Auren Hoffman: Small Identity, Netflix Culture, Rich and Anonymous, Ozempic, Age of Average
Our curator this week is Auren Hoffman (@Auren). Auren is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded LiveRamp (acquired for $310M, now NYSE: RAMP) and founded SafeGraph. He's a General Partner at Flex Capital with over 180 investments, hosts the podcast World of DaaS, and co-founded Dialog, an invitation-only society, with Peter Thiel. He writes the newsletter Summation.
Please enjoy these words that have mattered to Auren.
Auren's Picks
Keep your identity small
If you are going to read one thing in life, read this piece. I like to re-read it once a year to remind myself that one should not be beholden to one's past self.
The ORIGINAL Netflix slide deck on culture
100+ slides. Best doc on culture. This is the deck that kicked of the Silicon Valley HR revolution.
The only thing that matters
"In a great market—a market with lots of real potential customers—the market pulls product out of the startup."
Rich and Anonymous
There's an ideal net worth for everyone, after which money becomes a social liability. People get rich to buy status, but the truly wise stay anonymous.
7 techniques to do email marketing
Email is the best communication medium invested in the last century. Yes, it is massively under-rated. Susan Su goes through her techniques to get noticed.
How to give a great presentation
Storytelling is one of the most important business skills … and I am terrible at it. Calacanis breaks down how to simply tell a story.
"Winners Take None"
Most software markets are winner take all. Some of the most (over)hyped VC-backed "tech companies" of the past decade are probably winner take none, and maybe never were tech companies.
Corry Wang on Ozempic
A fascinating thread on the wide-ranging implications of a real anti-addiction drug. An underappreciated number of consumer categories depend on a tiny cohort of super-consumers (including gambling, alcohol, candy and soda). What happens when addiction is curable?
The age of average
In the 1990s, two Russian artists paid polling firms to create surveys on the "ideal" painting in a dozen countries around the world. The paintings all turned out more or less the same. Three decades later, that phenomenon has crept into all corners of style and culture around the world.
Spotlight on Auren's Work
World of DaaS
World of DaaS is a podcast for data enthusiasts, by data enthusiasts. Auren talks to business and technology leaders about all things data - building it, acquiring it, analyzing it, and everything in between.
Summation and Five Links
Get more curation from Auren every month, as well as posts on entrepreneurship and company building.
Data-As-A-Service Bible
Everything you want to know about running DaaS companies. This is the most widely read piece on how to run, manage, and operationalize data businesses.