘The Grand Redesign’. Part science-fiction, part operating manual for upgrading human OS, ‘The Grand Redesign’ touches on a number of recurring Infinite Loops themes, and is available for free online (see ‘Important Links’ section below). Important Links: The Grand Redesign Sam’s Twitter Sam’s Substack The Thinker and The Prover Tinkered Thinking’s winning entry to our ‘White Mirror’ competition Show Notes: Why Sam wrote the book Is the Watcher a reliable narrator? Interfering with complex systems An overview of Social OS Why we need White Mirror The kindness pledge Incentives and the Cobra Effect How do we break the Shannon limit? Jim’s movie idea Improving the political and legal system The opportunities of AI Optimising our system for flourishing Finding the hidden geniuses Sam’s solutions; reaching the tipping point Sam’s hopes for the book MUCH more! Books Mentioned: The Grand Redesign; by Sam McRoberts The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth; by Robyn Dawes The Lessons of History: by Will Durant and Ariel Durant Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future; by Kevin Kelly

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1P7LRPU55KnWZAyOvNLUMA?si=1dzUM1A-QI-ghnJGQyq5Lw

WATCHING

JOB BOARD

Explore openings at our portfolio companies:

Social Leverage Job Board

Search job openings across the Social Leverage network.

https://jobs.socialleverage.com/jobs

Featured Job:

Senior Financial Analyst

Seattle, Washington, United States (Remote)

https://boards.greenhouse.io/logixboard/jobs/4783814004?gh_src=Social+Leverage+job+board

Affiliate Disclosure: Social Leverage Group, LLC ("SLG"), Social Leverage Capital Fund I, LP ("SLC"), Social Leverage Capital Fund II, LP ("SLCII"), Social Leverage Capital Fund III, LP ("SLCIII") and Social Leverage Capital Fund IV, LP ("SLCIV") are all distinct entities from Social Leverage, LLC ("SL"). Social Leverage is not a registered investment advisor. SLC, SLCII, SLCIII, SLCIV, SLG and SL have used the logo and branding of Social Leverage with the permission of Social Leverage Group, LLC.