Something @aarthir and I talk about is how lucky we got at multiple levels professionally.
- born in early 80s. Got into workforce post dotcom crash but pre GFC in 2007
- dial up internet access in India.
- accidentally fell in love with coding/computers/internet communities.
these accidents wound up compounding in many unexpected ways. For example a lot of the nerdy kids we hung out with online in the mid 2000s from our bedrooms in India all went on to do great things in tech.
Also at the heart of why I think tech/internet is the great opportunity equalizer. A laptop+internet connection is all you need regardless of your background.
Web3 with pseudonymous identities/pfps/etc is the latest expression of that.
When I talk to some consumer founders/ leadership about web3 , I sometimes get asked the below.
- "Is it real?"
- "what's the deal with gm/wgmi/etc?"
- "It's hard to hire talent now"
- "What does it mean for me/us?" (most interesting!)
🧵
"Is it real?"
If you haven't been convinced of web3 already, I don't assume to convince you now (but do check out @cdixon or @packyM or @punk6529's writing).
a) this is where I see most creative energy flowing from builders of all kinds. That's usually *something*
b) Most new things start off looking like toys. XmlHttpRequest+the iPhone looked silly once too.
c)I always urge ppl to dig in/play around. Join a few Discords. Write some solidity code. You'll learn so much more on what's going on than from reading others.
COVID has reminded us all how important travel is. For @aarthir and me, it has has meant not being able to visit family in India. For others, it meant postponed vacations, or missing that dream trip. Or real stress over not being able to make an urgent trip in time of need.
As we slowly figure out a return to safe travel, paperwork+processes around intl. travel has been confusing. Rapidly changing vaccine/testing requirements, paperwork, and several disjointed government systems–all leading to long hours of stress and airport horror stories.
👋🚨 Investing in @airgarageinc - thrilled to announce that @a16z is investing in AirGarage, a full-stack parking lot operator and marketplace that is changing parking across the country. I'll be joining the board.
AirGarage is a “full-stack parking operator”—a marketplace with parking lot owners on one side and drivers on the other.
Since launching in 2019, AirGarage has quickly grown to manage over 150 parking lots/garages across over 30 states, growing 12x (!) just last year alone.
For owners: tools to automate the operation of parking lots/garages, including payments, camera-based enforcement and analytics for occupancy and revenue trends over time.
For consumers: the AirGarage app helps you find the best spot to park.
Seeing a lot of interesting consumer startups where the community being built *is* the company.
This + the toolset/stack being used to build these are super fascinating.
Common stack
- member directory
- multiple spaces to congregate ( often Discord or Slack but multiple other options)
- lots of member-member interaction tools
- Content programming
- IRL events/schedules
- multiple tiers for you to “level up” to.
Multiple amazing examples in web3 of course often wrapped by a DAO ( FWB being a great example).
Here though, referring so many in non-crypto companies ( and of course not a new phenomenon!).