May 2023

• Twitter was at its best with the <=140 character constraint (and would be even better w/o threads)
• YouTube content is way too heavily indexed on specific emotions (and editing styles)
• If you're sending a cold email, only send it to one recipient.
• Whiteboard animation videos (e.g. Videoscribe) powered by AI will be a massive unlock for video essays.
• Gamecenter is one of Apple’s biggest missed opportunities.
• What Fortnite did to PUBG, Stumble Guys (& Eggy Party) did to Fall Guys.
• Better graphics != better game. e.g. Nintendo or Roblox
• Everyone in tech talks about China + TikTok, but they rarely discuss MiHoYo (Genshin, Honkai)
• Every consumer app can and should learn from gaming. (vice versa)
• Twitch should create a centralized public Twitch Chat for every major live event — even if there isn’t a livestream.
• Less than a week after Scopely got acquired, they released one of their biggest hits to date: Monopoly Go! (5m+ downloads in <1 month)
• WebGPU rolled out to stable last week. Fun to think about what this unlocks? AAA games, LLMs, etc in browser?
• Subways Surfers + Family Guy videos are the logical end state of the TikTok algorithm.
• I don't know how I used to watch TV without closed captions.
• Social media has trained everyone to have a hot take on everything…
• I wonder what percentage of viral ChatGPT screenshots are fake vs. “hallucinations”
• Elon/Twitter would probably make more by auctioning off dormant handles than they did from Twitter Blue.
• It’s amazing how many people don’t do reference calls
• There is a clear through-line between Fortnite, Fall Guys, Among Us, Squid Game, and MrBeast videos
• If your website shows an old copyright, I assume it’s inactive
• TripActions rebranding to Navan is ???
• I initially started using Twitter because I loved the idea of only posting to people who opted-in. FYP jeopardizes this
• AI is going to take parasocial relationships to a whole new level
• Tears of the Kingdom reviews are very promising. Nintendo doesn’t miss
• Books should release special editions that have annotations, highlights, and marginalia.
• Hidden replies have the exact opposite effect. They only draw more attention.
• If I’m not still playing video games in a retirement home one day, I failed.
• It’s been over a week of doing these random thoughts. Not sure if I’ll continue doing it daily, but I’ll try.
• Mobile deeplinking is still so incredibly broken.
• Quote tweets are primarily a weapon for harassment (and dunking)
• I can’t believe the food pyramid was that wrong…
• The death of malls in suburbia feels a bit exaggerated.
• I’m pretty confident the millennial pause only happens because Snap used to lag before recording videos.
• Mental health, nutrition, and personal finance should be mandatory topics covered in school
• There have been two new generations of the PlayStation since the last GTA was released (GTA V, PS3)
• Reddit has the potential to be the best search engine
• YouTube remains a step ahead of every other platform because they are the only one that has truly figured out creator monetization
• As a result, all content roads lead to YouTube
• If your company has an active subreddit, you’re probably doing something right
• Two of my all-time favorite consumer products are essentially 'invisible' value adds via Chrome Extensions. (Grammarly & Honey)
• Changing your avatar on social media is the equivalent of a brand redesign
• Love is Blind is 100x better than The Bachelor
• A well-researched and thoughtful cold email has uncapped upside with essentially no downside.
• The more you write, the less likely you are to get a response.
• If you add more than one person to the email, your chances for a response quickly approaches zero.
• The busiest people respond the fastest.
• I still believe in the iMessage interview format: Four screenshots of text message conversations.
• At some point, I think it would be fun to explore rolling up niche video essay YouTube channels.
• Valve is one of the most fascinating private companies in the world
• Steam: 140,000+ games, 132M MAU
• 1st Party Games: Counter-Strike, Dota, TF2, etc.
• Market (In-game items): They also collect 5-15% of virtual goods transactions
• Less than 400 employees
• PCPartPicker might be my favorite example of a biz that was built by clearly understanding & addressing the needs of a "niche" community (/r/buildapc)
• Related: Earning the trust and respect of a niche community (especially on Reddit) is priceless.
• Computers have far surpassed the point where we have to prove we are not robots in order to use them. At what point does CAPTCHA break?
• An opportunity for a PE rollup of the best Chrome extensions into one super extension (BetterTTV, RES, RoPro, vidIQ, etc.)
• Video essays are the best part of YouTube
• @dannymcmahon and @pgmuscat are on another level.
• I’m still shocked that we haven’t seen a major creator emerge specifically focused on reviews for software/apps.
• I'm not sure most venture firms can articulate why they 'win.' Speed and valuation are their primary levers
• Two very distinct styles of venture investing: chasing what is hot vs. thesis-driven
• FAANG execs largely ignore (and underappreciate) gaming
• What would @MrBeast do if he ran marketing at certain companies e.g. If MrBeast ran marketing at Amazon would he put $10,000 in random packages?
• 5-Minute Crafts might be the strangest media company of all time. And they absolutely crush on YouTube & Facebook
• Being present is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone.
• Outside of messaging apps — notifications are 99% noise and 1% signal.
• There is so much knowledge & information that is locked in audio and video formats. AI unlocks it
• TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, & Marshalls have all mastered the art of the “treasure hunt” shopping experience
• Apple Watch (vibrating alarm) is the best way to wake up
• It’s interesting that hashtags became cringe.
• I (irrationally?) hate when brands tweet like they are humans
• Bring back #FollowFriday
• Moderators (Twitch, Reddit, Discord, etc.) are the under-appreciated glue of the internet.
• The second most under-appreciated user of the internet is: commenters. TikTok & Reddit are perfect examples of: “come for the content, stay for the comments.”
• @NeurosamaAI (@Vedal987) is one of the more thought provoking applications at the intersection of media & consumer AI
• When I first entered VC, one of the first major hype cycles that I saw was: chatbots. It’s interesting to compare and contrast that to today
• Keyboards were such an interesting medium to explore. Related: Do people still use GBoard?
• There is only *one* iMessage app that everyone uses: GamePigeon, which was developed by a solo entrepreneur @vzlotskiy