My 2023 started with traveling to Mexico City, and symbolically ended in November when I left Tokyo. I’ve been in my personal 2024 for 35 days now. So I’m ready to reflect on what the previous year really was.
OUT-&-BACK, IN LOVE WITH TECHNOLOGY
I think it’s very easily misconstrued that I am a devout techno-optimist. I preach of the importance of optimism daily. But like all faiths, we must go through a chasm of disassociation. And midway through 2022, plus the first half of 2023, I was firmly checked out of technology. As a culture, as an industry, as an idea space.
Mexico City was an enjoyable setting for this feeling. Intensely cultural unlike any other city I’ve visited. An explosion of culinary scenes, vibrant nightlife across established clubs and warehouse raves, and despite the known wave of tech-expats also escaping the doldrums of January in NYC/SF… I was able to avoid them almost entirely.
Returning back to NYC I was fortunate enough to attend the Heron Preston NYFW show and then DJ a fashion week rave. The intersectionality of my interests were peaking, my clean break from technology culture might not have been a fever dream, but something that was hitting a new type of takeoff.
Comically, while this was all happening, I was spending more time than ever in SF. There was an irresistible pull to understand something I couldn’t fully define, but to definitely spend more time with friends there. And then it happened.
I took the long Uber from SF to Cupertino to see my friend Maxim, and was one of the first 5 people to try it. [NDA - redacted]
Like a conversion event that you’re somewhat unaware the magnitude that has transpired within you, I knew that I had experienced the promise that I believed in since I was 19 years old. That technology is a transformative agent, which nearly everything else is downstream of.
A certain hollowness took shape in looking at a lot of cultural activities I was participating in. And it reaffirmed the small amount of cultural creation that actually mattered, at least in my lens of the world, which decimated distraction. And a new question emerged… what does that mean for Eternal.
CHANGING DIRECTIONS WITHOUT CHANGING DIRECTIONS, AND THE HARD REALITY OF DOING SO
There was a certain critique of Eternal that we simply “threw parties” with a venture budget. But for anyone that has actually spent time breaking down the live entertainment and ticketing space, you’ll know that in order to produce that culture at a certain pace… it comes at a unique cost. So how then do you form a new container for that culture.
As a primer, recognize that live events and ticketing live in a duopoly. TicketMaster/LiveNation + AEG/AXS determine an insanely large majority on what produces mainstream live culture, and on the emergent longtail is Dice (focused on clubs & owns BoilerRoom in a covid value destruction steal of an acquisition). Then recognize that the majority of venues that aren’t directly owned by LiveNation etc, are in insane multi-year contracts that lock their technology providers + take fees on-top of whatever an independent artist may try to produce. The cost and legality doesn’t change in a better direction when you start utilizing non-traditional spaces.
When you really breakdown this cultural industry, you’ll realize how predatory it is from the top down. That every ticket for an independent show really should be $40 minimum for folks to be properly compensated. And that our current consumer context is far away from understanding any of this.
Despite all of this, Eternal found a unique path. A mix of owned media with our show Exit Sign, ticketing & production, and spatial livestreaming. It created the framework of 360 cultural production that welcomed in thousands fans (both paying irl & virtual) and a 200k+ audience across our socials. But the cracks were forming, and the true path forward for a venture outcome would have been buying physical venues… and that’s a very specific path to take.
Almost 3 years ago I wrote this piece about “being in it” and the nonlinear journey of being a founder. I think it applies quite broadly about what it means to try and will new things into the world, whether you’re a founder or not. A lot of it though comes down to a certain willingness to change. Change becomes a lot harder when there are more eyes on you… for us we went from 0 eyes on us to, in a sense, 200k+ eyes on us.
Attention can’t get in the way of mission. And what good is a dead mission for fear of change?
I’ve come to believe there is a right way to change. When I came home from Tokyo, I acted on producing that necessary and painful change.
