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Erik Torenberg Profile picture
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
Founder @turpentinemedia | Co-founder/founding team @beondeck, @villageglobal @producthunt. Early in scale, applied intuition, pave, lattice, perplexity, rappi,
80 subscribers
Jun 8, 2023 • 17 tweets • 16 min read
I’m excited to (finally) announce the launch of my newest incubated venture: @TurpentineMedia, a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more covering tech, business, and culture, from the perspective of industry insiders and experts.

Think The Ringer or Barstool, for tech.

We… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image There exist practitioners in every vertical who’d make more money & have more fun being a business creator for their niche, & Turpentine is here to help them do it

Think @lennysan @HarryStebbings @packyM, 7-figure biz creators just off podcasts & newsletters

Just the beginning.
Mar 24, 2023 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
Hey Everybody. I’m excited to finally release my main interview show that I'll host for the rest of my life.

First episode with @pmarca is out now. Next guests include @DavidSacks, @balajis, @ezraklein, @KTmBoyle, @JTLonsdale, & more

Preview of the episodes below: Check out the podcast episode with Marc Andreessen below. I'm biased, but I think this interview gives the best insight into his intellectual journey over the past decade.

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0bYfnu…

YouTube:
Mar 18, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
E13 of MOZ w/ @dwr @antoniogm & @ByrneHobart is up. We discuss:

- Byrne's early warnings on SVB
- How banking works
- Whether crypto will reinvent or merely recreate the existing financial system. Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3x2h96…

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how…

YouTube:
Jan 2, 2023 • 17 tweets • 8 min read
What's the best podcast *episode* you listened to in 2022? Here are some of my favorites: Marc Andressen on @RichardHanania's podcast

richardhanania.substack.com/p/flying-x-win…
Dec 31, 2022 • 21 tweets • 9 min read
Here are some of the most interesting books and blog posts that changed my mind in 2022: Ancient City

TLDR: For 99.9% of our existence, Western society has been a fascist-communist cult that joined ethnicity, religion, and culture.

We can see some similarities today: ancestor worship = identity politics; nature worship = environmentalism

amazon.com/Ancient-City-R…
Oct 31, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
What makes group chats uniquely good is partly the privacy but mostly the chemistry of the group

There should be a feature where, if everyone opts in, you can seamlessly publish the part of the chat that's appropriate for public consumption Talkshow founded by the excellent @sippey tried this in 2016, but perhaps now's a better time for it since group chats are more prominent today given how stilted social networks have gotten

theverge.com/2016/4/26/1151…
Dec 31, 2021 • 17 tweets • 8 min read
Here are the most interesting books and articles that changed my mind in 2021: Lyn Alden presents the case for inflation, drawing partially from Ray Dalio’s "Big Debt Crisis"

Whenever sovereign debt to GDP has reached over 130%, 51 out of 52 times that debt was not paid back in real terms, meaning there was inflation.

lynalden.com
Nov 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
How do we get all the ambitious college grads going into consulting/wall street to go into tech instead?

It's perplexing they don't, given tech is often more creative, impactful, & it competes financially.

What should an initiative aiming to re-route all that talent look like? What should On Deck build/launch in this space?
Oct 21, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Sharing some big news today:

- We’ve launched a $100M community-backed accelerator to fund people as early as pre-company

- We provide $25K advances for people to quit their job and explore whether they want to start a company

- Now Co-CEO at On Deck

ODX is built off the learnings from Village Global (where I remain a GP)'s accelerator, which is now partnering with On Deck to build ODX

ODX is the culmination of the goal we’ve all been focused for the last 5 years: Helping founders get off the ground.
May 21, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Twitter is a social network where people often post when they're angry, snarky, curious, or self-promoting, among other triggers

Imagine a social network where people listened to music that made them feel relaxed or connected—and that was somehow native to the posting experience or other iterations of social networks that would bring about better versions of ourselves by altering the environment or incentives
Apr 7, 2021 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Some of the big challenges in higher ed👇

- Price is too high & rising
- Too much student debt
- Too many students dropping out
- Too many students underemployed
- Credential inflation
- Misaligned incentives on multiple levels
- Oligopolistic market dynamics prevent competition TOO EXPENSIVE:

- Education costs have increased by 300% since 1980.

