YouSaid · the spoken record

Chris Paik

lines on the record: 104
first: 2023-07-25
most recent: 2023-07-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Maybe. I always tell people that to be a great investor, you need to have great taste in investing. The same way that we have taste in music and food and art, I think as an investor, you spend your formative years training, developing and understanding of what you like and what you dislike, what you're good at, what you're not good at, what you think you're good at that you're actually bad at, what you think you're bad at, that you're actually good at, then developing this felt sense and strong opinion. No three-star Michel and Chef does anything that other people do. They have such a unique perspective. They have such a unique point of view and taste in what they want to put out in the world that that is what separates them apart. I think about the existential question of what companies, businesses out there am I the perfect investor for?”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And be comfortable with it. And unless, as an operator, as a founder, you can do that, you will just have this undefined blob that looks like nothing at all.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Add it to the canvas. But oftentimes what founders miss is the point at which they need to start sculpting, because you can overshoot. Sculpting is a lot like management. You only become more efficient if you are able to cut things away and entrust them to other people. Otherwise, if you can't let go of things, you're never going to get anywhere deeper than the starting block of marble. There are some operators that need control over everything. They need to make the final decision and micromanage every single thing. And that is the equivalent of zero definition on a block of marble. What a truly defined beautiful sculpture looks like is the courage to cut deeper than others and to carve that out.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's an analogy that I reach for depending on the framing. I think about painting as additive. It's an additive process. You start with a blank canvas and your differentiation is the amount of paint that you add to it. Sculpting is a subtractive process. You start with a block of something and then you subtract from it until you find the thing. Michelangelo very famously has a quote. I saw the angel in the marble and set it free. That is describing what the process of sculpting is. In company building and many things actually, you start as a painter and you end as a sculptor. And sometimes people miss that step. Founding a company is painting. You start with nothing. You have to bring a hundred percent of the things that differentiates you.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, could anyone have actually turned WiWork into a success? Or was it just so structurally plagued? Was it selling $20 bills for $10? How much of the industry misidentifies business models as value generative and sustainable when they're actually just selling $20 bills for $10?”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First order irrational by the existing incumbents if there is a greater opportunity to play for that is second order. There is a business model that is accessible on the other side, but only if you're willing to do this thing that is perceived.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Third of their profit, and you had this set of incumbents who would never have thought to make their trades free. And a new entrant saying, we will make trades free is completely irrational at first order. And honestly, without payment for order flow as a business model, maybe Robin Hood wouldn't be possible without the credit card companies being willing to pay for leads, credit karma wouldn't be possible. Credit karma's like, okay, we're just going to give away credit reports for free. And Aquifax and TransUN are like, what are you doing? That's crazy. We're making so much money charging people for this. And credit karma is like, no, that's not what we're playing for. We're playing for something else. So it's possible to look an ecosystem that's been relatively calcified and say, there is this opportunity to do what is considered.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes and no. One thing that I like to explore in the age old debate between idea and founder is there any founder that could make a company successful where they sell $20 bills for $10? I think the answer is no. No one in the world can make that work. It's just so fundamentally flawed from a business model perspective that no amount of charisma, salesmanship, recruiting, fundraising can make that work. On a long enough timescale, that falls down like a house of cards if it gets stood up at all. Now, that's different from things that may be perceived to be irrational at first glance. So let's take Robinhood as an example. Robin Hood gives away trades. Trading is free on the platform, which is insane if you look at the market pre-Robinhood. You had companies like Scott Trade, TD Americade that were charging users $6,000, $7,8 per trade. That was responsible for a”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That the efficient market is ruthless in attacking any and all opportunities that are exposed to them. And so barring, again, a dislocation in a market of a new technology or regulation, you could probably safely assume that if there was going to be a marketplace,”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. So I think a way to identify marketplace opportunities is looking at places where people are jumping through hoops, crawling through glass to meet liquidity. There's a lot that's been written about what makes a good marketplace. Bill Girl has a great blog post of what makes a good marketplace and what are the different dimensions to measure marketplace. But at a minimum, I think that if there are primitive examples in the wild of supply and demand engaging in extenuating behavior to meet each other, that is a need to have before you're able to capture that in a lower friction scaled model. Marketplaces are so rare. Their rarity is proportional to how good a businesses they are. They're such good businesses.