Happy Birthday Max Lindzon (24) and Sunday Reads And Listens ...The State of US Venture Capital in 2023.

Good morning from Amsterdam a favorite city of mine.

Before I get started…

Happy Birthday Max Lindzon! 

Max turns 24 today and since I am nine hours ahead, I called him this morning when I woke up. Max is living in Las Vegas attending the PGA hospitality program at UNLV. He is off to Long Island in a few weeks for the summer to work at a great golf course. Like me he is excited that the Maple Leafs advanced in the playoffs for the first time in 19 years yesterday. I woke this morning to my brother in law Jeff texting me ‘Leaffffs’ which he has done for last 19 years when they win a pIayoff game (which is rare).

Here are Max and I last year at the pre-game 7 crushing loss to Dallas and we will be going to a playoffs game next week against the Nuggets back in Phoenix…

Max has found his life passion in golf and the industry and I am so glad for him. Everyone should be so fortunate. He loves his friends, playing golf, Tik-Tok and Venmo.

Onward…

I am at The Conservatorium Hotel which is wonderful and in a perfect city location. Yesterday, I grabbed a hotel bike and rode through and around the city and Vondelpark.

I grabbed lunch at a fave Chinese restaurant called Oriental City Amsterdam and dinner with my friends Michael and Michiel at Pistoia which was fantastic.

I am excited to get to New York tomorrow and see Ellen on her way back home from Greece. We are going to spend a couple days with Rachel.

It is going to be a busy May and June for me with work and business travel.

On this long trip around the globe, I have been catching up on quarterly letters and the trends I want to focus on. I am starting to get a better feel for what lies ahead. Probably the best read on what is happening in the industry I care about most is Angellist’s - ‘The State of US Early-Stage Venture Capital In 2023’. The cliff notes:

From my current travels I can tell you that it is the same in Europe and Israel. If you read this blog you know Social Leverage has been very wary of the FOMO as well as the silly pricing, terms and behavior since late 2021 when we raised our last fund ($100 million Fund 4). We have mostly sat our hands since and have 70 percent of our capital from that fund to still deploy. I will tell you that these numbers from the Angellist report get me (and Social Leverage) excited about putting our capital to work ove the next 18 months. I am NOT scared of crypto (yes the US is a clusterf*ck), and am excited about AI opportunities for both existing businesses and certain types of new businesses (thinking services and lean creative founders and structures). We are also excited and backing founders focused on media, sports, wealth management, fashion/ecommerce and marketplaces.

Social Leverage has also backed 19 emerging managers in the last year and while it makes for endless work for the forseeable future, I love my work!

I am really excited for a couple of our newer companies which are growing fast and one in the golf space that we just backed. Here is a teaser video below from the Phoenix based Grass Clippings which will give you a feel for the team and company. It is exciting to be back in the golf business after 18 years when we backed GolfNow (also was Phoenix based). The HQ is five minutes from my home which is great fun for me…maybe not so much for the founders.

A couple more links before I head out for the day to see the city and friends…

Paul Tran of Manscaped (Social Leverage Fund 3) sent me this clip of Pete Davidson pitching/pimping Manscaped hilariously to Jimmy on The Tonight Show:

Two more reads…

Sapient Capital - ‘Investing’s Big Blindspot’. Two of my smartest friends Jim O’Shaughnessy and Yoni Assia (Etoro) are thinking a lot about this subject as it relates to AI and investing.

MIT Technology review - ChatGPT is going to change education not destroy it.

Have a great Sunday.