Podcast notes – Jason Choi (Spartan Group) and Frank Chaparro (The Scoop) – New $200M Metaverse fund

Guest Jason Choi
Host Frank Chaparro

Metaverse is a virtual world – games, ecomm, new experiences – use the term broadly, “ online gaming + social experiences defined by digital ownership”

FC: Crypto twitter can be considered a metaverse pre cursor

Will take 5-10 years before truly immersive VR metaverse
Current metaverse are bare bones eg Sandbox
Lack of economic activity inside metaverse – rails / tech missing to buy and trade things besides simple tokens

Cold start problem – easy to create the worlds, how do you get 1M users to come in and consistently hang out
First build good games and experiences – like Fortnite, then extend to things like concerts (Travis Scott), ecomm

VR Chat on Quest – lots of content is user generated, but developers aren’t properly compensated

Metaverse analogy is to layer 1s – a platform for other developers and for users
Maybe a less extreme power law – fat tail of metaverses that cover niches, specific games

Jason grew up in HK, started a small venture fund, doing crypto podcast
Spartan was started by former Goldman partner, Jason joined
Initially focused on Defi
Advisor to Dapper Labs / CryptoKitties
After they found Axie Infinity, thought growth + revenues was really interesting, made big bet that became lucrative
Dove much deeper into gaming + NFTs
Decided to setup fund to invest properly
Have $110M Defi fund too
Metaverse fund will be larger check sizes

3 investment areas
1. Infrastructure layer – immutable, flow, game engines, hardware
2. Experiences (games), social apps, metaverse storefronts
3. Value add layer – guilds, studios, discovery + aggregation

NFT Worlds project
Tied their NFT lands to servers on Minecraft – tapping into its massive userbase
Assets are still on Ethereum

Guilds
2 types of guilds
1) Macro – large balance sheets (YGG, Avocado)
2) Micro – long-tail, 20K of them, a few people, very reliant on scholars
But all guilds are still very reliant on Axie and Axie-type games
Guilds are marketing channels for games
Guilds could become studios, create experiences
Barrier to entry is low, differentiation is team (do they have prior gaming industry experience?)

Defi
Prices don’t reflect the innovation and usage
Defi rails for NFTs will be interesting

NFT areas of innovation
1. Fractionalizing NFTs
2. Collateralizing NFTs and taking loans – how do you determine price and rate
3. Lending NFTs
“Still in ICO days”

Jason’s podcast Blockcrunch
180 episodes since 2018
Passion project
Ran out of crypto blogs to read
Reason to reach out to influencers / experts
Doing a new Shark Tank series, have pre-launch founders come pitch
Active on Twitter too

Heavy metal fan
His favorite band Synyster Gates dropping NFTs directly to fans, don’t have to pay middleman like Facebook

All risk assets gone bonkers the past 2 years
Massive growth in fund sizes – Bain Cap $560M new fund, lots of sideline capital
But prices have slightly cooled recently
Funds will need to be either thesis specific, or go super early stage, or get super big

Podcast notes – Hugh Jackman on Tim Ferriss show

Guest Hugh Jackman (Wolverine)
Host Tim Ferriss

Reads a book every morning with his wife Deb
books by Esther Perel, Seth Godin, David Brooks (Second Mountain)
makes a cup of coffee, takes cold shower, then reads and meditates together
read out loud to each other

Gifts these two books often:
EB White’s Here is New York
David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water
prefers gifting short books

Learned meditation at drama school
Does transcendental meditation – has a mantra to occupy the monkey mind
Like cloudy water that settles and then see crystal clear
Started at 23, did it very regularly twice a day

Natural energy that comes from being on stage
Tells his kids to find that joy in their lives
On Broadway, he has almost religious routines and rules – no alcohol, doesn’t go out after shows, can sleep 45 minutes after getting off stage
Says a small mantra, moment of silence, before he goes on stage

Has listened to Tim’s podcast for years, also Sam Harris
Got nervous before being a guest