- Gov't spends 3% of GDP ($600B) subsidizing higher education.

- Incentives are misaligned such that the more gov't dispenses subsidies, the more expensive college gets.
Feb 28, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Hiring a Head of Special Projects to work w/ me at @beondeck

You’ll incubate:

- @Cosign
- “People Hunt” for ppl looking to do their next thing
- Wiki for start up-ideas & decks
- @beondeckdaily 2.0

and other ideas we conceive

Submit your plans for these to erik@beondeck.com Re: startup ideas & decks:
Jan 1, 2021 • 26 tweets • 9 min read
Here are some of the most interesting books that changed my mind in 2020:

Thread👇 Peter Turchin tries to quantify history in "secular cycles" using demographic data.

TLDR: As population expands, wages go down, which increases inequality (& too many elites), which increases social unrest.

The idea is his theory can predict violence:

Oct 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Found a new favorite philosophy podcast, went to look up where the host did his PhD, & instead found this.

I'm endlessly inspired by the idea that people can gain world-class expertise w/o needing approval from traditional gatekeepers, & by the sheer force of will to get there. I'm also inspired knowing that there are so many people out there doing jobs that don't fully harness their unique skillsets, and that with just a bit of community or capital or mentorship they could, like Steven, instead be doing what they're best suited to do.
Sep 27, 2020 • 30 tweets • 7 min read
Some takeaways from conversations w/ @jasoncrawford, @ArtirKel, and @Ben_Reinhardt on progress, particularly on how 1) funding models, 2) regulation, and 3) culture influence progress 👇 1- Funding Models:

There are a lot of different funding models (NIH grants, DARPA...)

A lot of research is done in universities, yet it's a relatively new phenomenon.

There was a golden era for corporate research w/ Bell Labs & Xerox, but then & gov't stepped in.
Sep 25, 2020 • 28 tweets • 6 min read
Deep dive into some of Rene Girard's thoughts on mimetic desire, scapegoating, and Christianity 👇

Previous TLDR: ~All non instinctual desire is mimetic

We want things not because they are inherently desirable, but because someone else's desire for them has made them attractive to us.

Sep 16, 2020 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Through Naval, I discovered the term "Curation Businesses" which describe things like Universities, Accelerators, and VC firms

These businesses (think top accelerators, universities, etc) attract the best people in the world to apply for them.

Their alumni then go onto be immensely successful, which improves the flywheel and further attracts the best people at an even bigger scale.
Sep 15, 2020 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
Thrilled to announce the On Deck Podcast Fellowship to help people start or grow their podcasts.

Having a podcast over the last 5 yrs has changed my personal & professional life, and I want more people to benefit from starting one.

It's still super early innings for podcasting. How has podcasting been transformational?

- Made friends via guests (e.g. Tyler Cowen) but also via listeners. It’s a way to find all the other people like you out there.

- Learned a lot. Each podcast is a forcing function to learn enough about a topic to not look dumb.
Sep 15, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Favorite startup frameworks I've discovered on the following topics:

- Recruiting
- Fundraising
- PM-fit
- Community Recruiting: It's important to get the first 10 hires right b/c each employee will replicate themselves 10 times. Take ur time

Since you can't compete w/ Google, you want to find ppl Google isn't chasing after but have even more talent & grit

Like drafting Tom Brady in 6th round
Sep 12, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Egalitarianism is eating the world.

To be sure, egalitarianism has been eating the world ever since Jesus and, more broadly, the great inversion from glorifying the conquerer to glorifying the martyr.

But now egalitarianism is accelerating.

Sep 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Angel investing is high status b/c it implies wealth, special relationships, & judgement.

Plus the status to effort ratio is high.

People are willing to lose money for this status.

Of course, as more people do it, the less high status it becomes, & people search elsewhere... ditto rolling funds, SPACs, whatever's next, etc