It comes with conversation, as much as it takes. It comes with thorough planning, but leaving some things open ended for contribution. It comes with long nights and weekends. It comes with taking care of the people you have to let go, even with the immediate financial effect. They may not even appreciate it in the moment, but you remember what it meant yourself to keep your company device because you couldn’t afford your own at the time (true story, my personal laptop crashed & when I got laid off from a startup they let me keep the laptop and it allowed me to start Eternal with Luca).
These are all rooted in simple honesty. Decision making gets incredibly hard if you can’t root yourself in honesty.
Right now Eternal is dark. The app is off and the socials are archived. And we’ve never been more right to make those decisions. In a few weeks we get to show the new thing… And it’s the best thing we’ve ever built.
I remember when we first started Eternal, there were all of these companies / products I thought were our competition. All of those have shutdown… or have been acquihired away. Yet we have built and launched quite meaningful experiences that are both new and rooted in change we wanted to see. And now we are on a freshened path, with the same core vision of informing youth identity.
I say that only to remind others that comparison is the thief of joy… and I’d add, focus. Yes be aware of what’s around you. But the longer you are able to survive, the longer you will survive. So much of this consumer game is survival to take more shots to build something meaningful. And the courage the change, when it isn’t fully obvious to the eyes that are on you.
(Obviously if you want to just make money online, there’s a whole other path out there.)
TERMINAL & NYC TECH
This year I launched a new community project, Terminal.
It’s been really rewarding to give a new space for technologists in New York. Towards the end of the year, I really saw what Terminal was meant to be.
THE BEST PLACE IN NYC TO DEMO AND PRESENT NEW IDEAS. A NEW TYPE OF HOMEBREW COMPUTER CLUB.
“TECH CULTURE, IS DEMO CULTURE”
NYC has produced really great technology wins, yes. But it has failed to create a win that truly structures the surrounding NYC technology scene.
By this I mean a consumer facing win, where technology is at the center, instead of the related industry pulls around it. NYC tech is often defined by our relationship to other industries, as we have such a diverse business ecosystem that holds the promise of our melting pot. Finance, retail, real estate, music, consulting, the list goes on.
But the harsh reality is this — Tumblr didn’t do what it needed to do, FourSquare didn’t do what it needed to do, Giphy didn’t do what it needed to do, WeWork is a failure, BlueApron is a failure…
And now the scene has grown as a function of Google owning half of Chelsea and several Facebook buildings. But WHO ARE WEEEEEEEEEEEE
The first consumer technology win, born and raised in NYC will get to actually determine that. The same way Google and Facebook have in the broader valley. I’ve believed this since 2016 when I started working at Rough Draft Ventures, and continually forced the issue in 2017 when I moved to NYC after school despite being told it would ruin my career to not go to SF.
Recently Verci launched a campaign about powerful innovations in cultural hubs, and the vision of their Soho co-working space for NYC Tech. While I like Verci, I do think it misses some pretty core things. They point to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Google at Stanford…
I would argue that Kennedy is a sort of anti-environment. Similar to Los Almos… it’s the isolation of incredible people towards a superhuman mission. Google at Stanford is an interesting reference as well. While I wouldn’t call Stanford an anti-environment, universities do hold a clear inner-outer dynamic through campus culture that I think is really unique. And calls to mind Campus Complex.
What is clear is the shared vision for NYC Tech to be something more. Something new. Something equally ambitious. And there are projects ranging from Verci to Terminal to WeBuildOurIdeas, that are all stoking the communal fire. I think these will actually all come together in unique ways to both collaborate and challenge each other in 2024.
HERE ARE SOME EQUALLY SIGNIFICANT REFLECTIONS, THAT REQUIRED LESS CHARACTERS THAN THE PREVIOUS SECTIONS
ON MENTORS
I have never been big on formal mentors. But Alexia and Soleio have really shown a sense of care for me and my career that I deeply appreciate, and when experiencing it - showed me how much I was missing it in my life previously.
So this is just a quick thank you to them if they see this.