Tim: Hugh is polite to everyone he meets

Mom left when he was 8, primarily raised by his dad
Dad said “your religion should be in your actions”
also “You cannot over invest in education”
always keep your word, very big on ethics
rarely gave Hugh advice, encourage him to make his own decisions

His wife acts purely from instinct / heart

Originally studied to be a journalist / communications
Was on debate team in school
Brother is successful barrister
Lots of debates at home – brother was Rhodes Scholar

Did a play in his last semester – got lead role
Spent 90% of his time doing it, and loved it
Surrounded by theater people, realized that was where he was meant to be
Went to study acting after that

Watched all of Ken Burns stuff during quarantine

If you start a business, you have to give it 7 days a week for 5 years
Being a professional actor is the same way
“Never wait for the phone to ring”
“get your brand out there and get going”
Started a theater company
Be wary of the word “career” – don’t take things for granted

Did Beauty & The Beast
Got weekly singing lessons
Was labelled as a singer, not an actor
Kept getting musicals offers – wasn’t getting film auditions
But kept working, learning, listen to his gut

Some calling beyond conscious brain, something elemental and instinctual, something you can find and hone
Working with life coach for 4 years – what are you here for? what do you really want to do?
Especially when you’re married / have kids – first priority is what’s best for your family

Universe gives you signs – accepted into acting school, cost $3.5K, didn’t have the money and didn’t want to ask dad, and then his grandmother passed and he got an inheritance of $3.5K

Tim: the most important personal examples of listening to intuition were when they didn’t make sense

Wife is into manifestation, he’s new to it
Greatest Showman – on fence about project; life coach told him he needed to commit one way or another; did visualization of how it could turn out, and went all-in – became a huge success
“Don’t insure yourself against failure”

Exercise
His most efficient / best exercise is the rowing machine
If you wanna get lean, row
Add in chest / pushups
That’s all you need to stay healthy and strong
Fighting is dance, not body building – there’s more relaxation than strength
if you told athletes to run at 85% max, they’ll often run faster than 100% – because they’re more relaxed

Before he does an activity, he imagines the feeling / outcome when it’s done – helps prepare him because he often suffers from insecurity / lack of confidence

Carl Lewis – at 50 meter mark, his form was exactly the same – whereas the other sprinters started to tighten, exert and push more

Loves puzzles and games
Wentworth 1000 piece puzzle is a good starter
Another form of meditation
Can stay up late into night doing them

Podcast notes – Maxine Clark (Build A Bear founder) on EconTalk with Russ Roberts

Maxine Clark – founded Build A Bear workshops – 25 year anniversary, started in 1997
Have other animals too – dogs, cats, fish, etc

Was in retail for 20+ years before BAB (former President of PayLess)
Started BAB in St Louis

Wanted to do something for children, engage their imaginations, but no one was doing it
Even in a zoo – trainers can touch animals but you’re not supposed to

Studying Beanie Babies – her friend Katie declared it was easy enough to make on their own
Maxine had lightbulb moment – why not let kids build their own? – started looking to buy a pet toy factory
Thought about naming the animals, but Katie suggested not naming them because each owner would want their own name

Customer experience
Disney-like experience, more like theme park than a typical retail store
Hardest choice is picking animal you wanna make
You can add sounds and scents (one of most popular scents is birthday cake)
Stuff bear, fluff it up, then it’s machine stitched for you (originally they were all hand stitched)
Then you name it, prints out a certificate of ownership
It’s a family experience
Popular birthday gift

Why are bears cuddly? Not true in real life
Teddy bear comes from 1902, president Teddy Roosevelt – hunting trip, saw 2 bears, would not shoot them, brought out kindness & empathy
A toy company proposed the idea of a toy “teddy bear” and the president endorsed it
In Germany at same time, similar concept was popularized