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know if I have an answer to a repeatable motion to create marketplaces. Actually, let's define what a marketplace is because I think there are varying interpretations of what a quote unquote marketplace is. Loosely, I would describe a marketplace as where supply competes for the benefit of demand and supply does not engage in demand generation. Counter examples. Shopify. Shopify is not a marketplace. Shopify is not a marketplace because all of its supply does its own demand generation. Amazon is a marketplace. Amazon marketplace because none of its supply does its own demand generation. It relies on Amazon for demand generation. I have a framework which is all behaviors that exist at scale. In a lower friction format exist at sub scale in a higher friction form first.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Position is so dominant. It's almost this compounding mode of talent. There's a lot of people that say the United States is dad or it's end of the era. As long as there are lines around every visa immigration center, the US isn't going anywhere as a dominant power. I can't stress this enough to be able to just take every smart, hungry, talented person that wants to bet on themselves and absorb that ambition, that entrepreneurial nature, that enterprising nature into this country of immigrants, that's broken. That's such a broken advantage at a global scale.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The founding fathers in the system design of the United States. And I cannot stress enough the elegance of the fundamental system design. If I were to still down America's advantage at a global scale, it is that we have a monopoly on ambitious immigration, which is insane to think about. As a country, you get to skim the cream of the crop of hungry, smart, talented people from every other country. That is insane. And it exists because of this concept of the American dream, this idea of social economic mobility, the idea that you can leave ostensibly everything behind and come to a country that is a meritocracy and create a better life for yourself and future generations.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Gosh, the United States is such an interesting N of one. I don't want to come across as just hypernationalist here. It's truly remarkable. And I think it boils down to a few things. One is the United States, and it's been analyzed by people much smarter than me around that access to natural resources and the geography of the United States. But simplistically, from a system design perspective, the United States had a last mover advantage as a country at so young, but it got to learn from all of the errors and unforced errors of the system design and governments from every other country. Turns out, yeah, monarchies, not good. Benevolent dictator structure, yeah, I guess that works only if they remain benevolent dictators and power crops absolutely. So you get to design this incredible system of checks and balances. And I know we talk a lot of”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It just wipes out a ton of integral value in the middle of that curve and the long tail without exception. And so for every Uber, we have the taxi medallion holders, Airbnb, we have countless mid-market business hotel chains that have gone out of business. So the answer is yes. There always is a cost associated with that reallocation of value. I think there is a good amount of net new value creation anytime there's technological advancement, but there is also a ton of reassignment of value away from that mid to long tail to the head in that new distribution.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's tough. Technology tends to introduce power law curves of demand and adoption or exacerbate those curves where they previously weren't power law distributions. You end up with this dark side, the shadow that gets cast by the power law distribution. Examples of taxi medallion holders committing suicide because of the economic disparity created by Uber. They're so in the hole that it just doesn't make sense for them anymore. Because what they thought was a projected future cash flow was no longer based off of competition. Or we talked a little bit about mobile dating. Anytime there is a new power law distribution that granted awards a ton of value to the head of that power law in the form of enterprise value capture.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Louis Vuitton handbag has functionally the same utilitarian value as any other bag out there, but it says something completely different from a social signaling expressive utility perspective.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Definitely a large bulk of it. I think that doesn't meet some of the other needs around self-expression and self-actualization. If it was just homoeconomicus and not homo sapien, those would be the only two things. Better, cheaper, faster. We're not home economicists. We are homo sapien. And somebody will pay more for a t shirt because it says something about them than another t-shirt, even though from a utilitarian perspective, homoeconomicists wouldn't do that because they're fungibly the same thing. They serve the same utilitarian purpose. But again, going back to Leonardo Darno is the wealthiest man”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's something there. It's things like that. Almost countless other ones where this person, they're a sophisticated actor. They are saying to themselves, this is economically worth my time to allocate in this way. And that is so interesting to me. And the more repeatable that is, the more that that is just a tip of an iceberg is the extent of my exploration of pulling on threads.