ON PARIS FASHION WEEK WITH YOUR BROTHERS
I was blessed to have Emerson Collective bring me to PFW. And doubly blessed that my best friends were there as well. It was one of the highlights of my year, and I wrote about what I learned from PFW here.
GIVING TALKS AT FWB FEST & NEW HARDWARE
I truly think I gave some of the best talks in tech (as defined by Twitter) this year. And I think my framework for what is emerging is spot on. I’m willing to push all my chips in the middle of the table on this.
THE FREEDOM OF YOUTH CULTURE
The freedom of youth culture is that it remains free of capital constraints. Yes, it gets copied at a faster and faster rate by those with capital. But its spiritual core can’t ever be dampened.
The longer youth culture creates without capital, at least traditional capital, the longer that spiritual motion will stay intact.
There’s so many insanely talented peers that are on this journey, and my only plea is that tech people stop trying to co-opt their movement for your own clout. It’s lazy and damaging.
READING DUNE
I’m currently midway through God Emperor Dune (the 4th book in the series for those not in tune with Shai-Hulud). I think if the series presents a singular question it is this one:
Who do we become, once we know what we have to do?
FILM AND INSPIRATION
I watched a lot of movies this year. Some very old and classic, some repeated. Two that I can’t get out of my head.
Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries + Wong Kar Wai’s Days of Being Wild.
THE HAUNTOLOGY OF STEVE JOBS
While I believe that we need to be definitively “Post-Apple”, I don’t believe that we will ever escape the spirit of Steve Jobs. I also don’t believe that we should.
Steve is, for better or worse, our bar of what good product is. What usefulness means. How technology can be emotive.
I believe we’ve lost this, despite the referential power of the man that willed our current set of daily devices into existence.
I also believe we take the wrong lessons from him, because we don’t dig deep enough into the mechanics of what it means to actually produce such things. Here’s a rare video that uncovers a little of what I mean.
Steve Jobs on Joseph Juran and Quality
HUMANE AND THEIR NEXT BET
I’ve spent a lot of breath on Humane. Sometimes, even, directly with their team.
In short I think they whiffed it. But they have enough money to try again and hopefully they take their learnings and build (and market) something great. I think it came down to courage and focus. They seemed to lack both and it shows in one feature.
The projector is absolutely unnecessary.
While I felt this in a sort-of “if you’re abandoning visual media, don’t even give me visuals” ways. It became cringe-worthy-ingly clear when Imran said, on national tv, “yeah you don’t even need it”.
The Steve Jobs ghost in my ear screamed "HAS HE LEARNED NOTHING”.
Additionally, in tweets the team talks about “not replacing the iPhone”… yet it’s a device that is partnered with T-Mobile.
There’s just a wild sense of non-commitment language. For a startup that really yelled “the future is not on your face” for years.
If I was running Humane, I’d be focused on nailing an “iPod moment” over an “iPhone moment”.
NEW ESSAYS IN THE WORKS, AND WORKING IN 2024
I have two essays that I’ve oddly been taking my time with, and one I know I’ll be able to knock out easily. I hope they all release in early 2024, but who ever knows. Writing is weird and I love it that way.
One is simply titled “NEW INTERNET” and the other is “Memory, Identity, and Transformation” and the other is a breakdown of the film “Her” as it’s so deeply referenced in our AI landscape today.
Like I wrote in my NEW TECHNOLOGIST MANIFESTO, I’m really unapologetic today and energized to work in technology. It is a blessing of the highest order that I’ve been given this life and can make many things of it.
Eternal’s work launching in 2024 is full of so much energy and thought. It is the haunted intersection of technology and the liberal arts. And it’s finally a hill I am willing to die on… I think there’s a hidden power in reaching something you’re willing to fail with. I’ve never seen that written about. But I’ve reached it, and that feels like a new type of signal to me.
I don’t do edits really, so excuse typos and things that don’t make sense.
Thanks so much for giving me your attention. I hope it was worth it, if not… unsubscribing will not hurt my feelings, and will give you back time you literally cannot have back.
Much love.
Live in the light