Social Leverage Palooza 2024...A Great Weekend With Our LP's and Founders

Good morning …

In the spirit of Saturday shopping, our portfolio company Manscaped offered up a discount code to our LP’s, founders and I am sneaking in my readers of 15 percent off - use code ‘PALOOZA’

Onward…

Last weekend we had our 16th annual Social Leverage Palooza. People are saying it was our best 🙂 .

My partners and team do most of the work. I show up and run the actual stage which is the easy part.

I always open with a ‘state of the markets’ both public and private.

If you read me here you know it is the most bullish I have been on seed stage investing since 2018. That said, it is a particular type of founder and company I am focused on…

1. Business Model First

2. Optimize for Optionality

3. How Organic Can You get

The AI Boom is real, but the chase and hype and prices are not for me personally.

The days of easy ZIRP money and inexpensive CAC (Customer acquisition costs) from the app and mobile boom are behind us.

This years Palooza in Scottsdale had over 150 attendees, 3 dinners, 1 pool party/networking event, golf on the Grass Clippings par 3 golf course at night, mountain biking in the desert, bowling at Bowlmor, and a full day of startups from our Fund IV presenting alongside some fantastic fireside chats!

My friend Josh Isner, the President of $25 billion public company $AXON opened with me for a fireside chat about the long haul of a 30 plus year old company that is really just getting started because of data and AI.

Later my friend Michael Parekh chatted with me about the world of semiconductors and AI. Nobody wanted that discussion to end.

My partner Matt (who was an LP and attendee for many years before joining as a partner and host) sums it up best:

What I love about the weekend is the endless opportunities to network with our LPs, founders, sponsors, and network. For the startups, it’s a great opportunity to share with everyone what they are working on, where they are finding success, and where they need help. I also love seeing all the founders working on deals, partnerships, and sales throughout the weekend. Finding companies in the portfolio that can partner together, finding LPs that have companies that they can potentially sell to, and leveraging the power of the larger network.

Until next year…