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A company called Games Workshop. They own IP called Warhammer that has a tabletop miniature game. That's all they make. They make tabletop miniatures. A publicly traded company worth $8 billion. And they sent a cease and desist to a site that was hosting 3D models that ostensibly encroached on their IP. So for me, that signal in and of itself of, oh, there's this really large company trying to stifle.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He describes it as this thing called source. And one could argue that is this concept of data out there to be absorbed. And I think for me, I spend so much time exploring on these platforms in search of source. I have my antenna trained, my radar dishes pointed into the sky, constantly looking for this source. And then I'll see signals that will suggest to me that there's something there. And then that will be the beginning of a thread that I start pulling on.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's a quirk of mine that I don't know what this says about me as a person. All of my quote unquote internet time or social media time, I spend none of it interacting with people I know. I spend no time on Facebook, no time on Instagram, no time on Snapchat. I don't even know if I have Snapchat installed on my phone. All of my time is spent on Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, other platforms. And I think what I like the most about spending time on those platforms is it gives you Let's call it a lossless view into humanity. It gives you these anthropological Primary sources of what's going on. I just read Rick Rubin's.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Create these new radioactive isotopes of capturable enterprise value. And the only way that we're going to be able to get that is if we have new methods of input into computers, I think that's what I have been looking for. I don't want to overindex on the potential of it, but it is really exciting to think of the possibilities that will emerge on the back of a new piece of adopted technology that increases the data right speed between humans and computers.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Does beg the question what are you supposed to do barring an excellent answer to that question, definitely good use of time. I tend to follow my curiosities. I like hanging out on the edges of things. I think the reason why I was so attracted to VTubing is not just that it enfranchises this new form of content creator, but it was also experimenting with a new modality of human computer input motion tracking. It maps to, I think, the advance of the Vision Pro, which is taking motion tracking, maybe not to the extent of eye tracking, but definitely motion tracking as this fundamentally new human computer input based off of my framework of we need new human computer paradigms to”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are plenty of examples. There's a business to be built selling widgets that doesn't require venture capital and doesn't require a why now.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whether it's a hot take or a hard truth, I think that's exactly right. You look at the most recent quote-unquote success in consumer. Was nine years ago as TikTok as music and nothing since.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally. And I think I'm proud of myself because I didn't let go. I didn't let go. I felt like I put it all in the field. And honestly, conviction is such a rare bird in this industry. It can get snuffed out by process. It can get snuffed out, by decision making, structure. And for me, that was the first time that I've ever really pounded the table on anything. And it was the first time that I ever stuck my neck out professionally. felt right.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I stayed up until 4:30, rearticulating my thoughts, compiling why I thought it was a compelling investment opportunity, compinging the minutes consumed against other platforms, Netflix, Facebook, all these other platforms where they were able to monetize that engagement and what it might look like at scale. I sent it to my partners and we talked about it the first thing in the morning. To everyone's credit, we were able to get there. We reversed our decision. was so excited to call Emmett and Kevin back and be like, hey, actually, I'm sorry about yesterday, but we'd love to lead the investment and we got there. And we led the investment and rested history. That's probably investment decision I'm really proud of.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Field, and we just couldn't reach a decision. I had to call Emmett and Kevin Lynn, the COO, and I was like, hey guys, I'm sorry, couldn't get there. I wish I had different news. I think we're out as a potential investor and wish you all the best. That night, I couldn't sleep.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they were my first call. I was like, okay, guys. We have the fund size. It would be amazing to be able to work together. So we engage with them. They're running a fundraising process. Again, it's expensive to host and distribute this content. And this is before they had found the monetization mechanism. I go to my partner's and we have the deal lined up. It was hard. It was really hard because we got stuck in the fundamental question of why do people do this? Is it valuable engagement? From my perspective, it was so obvious. People are engaged, they're deeply engaged, and engagement can be monetized even though it may not be monetized currently. And I think the issue was this existential question around whether that quote-unquote engagement was real or true. Actually, we didn't get there. I was in one end zone. One of my partners was in the other end zone and other people were in the middle of the”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because when you develop an attachment and an affinity to something and you can recognize what excellence looks like or you can appreciate what excellence looks like, it becomes a form of entertainment in it of itself, watching it. So I reach out to them. One of my friends went through YC. I got connected to Justin, Khan, and he introduced me to Emmet Shear, the CEO, spoke to him and was like, hey guys, I really believe in the direction. I think it's amazing. I work at this small venture capital firm based in Europe called Thrive Capital where a $40 million fund at the time. I'd love to find a way to work together. Great. We're raising $15 million. I was like, oh, that's awesome and we cannot do that. And they went on to raise their Series B from Besssemer. And it was tough because we didn't have a capital product to meet their capital needs. Then we raised our third fund. It was $150 million.