Social Leverage Letter | Issue #31

NextGen Web, Using Nature to Build Culture, Failure as a Resource, Creativity and Play

Author

Pete Weishaupt
April 03, 2022

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 “Creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is, for example, and this may surprise you, absolutely unrelated to IQ, provided you're intelligent above a certain minimal level.”

~ John Cleese 

READING

Next Gen Internet worth $13 trillion

Unlike pure virtual reality, the metaverse will combine the physical and digital world in a sustained and immersive way. 

Why it matters: Building the metaverse will use blockchains, crypto, and NFT’s; requiring a massive increase in compute.

  • The Web3 metaverse is still in the early stages of development.

  • Web3 requires computational efficiency improvement 1,000x from today's levels.

  • Total metaverse users could reach 5 billion.

Metaverse and Money - CitiGPS

The Metaverse may be the next generation of the internet, combining the physical and digital world in an immersive way.

https://www.citivelocity.com/citigps/metaverse-and-money/

Nature Calls

In Businesses Turn to Nature in a Bid to Restore Company Culture, Sam Forsdick explores how companies are finding novel ways to preserve their culture.

Why it matters: Culture is the glue that binds companies together. The pandemic presented challenges that demand new solutions as most of the world moves to a hybrid working environment.

  • Remote working has made it harder to preserve company culture.

  • Reducing flexibility is now unpopular.

  • It's time to address the energy and vibe lost over the last two years.

Businesses turn to nature in a bid to restore company culture - Raconteur

From workplace retreats to horse-riding sessions, businesses are finding novel ways of preserving their culture in the hybrid world

https://www.raconteur.net/hr/preserving-company-culture-nature/?vgo_ee=HES%2Fe2qjXVbxfeaFiNW%2Be4vy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

From our blog

Trust drives great workplaces. Failure can destroy trust, but how you deal with it sets the tone for the entire organization. 

Converting Failure into a Strategic Resource — Social Leverage

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again. This time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford John Danner starts off his TEDTalk noting all letters in the alphabet are not created equal. But one letter strikes dread in the hearts of students and conjures painful memories among many who’ve gradua

https://www.socialleverage.com/blog/2022/3/30/eftwh5muazax799t51wzawgxogj3g2

LISTENING:

In addition to what it's like launching and raising during a pandemic, Howard and Josh touch on the ever ongoing war for talent. Every category is fighting the war for engineers, marketers, and operators. If you're building out your engineering team you're fighting these talent wars nonstop. But at the end of the day, winning the talent war is about relationships.

Josh Guttman of Small Door on Reimagining the Veterinary Experience and the War for Talent (EP.195)

Listen to this episode from Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon on Spotify. My good friend Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Small Door, a startup that is completely overhauling the pet care industry with a tech-infused membership model. It’s a magical bricks-and-mortar meets software experience. And we go deep on what it takes to build a retail-physical-software company smack in the middle of a global pandemic. Prior to co-founding Small Door, Josh was a successful investor at Softbank, and before that he was part of the management team at public company Outbrain ($OB). I’m a personal investor in the company, so let’s just say Josh is probably going to need a bigger door when I bring my horse in to his West Village location.   Guest - Josh Guttman, Founder at Small Door  howardlindzon.com, smalldoorvet.com  Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @JGut, @SmallDoorVet, @knutjensen  linkedin.com/in/joshguttman  #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance  Show Notes: (00:38) – Intro (03:10) – Welcome Josh (06:15) – Disrupting pet care (09:26) – Planning, research and executing (10:49) – Launching in a pandemic (13:08) – Reaching profitability (16:18) – Scaling brick and mortar (22:21) – High-end offerings (27:15) – Working on something mission driven (28:37) – The war for talent (32:56) – Fundraising during a pandemic (34:12) – Dealing with Private Equity (39:59) – Wrapping it up (40:53) – Closing thoughts

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1wSwEVZr80y81YBR2OoK7I?si=uTk-KP68R3-ycEO5OIdv1w

Daniel Ross facilitates an amazing discussion on understanding creativity with John Cleese and Rory Sutherland. They cover finding your creative style, the power of your subconscious, our obsession with the obvious, and much more. 

John Cleese & Rory Sutherland on creativity and play

Listen now (50 min) | And check out the great rewards

https://aloadofbs.substack.com/p/john-cleese-and-rory-sutherland-on?s=r

WATCHING:

Go behind the scenes with Chef Nyesha Arrington and see how the sausage...er... steak is made!

Social Leverage Palooza 2022

Social Leverage Palooza 2022 - Howard Lindzon

We wrapped up our 15th Social Leverage Palooza event yesterday and it was a lot of fun. The last two years were a no go because of COVID. We invite our founders from our latest funds to present to our LP’s (limited partners) and spend three days together to network and share stories and learn …

https://howardlindzon.com/social-leverage-palooza-2022/

WHAT WE'RE READING

Here's what caught our eye over the past week.

JOB BOARD

Explore openings at our portfolio companies: 

Social Leverage Job Board

Search job openings across the Social Leverage network.

https://jobs.socialleverage.com/companies

Featured Jobs:

Demand Generation Manager

New York, New York, United States

https://boards.greenhouse.io/nayya/jobs/4429248004#content

Beyond - Senior Front-End Engineer

It's with that in mind that Beyond Pricing is looking to add a Senior Front-End Engineer to our growing team! You will have the opportunity to join an objective-based team focused on our SaaS Signal product. Because you will be working with a successful team that is fully remote, excellent coding and communication skills are key. If you want to inspire innovation and cultivate an environment of continuous improvement, then read on!

https://jobs.lever.co/beyondpricing/50a8ba87-5596-417a-bbb3-8bc1dfa58576#content

Executive Assistant

Remote - United States

https://boards.greenhouse.io/narvar/jobs/4100329#content

Check out all of our portfolio companies at Social Leverage.

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Affiliate Disclosure: Social Leverage Group, LLC ("SLG"), Social Leverage Capital Fund I, LP ("SLC"), Social Leverage Capital Fund II, LP ("SLCII"), Social Leverage Capital Fund III, LP ("SLCIII") and Social Leverage Capital Fund IV, LP ("SLCIV") are all distinct entities from Social Leverage, LLC ("SL"). Social Leverage is not a registered investment advisor. SLC, SLCII, SLCIII, SLCIV, SLG and SL have used the logo and branding of Social Leverage with the permission of Social Leverage Group, LLC.