Bought patent for their unique fast sewing system

Have sold 200M+ bears

Birthday parties in-store were very popular

Lots of partnerships eg Girl Scout bears, Hello Kitty, etc

400 worldwide stores
Regular store is ~2500sf

Bears are neutral – no race, no political opinion
Everywhere in world, try to localize costumes and accessories

Hired a lot of teachers who worked part-time – great source of ideas and culture

Profitable in first few months of operation

One customer wanted to stuff their dog’s ashes into the bear
Another customer wanted to incorporate their child’s pacifier as a keepsake
Always try to accommodate special requests
“Yes” is our philosophy
Hire “huggable” people – employees who love children
Group interviews – watch them make bears, watch their enthusiasm and facial expressions

Store primary color is yellow – it’s the international color of the happy face

McDonalds – focus on process that ensures reliable quality no matter the employee, instead of on outstanding individual employees

stopped listening at 2/3 of episode

Podcast notes – How the internet happened – Chris Dixon (a16z) and Brian McCullough (author)

Host: Chris Dixon, a16z partner
Guest: Brian McCullough, author and podcaster

Just published the book “How the Internet Happened, From Netscape to the iPhone” (Amazon)
covers Netscape (1993-ish) to announcement of first iPhone (~2007)
2007-today is the smartphone era

Technology infiltrated every facet of our lives

Bad idea cards – “internet grocery delivery”, “pet foods” – almost every bad idea later became a huge company

Dot com bust was like the meteor hit, the dinosaurs died, but then it all came roaring back

In early 2000s, general sentiment was that internet was cool, useful, but you couldn’t really make money – until the Google IPO, which shocked everyone how profitable they were

In early days, there was a centralized version of the internet called the “Information Superhighway” being pushed by large companies like Disney, Microsoft, etc
The decentralized / distributed network was the underdog
The centralized version / participants thought they had more time, but they lost. What’s the lesson?
“Just good enough technology IS good enough”
Need to excite enough people, reach critical mass
Lots of them were developers who could build
HTML was simple enough, lowered barriers to entry – launch of Mosaic browser
Bill Gates had the vision, but bet on the wrong horse (the centralized version)

eBay – they were one of the most influential early products, even though they aren’t as massive today
1. trained normies to trust strangers online
2. power of self organizing masses to build reputation and relationships
Omidyar didn’t want to settle the disputes between users, so built a reputation and ratings system to let users self organize
“Our business model is whatever our users are doing on our platform”

Napster – today media world is unlimited selection + instant gratification – Napster built that in 1999, but picked fight with wrong industry (music industry literally had mob ties)
turns out key value prop was the convenience, not the price
can’t convince an industry at height of its success to change

Google’s business model was 2 miracles
1. The search engine
2. Overture’s ad model (which Google acquired)
As advertiser, you pay LESS per click the better (more relevant) your ad!
Users actually PREFER having ads
Before that it was all banner ads
Larry & Sergey stuck to principles, were betting that a biz model would come
Initially tried to sell a box for Google Enterprise Search

Turns out on-demand delivery needed smartphones – which came later
Smartphone is perfect for both creation and consumption

We’re in a lull today
No new “wow factor”
Lot of low hanging fruit has been picked by mobile + social
To become the new IG, need to create a qualitatively better experience
Can’t just show up and acquire 1B users

Tech is interplay of infrastructure + applications
iPhone + App Store was infra unlock, which lead to explosion of apps
what’s next infra wave? or are we at end of history?

Founders doing same playbook as 2004
Maybe need new builders to have cultural shift / strategic shift

Is it dangerous because the top companies today have become too big, and just buy the small innovative cos?
Alex Rampell – startups try to find distribution faster than incumbents try to find innovation
Snapchat is great example – invented new media type (vertical short video, ephemeral messaging) – but growth was limited by FB / IG copying
Etsy – Amazon copies them
Tivo – great idea, but Comcast eventually copied it (took 5 years)

PC industry was literally created by hobbyists
Find the spaces where people do it for fun
Most businesses operate on a quarterly or yearly cycle
No one invests in 10 year cycle except maybe academics and hobbyists – which is why often the breakthru innovations comes from these sources

