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Shut Up, Lean Back and Enjoy Your Free Time...And Everyone Wants To Be Netflix and Your Bookie - Sunday Reads And Listens
Netflix and chill has become 'Roam and Chill' and Robinhood has my sports bets
Howard Lindzon
June 01, 2025
Good morning
With our summers in Coronado, I turn into ‘Porch Lindzon’ (I make calls, take meetings and do some work on the porch) and by 7 pm Ellen and I retire to our media room to ‘roam the streamers and chill’. (You may think our life is boring, but we think it is the ultimate ‘life is good’).
Netflix and chill has evolved as Ellen and I age, because I sneak in early to watch sports and sports highlights from the day. When Ellen joins, we roam to find something we both would like which becomes harder and harder when our summer time media consumption increases.
Last night, Max G - who runs our video production at Stocktwits - texted me this link about Sequoia Capital investing $100 million in Mubi (drop that link in archive.ph to get around the paywall). Here is the gist…
Sequoia Capital is hoping to cash in on rising global demand for art house cinema after leading a $100mn investment in Mubi that values the indie streaming service at $1bn, marking a rare foray into film and media for the Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
The cash from Sequoia, best known for its early bets on high-growth tech companies including Google, Apple and YouTube, will help Mubi build out its global distribution network and invest in new films.
The fundraising marks a vote of confidence for the 18-year-old company, which has recently undergone a big transformation from niche indie streamer to Hollywood player.
Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia who led the investment, said the firm was banking on untapped global demand for highbrow films, including those being bankrolled by Mubi.
“We’re a Silicon Valley investor, so the question is, how many people around the world will projects like this resonate with? Our opinion is that this is going to resonate with a lot more people than anybody thinks.”
The Sequoia deal gives London-based Mubi financial firepower when the broader movie industry — a risky business at the best of times — is reeling from the disruptive effects of the streaming revolution. It also follows a series of big swings by Mubi, which this month beat out Apple and Netflix to acquire the rights to Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love starring Jennifer Lawrence for $24mn, in the biggest deal to come out of the Cannes Film Festival.
Mubi’s streaming service features a wide range of international films from Latin America, Europe and Asia alongside American indies. It has about 20mn registered users worldwide, with US subscribers paying $14.99 a month, but also distributes independent films in cinemas in the UK, US, Canada, Latin America, Germany and, starting this year, Italy. It now has offices in 15 countries with more than 400 employees.
“Mubi is high-growth and profitable, and in the film business that’s an impossibly rare combination,” said Reed.
My first thought was ‘dear god, Silicon Valley wants to be Hollywood’ and texted it to my friend Ravi at A24.
At that same time as the text, Ellen had pulled up a month old Bill Maher episode and Barry Diller was the interview (worth a watch). Barry is THE legend in a lot of media meets technology and one thing that he said that had Ellen surprised but me nodding as I have covered it here over the years is Netflix is KING and will become even more so.
This morning Ravi texted me back that Mubi is a different business than an A24…they are a theatrical distributor and obviously now aiming to be more of a streamer too, trying to be another Netflix, Amazon, Apple, YouTube…an expensive proposition.
Obviously, my immediate next thought was ‘good for the consumer like Ellen and I’, which Ravi of course agreed with.
This is just one more extension of what I call ‘the degenerate economy’. ZIRP, technology and cheap goods from China (toys for the media room) have turned us into free time chasers and media room lizards - a large segment of the degenerate economy that is growing fast around media now as a big part of the population ages.
Selfishly, this is also great for our portfolio company Punch Up (fund 4) which you can now stream on your TV to see the latest and best bits from hundreds of the best stand-up comedians. Punch Up is not relying on being a streamer as their business, they are a comedians best friend helping them own and grow their audience and now in the ticketing business too.
Next - quickly but very importantly - in this degenerate economy the war to be your bookie is escalating as the TAM continues to explode. I have been long Robinhood in my degenerate economy index and this new market for them has not hurt the story and helped the stock. Sportico covers it here (use archive.ph to drop the link).
Anyways, like I say in the title to this post…’shut up, lean back and enjoy your free time’.
Next up…I have a few more links to share from the week that are connected to the above…
The Age of Average - a good one from John Borthwick on how so many creative fields have become homogenous and defined by cliches.
Seeing Like A Network - Rohit Krishnan discusses how we are experiencing a shift to denser information networks, which affects how information spreads and shapes our culture. This increased connectivity leads to faster dissemination of ideas, but also creates a homogenized culture where only the most appealing narratives survive. It’s not the algorithm, but our interconnected beings acting as a different animal we’ve personified as the algorithm. As a result, we face challenges like echo chambers and cultural stagnation in our information ecosystem.
Mary Meeker released a 350 page report out on AI - god bless if you can get through it. My friend Bucco did the smart and cool thing and ran it through both Chat GPT and Gemini to construct a portfolio and shared the results here.
Have a great Sunday.
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