If you subscribe to the idea that Masa’s still got it and is among the world’s most visionary operators and investors, there’s a case to be made that SoftBank is just hitting an early rough patch on the road to a massive opportunity. People underestimate how big an impact technology is yet to make; Masa does not. If he needs to be the villain for a... See more
Before watching the Summit, I thought of Snap as a social media company, a competitor to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and the rest. It’s not though. Snap isn’t just building a camera-first messaging app; it’s building the platform of the future. It’s building mirrorworld.
Many people correctly intuit something is wrong with social media, and they wonder if it can be fixed with government regulation. It cannot. A federal law prohibiting all politicians at every level from sharing to the popular platforms would be a compelling, partial solution to the specific threat of state-backed, mob-initiated conflict.
I’m also proud of the companies I backed that might not have had the greatest financial return, but were culturally relevant. For example, I wrote the first and second check into Venmo – and then I got my dad to write the third check because no one would give them money. The financial return was fine, but it was a great cultural investment.