In this episode of the Slow Hunch, I spoke with Aaron Wright, the co-founder and CEO of Tribute Labs. Aaron has been exploring how to harness the collective knowledge, energy, and capital of online communities for 20 years, from his early work at Wikipedia to his current focus on decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and AI agents.Aaron believes major technological shifts lead to equally significant changes in organizational structures. He sees DAOs as the next evolution after the joint stock company that transformed capitalism centuries ago. According to him, thin layers of technology will enable coordination and collaboration at unprecedented scales - from hundreds to potentially millions of people.In our conversation, we explored how blockchains are enabling new forms of collaboration and how embedding AI on top of these coordination layers might fundamentally change how we organize ourselves and our capital.I've been following Aaron's work for years, and we've had the pleasure of investing in Tribute Labs at USV. Hope you enjoy!Chapters:00:00:00 Cold open00:02:07 Aaron’s slow hunch00:10:58 The evolution of DAOs00:15:31 Aaron’s early experiences at wikipedia and ethereum00:37:21 His work with OpenLaw00:42:46 The rise of investment DAOs00:53:03 AI and the adjacent possible01:08:30 The future of AI and ownership
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1:11:19
Jay Graber (CEO of Bluesky)
In this episode of the Slow Hunch, I spoke with Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. Originally conceived as an initiative within Twitter under Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was designed to transform Twitter from a closed platform to an open protocol-based network. Jay initially joined as an external researcher before being selected to lead the project, ultimately negotiating for Bluesky's independence before Elon Musk’s acquisition. Jay believes thoughtful systems design can reshape our online experiences. With Bluesky, she wants to prioritise user choice, portability, and the ability to vote with their feet if the platform makes changes they don't like.This was a conversation about social media’s “adjacent possible” - a potential shift from closed, monolithic platforms toward open, extensible systems that encourage experimentation and innovation at all levels.Hope you enjoy!Chapters: 00:00 Cold open04:00 Jay’s background: from systems theory to digital rights activism 08:35 Trade-offs in systems design16:19 The AT Protocol (atproto)17:19 Bluesky’s origin story25:26 How Bluesky differs from earlier decentralized social attempts 28:01 Giving users the ability to pick feeds and moderation 30:16 Early days of Bluesky32:50 Public launch37:24 Social media’s adjacent possible 46:13 Closing thoughts
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47:21
Fred Wilson & Brad Burnham (Union Square Ventures)
In this special episode of the Slow Hunch, I sat down with Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, founding partners of USV. Since founding USV in 2003, Fred and Brad have backed companies like Twitter, Etsy, Cloudflare, and Coinbase while developing an investment thesis focused on enabling new forms of value creation through open access to networks, capital, and knowledge. Fred and Brad bring decades of investment experience, having seen multiple tech cycles from the early internet to mobile, cloud, crypto, and now AI. What makes their partnership unique is how they've maintained their intellectual curiosity and drive to understand emerging technologies and business models, after 20+ years of working together. I've been lucky enough to have a front-row seat to their approach, and it was really special to have this conversation over multiple mugs of tea in my living room in New York City. In many ways, USV has been their collective slow hunch - an exploration of how emerging tech intersects with the world and how to be part of it.Hope you enjoy this conversation! Chapters: 00:00:00 Cold open00:10:40 How USV was formed00:17:16 Fred and Brad on their investment philosophy00:24:01 Overcoming early challenges00:27:43 The emergence of web200:30:59 The initial promise of social media00:34:04 Investing in Twitter00:39:11 The early days of Bitcoin00:45:55 The risk of market consolidation in AI 00:49:39 Fred and Brad reflect on their mistakes00:57:18 The Impact of AI01:07:23 The future of technology01:09:50 What keeps them going after 30+ years
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1:15:00
Jake Heller (Co-founder & CEO of Casetext)
In this episode of the Slow Hunch, I spoke with Jake Heller, co-founder and CEO of Casetext, a legal tech startup that pioneered the use of large language models in the legal industry.Jake and his co-founders built Casetext over a decade — going through multiple pivots before eventually finding PMF as an AI tool that helped lawyers do better and faster legal research. In 2023, Casetext was acquired by Thomson Reuters for $650 million. In this conversation, Jake recounted how an early relationship with the research team at OpenAI got them access to GPT-4 (before the launch of ChatGPT!) and how they decided to hard pivot over the course of just two weeks. As a former lawyer himself, Jake has a unique take on the challenges of building and selling cutting-edge software in an industry that has traditionally been a late adopter of tech. This was a really fun conversation (you can probably tell because it’s longer than our usual episodes). Hope you enjoy! Chapters 00:00:00 Cold open00:06:15 How Jake found himself in legal tech00:10:07 Building Casetext00:28:41 Getting early access to GPT-4 00:38:21 The AI pivot 00:46:38 Convincing the team00:57:03 Engineering solutions to improve real-world performance 01:07:06 Jake’s thoughts on the future of the legal industry01:14:29 Closing thoughts
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1:15:29
Amir Haleem (Founder of Helium, CEO of Nova Labs)
I spoke with Amir Haleem, founder of Helium and CEO of Nova Labs, about his journey building the world's largest decentralized wireless networks. Amir started Helium in 2013, with the initial vision to make it easier to connect IoT devices to the internet. After trying the traditional telecom playbook, he realized that combining crypto incentives with community participation could actually be key to scaling a truly global wireless network. In our conversation, we spoke about how Amir came to this realisation, and how he tackled all the challenges that come with building and securing such a network, from dealing with sophisticated attempts to game the system, to managing a decentralized and diverse community of stakeholders. Through Nova Labs and Helium, Amir wants to enable a future where decentralized communities play a major role in building and maintaining the networks that connect us.Hope you enjoy this conversation! Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 05:51 Amir’s thoughts on crypto incentives11:15 The tradeoffs with community-led building14:17 The pivot from IoT to wireless networks25:28 Challenges with establishing “proof of coverage”28:45 The balance between speed and perfection42:43 Adapting to industry changes45:24 Amir’s take on why entrepreneurship is so important52:18 Amir’s closing reflections
The Slow Hunch explores how big ideas form over long periods of time. Big innovations are often characterised as single “eureka” moments, when in fact they're often the culmination of many smaller ideas coalescing over a long period of time. On this podcast, USV's Nick Grossman explores how those ideas took shape, and the nonlinear paths of the people behind them.
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