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably Twitch. Maybe it's because it was just the first time that I joined the board of a company and stuck my neck out to make an investment. But upon reflection, it was probably the first time that I Ground on my own path to conviction. As an adolescent, I had played my fair share of computer games and video games. I'd pulled my fair share of all-nighters, playing counter-strike. And I think the insight that I had as an investor and end user is that gaming content is entertainment. I think one of the questions that was asked at the time of the investment was, why do people watch other people play video games? Why don't you just play video games yourself? The answer I would give is when people watch Monday night football, why don't they just play football?”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's the best way I can articulate it. And so going back to YouTube, I think where I would really have to revisit my assumptions is if the most successful content creators on YouTube Single homed on YouTube and didn't try to monetize in other means. Would mean that it was the dominant strategy of both distribution and monetization, and they didn't want to diversify. But the thing is, that's not the way that they behave. And so it suggests to me that while it's an attractive value proposition for distribution and monetization, it is not strictly better than all alternatives. And there is a gravitational pull in both directions away once they achieve a certain level of success.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it was Justin Bieber tried to launch an Instagram competitor called Schots. Celebrity Affinity is a one-time subsidy in user activation energy in an exchange and not a persistent one. Let's look at shots as an example. Maybe it gets people to sign up, but it can't perpetually subsidize an activation energy of consumption or content creation.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That because you are artificially capping the monetization that a consumer of content can deliver to the content creator. This is why nobody's incentivized to upload 30 minute deep dives into niche content on YouTube as the dominant form of monetization, or more likely, if you were to find a niche content creator in every video description, it would be support me on Patreon. Because Patreon is a perfect way to monetize narrow, deep engagement. Or conversely, if you are a celebrity, if you have celebrity value, the best way to monetize celebrity is consumables. Arguably, the only durable way to monetize celebrity is through consumables. And this is why Emma Chamberlain and Coffee or Mr. Beastberger or Skims or”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Oftentimes, successful YouTubers will achieve enough distribution that it opens up more attractive monetization mechanisms for them to monetize their engaged audience. And if you think about ads, ads are super effective at monetizing mass shallow engagement. Prank videos. Prank videos work on an ads driven platform, but when it comes to deep engagement and narrow”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Multi home as a content creator. So create content on YouTube, but then create content on TikTok or elsewhere. And then how much do they encourage their audience to effectively meet them elsewhere?”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think there are small things that you can look at that examine whether YouTube is strictly better or strictly worse along both of those vectors to its constituents. For example, Justin Bieber blew up on YouTube, discovering YouTube, no longer on YouTube. You have this dynamic of your best users graduate from your platform. You aren't actually the best way for them to monetize anymore. I think there are plenty of examples like a Mr. Beast or other successful YouTubers where it works for them. They still make a lot of money on YouTube. But I'd be really curious if those YouTubers weren't making more money more lucratively outside of YouTube as a platform, away from the direct monetization from YouTube. So if you were to look at a successful YouTuber, how much do they won?”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're not missing something. And honestly, YouTube is a data point that really challenges my assumptions and frameworks as thinking. My best answer to the continued success and monopolistic position of YouTube is that by trying to offer both monetization and distribution, it opens itself up to being flanked on both sides.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it aligns incentives across the board. Streamers can make more money. The viewers feel like they are more deeply engaged as part of the community. They get to self-express. And they know that they're supporting their favorite content creator. So they have that additional emotional payoff. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, this is a new business model that the internet has not seen before. And it's crazy that it only exists for live stream gaming content creators. When I saw Patreon, I was like, this is Twitch subs for the rest of the internet.