“Imagine if Instagram had no discovery. That’s where all financial products are today.” @paulerlanger, co-founder of @fomo,on building the global financial social graph on Solana

Writing a check doesn’t qualify you to give advice. When @fredwilson was 29 he tried to show up to a board meeting and start giving advice. One of the founders stopped him, “come do every job in the company for a week, then we’ll listen.” So he flew to Buffalo and did it. With @uninsightful staying at USV as an Investment Partner, I asked the two of them to sit down and compare notes on a business they entered almost four decades apart. Nikhil is the first analyst in our program’s 20-year history that we've offered the opportunity to stay and move up in the firm. They covered earning a founder’s trust, building conviction before your partners agree, and staying open to ideas that challenge your strongest held beliefs. They also got into where USV has been right, where we’ve been (very) wrong, and how the venture business is changing. 0:00 Preview 1:46 Why Difficult Founders Make the Most Money 5:20 Before You Give a Founder Advice, Earn the Right 11:28 @fomo: We Passed. Then Spent Six Months Trying to Get In. 20:20 Biology Is Becoming Programmable and Opening Up to Outsiders 22:49 When Knowing Less Helps You See More 26:34 How Do You Compete With a $100 Billion VC Firm? 34:45 Why Fred Would Take His Company Public 38:01 What USV Gets Wrong About Founders 40:47 The Moat AI Hasn’t Broken: Network Effects 44:33 Who Wins When AI Becomes Multiplayer?

We're hiring a social lead @fomo (NYC, in-person). Our vision is to bridge the gap for fomo to a broader audience as we build the global financial social graph. In just 1-2 years, we've onboarded 2.5M+ users who have collectively done over $13.5B+ dollars in volume and hit #3# for finance on the app store. As social lead, you'll own content across all socials (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, articles, blogs, newsletters, etc), influencer marketing, large partnerships & more. I'm looking for someone who wants to scale accounts across all platforms to 500k+ followers in <1 year and is searching for a generational opportunity. A trading app for the rest of us. Apply below.