Timour Kosters
@timourkosters
Investor & builder working in blockchain and ml. Tweeting: @timourxyz
linktr.eeTimour Kosters
To bring about grand futures, we humans have to figure out how to reconcile our current needs with our lofty ambitions. Tight-knit support communities - what we call tribes in this post - seem to be a good way to preserve our well-being and values while achieving more impact. Yet, building effective tribes seems like a relatively neglected puzzle i... See more
Konrad Seifert • The role of tribes in achieving lasting impact and how to create them - LessWrong
Quotes:
“I’m talking to you,” he began, “because the old shit doesn’t work anymore.”
The established patterns for releasing music, going on tour, and putting work into culture, he explained, were no longer relevant. The infrastructure, the audiences, and the money just weren’t there.
“I don’t know where things are going,” he continued, “But I know the
... See moreYancey Strickler • The old shit doesn't work anymore
There are many sources of inspiration. New anthropological and archaeological research in books like The Dawn of Everything shows that the history of our species is full of diverse political and social structures and that humans 10,000 years ago were likely more engaged in the politics that ruled their lives compared to today’s average person. They... See more
Crypto’s use-cases, experiments, and narrative shifts
Don’t follow the fad: “We were a bit contrarian. At the time, it was all about the Lean Startup, getting early customer validation and failing fast. This book making the rounds called ‘ The Four Steps to the Epiphany ’ espoused this lean company development model, where you put out a super rough prototype to get to know the customer and quic
... See moreFirst Round Capital • Airtable's Path to Product-Market Fit
Andy Bromberg: The wisdom of crowds is giving way to the “wisdom of communities.” In a world of ever-greater complexity, no one person can possibly make sense of all the signals and all the noise — from a single, static vantage point. A networked group is required to adapt to this new world... People are no longer being polled in isolation but rath... See more
future.a16z.com • 21 Experts on the Future of Expertise - Future
Early on, the way we approached our go-to-market was opposite of what most companies do, which is start with a super niche audience, find them, target them and expand to new markets
We started completely horizontal with a blank-slate product, and we got more and more narrow with our focus on landing customers over time. We started seeing organic ado
... See moreFirst Round Capital • Airtable's Path to Product-Market Fit
Multiplicity principle: we are not one, we are many
Parts can be seen as clusters of beliefs and emotions and values that get activated at different times, and that can be interfaced with by treating them as if they were actual subminds.
Major categories—dating, real estate, job searches—may find themselves completely upended by better use of artificial intelligence. Why swipe endlessly on Tinder when AI can surface your perfect match?
digitalnative.substack.com • The TikTokization of Everything
The last decade showed that questionable business models can subsist for a long time (and even flourish) when capital is abundant. Thirteen years after its founding, Uber is still figuring out how to be profitable: the company’s gross margins actually declined seven percentage points over the past three years, and the net profit margin is -3%.
Digital Native • Revisiting Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition
- What was the aha moment for Scott with crypto?
- Scott was aware of crypto early, but very skeptical. Saw that everyone was trying to decentralize just for the sake of it. But decentralization has costs. Centralized entities are often more effective in coordinating interaction.
- His opinion started to change with examples of use-cases where tech was