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So wildly telling. Twitch Turbo performed as you would have expected. One of the big issues is the Venn diagram of viewers on Twitch and people that used ad block was basically a perfect circle. So there was no utility in removing ads. But Twitch subs exploded, absolutely exploded. And it was clear that by the end of the year, the revenue off of subs was going to cover the entire OpEx of the business. That's the thing. They had to go through this intrinsic experimentation process of, okay, well, where is the platform delivering value? Where is there leverage to potentially extract value? Where's the attachment to different constituents on the platform? And what are products that you can offer that align all incentives? So Twitch Subs is such an elegant”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Where the team proposed two monetization mechanisms. One was called Twitch Turbo, which was a monthly subscription. You would default to a HD stream, 720p. This was back when actually the difference between 480 and 720p was meaningful. No ads, basically focusing on a better content consumption experience. And the other product that we would launch or we're experimenting with was what was called subs, subscriptions. And interestingly enough, subs didn't offer a better content consumption experience, but it did allow you cosmetic changes. So it made your name different color in the chat room of the channel you're subscribed to. You got access to a specific set of emojis that you could use in that chat. And you were supporting the streamer who you're subscribing to. The next board meeting after was”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Twitch was the first board I ever joined. And when we invested in the company, they were burning a million dollars a month just on CDN bills. I mean, we had 14 data centers on the world, and we had another CDN bill. Turns out serving video content is pretty expensive. You pair that with no one wanting to advertise against live content on the internet, not misunderstood, just nobody understood it yet. Brand advertiser adjacency, apprehension, you know, through the roof. We're staring down the barrel of this increasing cost center and trying to figure out how to make money. And there was one board meeting”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Via ads and effectively undercut editorial content. Conversely, editorial content because people who are paid to create content are primarily incentivized by economic value, not potential distributive value and future potential. You can and should monetize by a subscription.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. If somebody is being paid to create content, the only way that you can really monetize that is through consumer subscription. Otherwise, you're competing against UGC platforms basically for the same user entertainment minute, and you're competing against these platforms that have a structurally better cogs. They pay nothing for the content that they're creating. UGC platforms can never monetize via subscription because going back to the medium example, their value proposition to content creators is distribution. And introducing a chilling effect onto that theoretical distribution disincentivizes existing and incremental content creators from contributing their content to the platform. But what they have is free content that they can then”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This framework of user generated content networks really only monetize via ads and editorially generated content can only really monetize off of subscription.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Remove that moderator and allow other people to mod that same community. Again, what is in the end user's best interest? I think a lot of what's been written misunderstands the atomic value swap between moderators and Reddit and conflates moderator opinion with Redditor opinion. Moderator opinions are not Redditor opinions because their value swap is different. They're rewarded with power in exchange for their labor. They are not going to Reddit to be entertained. Redditors go to Reddit, to be entertained, to engage in dialogue and become part of communities, but mods don't speak for the average Reddit. And I think what most stories that are written about Reddit miss is that mod atomic value swap is different.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Black out their communities. Interestingly enough, are probably exactly the mods you don't want on the platform. The ones that are willing to compromise the end user experience to sate their own power trips. And so at the end of the day, I think one of two things happens. Let's say you run R slash NBA and you're the mod and you choose to black it out. One of two things happens, either some other enterprising person who wants to contribute their labor in exchange for power will start R slash real NBA or R slash NBA like true NBA and create a competitive product again in this marketplace of ideas and market efficiency and ultimately end up replacing the same intent that R slash NBA captured originally. Either that will happen or Reddit, which is totally justified in doing so, will”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually think people's prognostication of what will happen with Reddit is relatively indicative of how much they understand the way that internet platforms work. I think my punchline conclusion is that Reddit mods think they are landlords when they're actually sharecroppers. For better for worse, whether it is justified or not justified, mods who contribute their labor for free in exchange for power are doing so building their castles in somebody else's kingdom. That kingdom is Reddit. And so it's kind of implicitly part of the social contract if you do that, you are at the whim of the governing kingdom. I understand why they're upset. I understand why the protest is occurring. But if I were to predict what will happen, mods who”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. You could argue that they go hand in hand. There are some really interesting subreddits out there. There's a subreddit just dedicated to 3D printing firearms. As you can imagine, wildly popular. I think Reddit is such an under-explored fertile ground of signal, almost like hesitant to say that it is. Most people aren't curious enough to actually explore all the corners of it and glean it for insights.”
2023-07-25 · Invest Like the Best · Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source