So much of it is just feeling around in dark, fake it til you make it
Even Bezos, Amazon was a test to prove it to himself – once he proved it, then he went all in
Even FB, Zuckerberg thought Wirehog would be bigger, took others to tell him to believe in FB and double down on it

Podcast notes – The Disney movie Encanto with its directors and writers

Host: Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith
Guests:
Writer director Jared Bush
Director Byron Howard
Writer co-director Charise Castro Smith

Jared and Byron worked on Zootopia together
Zootopia started as animal spy movie on an exotic island
Jared learned to take chances and experiment early
Byron – “be wrong as early as you can”

Charise started as playwright and actor, wrote for TV, wrote for Exorcist, Haunting of Hill House
Jared and Byron were looking for a writer for the “first LatinX Disney musical”
Later asked her to become co-director

During Zootopia, J & B both wanted to do something musical next
Lin Manuel wanted to do something LatinX
Combined the two

Tell story about family but wanting to be unique among Disney films
Exploring notion that family sees us differently from how we see ourselves
Families are fantastic but also complicated
Magical realism
Bunch of magical kids, but one kid was ordinary – this was the hook
Everyone’s felt that sense of lack of self worth
Charise brought concept of Abuela (grandmother) as core, of magical realism

Magical realism is tradition that is rooted in pain, beauty and magic and pain

Started in fall 2016 with Lin Manuel and breaking story with him
Spent a lot of time on theme and family before going to plot
Research trip to Colombia w/ Lin, went all over the country, inspired look of Madrigal Valley, the tall palm trees

Hyper collaborative process
Disney Animation is “aggressively collaborative”
It was Disney’s 60th animated film
Oscar nominated

How they created rules and origin of the magic
Encanto = charmed place, place w/ amazing spiritual energy
Charise’s idea for moment of tragedy, and magic springing from it
Charise’s own family left Cuba and started new life in America – concept of internal displacement, leaving home and starting again
It was Abuela’s love and protective energy that came from this moment of pain

Movies work better with strong antagonism
Tried a railroad baron enemy, a mean family in town, etc
Generally this is external, but it didn’t feel as real for this movie as having the antagonism come internally (from within family)
Family all love each other – but have their own baggage
They have 12 main characters – already a lot, don’t have time for external enemies

Ensemble writing is tricky
Spent a lot of time with each character
Writing so many drafts, process of getting to know the characters deeply
Opening song sets up the personalities and exposition right from the get go
Thru screenings, see which characters pop, give them more time

Bruno
Idea of outcast / black sheep
Idea of kid who could see the future
People don’t really wanna know what’s going to happen in future, what a burden to have this power
Bruno’s role evolved to being more of cautionary tale, in background of story (initially)
Walking away was great act of love, to help / protect his family

“We don’t talk about Bruno”
Song is a big hit
Came late in the process
Lin wrote the song, was excited to tell a spooky ghost story, initiated idea / chords over Zoom very early, everyone else got excited

Charise:
Abuela was one of hardest characters to nail, finding balance in her antagonism
Had internal group of LatinX employees giving feedback, they were very divided in their opinions about Abuela
Once they cast the voice actor, she really helped them make the character work

Editing process
Hard to do everything over Zoom
Needed moment for audience to empathize with Abuela – the pain she was hiding, the sacrifices she made
Editor was completely bought in and committed to the story – made the remote work easier given how much is done concurrently

The ending
One team member pushed for long time for the ending (building house together w/o their magical powers)
House was always metaphor for the family’s health

Toughest scene
Charise – Mirabel and Abuela’s big argument before the house fell down, how to navigate culturally while telling the truth
Jared – Mirabel discovering Bruno in his room (the reveal, and his relationship w/ Mirabel)
Byron – Mirabel’s song (“Waiting on a miracle”), Lin also struggled with this one the most, did a lot of versions / demos, Mirabel’s layered old soul but still a 15yo girl