Recommendation media is the new standard for content distribution. Here’s why friend graphs can‘t compete in an algorithmic world. — Last week, Meta announced that the Facebook newsfeed would be shifting towards an algorithmic, recommendation-based model of content distribution. This announcement marked the most recent example of a major platform to formally make this shift, while other major platforms, including Meta’s Instagram, have been headed in this direction for a…

Standards, like RSS for podcasts, have enabled emerging technologies to spread far and wide in the information age by making it easy for them to plug into existing ecosystems. But the blessing of standardization eventually comes at a cost, and innovation suffers as a result. As an example, this is why the podcast format has remained mostly stagnant over its 20 year history. — Technical standards are awesome. Standards help teams save time and money by giving them a common language for how their products can interact with other products, eliminating the need to build each component within a market or re-define how systems communicate with each other. For example, a team building a…

Why Lightspeed is leading a $43M Series B in Tome — Today, Lightspeed is announcing that we’re leading a $43M Series B in Tome, the AI-powered storytelling format and the fastest-growing productivity company to reach 1M users. It’s been thrilling to watch just how fast Tome has ascended and become beloved by so many people, so quickly. But why is this…

But that doesn’t mean you’ve found product market fit. — I’m about 4 months into my job as a partner at Lightspeed after 15 years building products (including Anchor, which I co-founded and then sold to Spotify) and angel investing in 50+ startups. But while I’m still new to the job, I’ve already noticed a number of interesting trends throughout…

AI is letting us live out alternative realities on the digital platforms where we already spend our time — Much has been said of, written about, and invested in the “Metaverse.” For the uninitiated, the Metaverse is a conceptual version of the future in which we’re all interacting — for work, play, and everything in between — in an alternate version of reality that’s powered by VR, AR, BCI…

What Elon Musk might do next after last week’s messy subscription rollout, and why the reports of Twitter’s death are greatly exaggerated — If you’ve spent any time on Twitter lately, you may have the impression that the platform is experiencing a rapid demise. It feels like there have been a near infinite number of tweets, blog posts, and op-eds in major publications over the past week declaring the end of the social…

Why Lightspeed is leading an investment in Circle Labs, a platform that enables anyone to become a creator of unique, virtual characters powered by AI — By Michael Mignano & Faraz Fatemi A new AI revolution is upon us, and it is no longer a secret. …

Creativity has become the focal point of our modern Internet economy. What was once just a means of artistic expression now powers much of how we all interact, work, and play online. — People are inherently creative. As far back as the history books go, humans have always expressed themselves creatively, whether for communication, storytelling, or even art. As the tools that we’ve used to express ourselves have evolved and multiplied, so too have the manifestations of our creativity.

Today I’m announcing that I’m joining Lightspeed — one of the world’s leading venture capital firms — as a Partner. — Earlier this year, I announced that I was stepping away from my work on Anchor (after co-founding the company 8 years prior) and Spotify (where I led the podcast, live, and video businesses after we were acquired in 2019). …