Scott Belsky - Tech/Product, Creativity, & Making Ideas Happen - Issue #13

May has arrived. It feels like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope this ~monthly-ish issue of Elaboration finds you well. What’s top of mind?

(1) Nomadic Lives & Community: I got quite an unexpected stream of polarizing responses to the following thought the other day:

While dozens of people responded with their own stories of global flexible living and desires to live unbound from wherever they happened to work and live (and Airbnb’s own CEO retweeted the perspective), others were outraged - claiming that such a world would destroy culture, community, and cater only to the privileged. I learned a few things: (1) platforms that power new forms of living need to demonstrate how they serve a broad set of society across income levels (a few commenters remarked how much money they’ve saved living abroad, the nomadic live doesn’t need to be expensive), (2) there is a generational split around the definition of “community,” some see it as the default place you were born “where you have roots,” while others believe you can find and build your own community, (3) there are such polar views on this topic, which means it is an exciting space to innovate.

(2) Tech For Healthy Enterprise: Quantitative health objectives for the enterprise, directly tied to workforce performance and safety. This is a big idea. And Whoop (one of my investments) does this now, with over 400 full time employees.

(3) The Next Generation Of Professional Networking: I think (hope) we all realize now: your history of job titles and the shingles you’ve associated yourself with are antiquated proxies for potential. People want to connect based on past projects, who they’ve worked with, and the initiative taken to pursue their interests. no better way. In such a world, we’ll find opportunity, build teams, & engage collaborators by sorting & connecting using prime elements of people: how they spend their time and what they actually do. Last week, I announced a seed investment in a new founder and team tackling this space: Polywork.

I always try to understand consumer technology trends from the perspective of the most human tendencies behind them. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a great place to start, alongside understanding our most basic insecurities and desires. A common question I ask when I see any form of social technology is, “what does this flex?” In other words, what is this platform making it easier to show others? The last generation of apps have been largely used to flex lifestyle (where you have traveled, who you are friends with, how you live your life). It’s sad, to some degree, but it is also true. But something is changing these days. Increasingly, people want to be represented by their CREATIONS as opposed to their experiences or possessions. I find this trend to be extremely exciting (and good for humanity). It is more readily accessible to all, and it incentivizes the development of skills and creativity that will serve peoples’ careers, lives, and communities in positive ways. When you look at the most popular people on TikTok, it becomes clear: creativity is the new flex.

I haven’t sent a newsletter out since February, so we haven’t had a chance to cover the whole NFT space. Well, suffice to say, I went down the rabbit hole pretty quickly on this one. You can see my perspective here:

No doubt, the NFT space is still very wild wild west, and we should expect some blood baths (much like the early “ICO” days of crypto). We’re still in the Prodigy and Compuserve era of NFTs as it relates to their potential. Over the past year, I have invested in a number of “picks and shovels” companies in this space that I’m excited about. Of course, the key question is: “What does the NFT world really need but hasn’t found yet?” One big answer, aside from the concerns around energy consumption, is content authenticity. Sure, you can track any NFT to the address that minted it, but not the person that actually created it (anyone can pint someone else’s work). To solve this, we need a way to track pixel creation back to the real maker. Here’s an open-source solution we’re working on at Adobe, under the leadership of my longtime colleague Will Allen, to solve this problem.

This newsletter is powered by Revue, and I’ve been one of Revue founder Martijn’s investors since his seed round. Revue was recently acquired by Twitter, where Kayvon (now the fearless leader of product at Twitter) landed post the acquisition of his company, Periscope, an investment where I was both a product advisor and investor. Worlds collided in June 2019 when, after catching up with Kayvon, I made an introduction to Martijn. I was just looking back at that email intro and realized that, amidst all the “value” seed investors aspire to add, sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is simply connect dots. I think Revue brings a critical functionality and talented team to Twitter at the perfect moment. Creators want to own their audience, and the vertical integration of building your audience (tweets) and then serving your audience directly and more deeply (subscriptions, newsletters, etc…) will bring Twitter to new heights. Twitter is among my favorite digital products and has likely connected more dots in my career than I can possibly count.

1. Chief Operating Officer at Alma: making it easier for consumers to access high-quality, affordable mental health care by supporting providers.

2. Chief of Staff at Borgo: partners with celebrity talent to launch jewelry brands.

3. Director of Operations at Omsom: building the new authority in Asian Food CPG, bringing proud, loud Asian flavors into your home kitchen.