I. AUDIO TOY
Something something, it looks like a toy at first. Something something, audio/voice is extremely untapped beyond podcasts. TTYL is a not-so-secret startup at this point. Dubbing itself as an audio-verse. Piping in several audio points. But in my opinion, trying to reinvent the phone app.
I understand the need. Our phone numbers are no longer sacred, as we get several spam calls a day. So, can we build a new phone held closer to the chest? Can I access Spotify from it? Maybe depending on my location I can receive different alerts. Boom audio-verse built.
To me the killer first audio toy would be reinventing the voicemail. Not voicemail that we know, where we swipe over and see what Mom wanted to say. But voicemail of the 90’s. Where you come home and shuffle across your apartment to see what your friends want to catch you up on. It would work something like this.
You can only access listening to it @ 7pm.
Throughout the day, your friends can push songs, podcasts, voice memos to your voicemail.
That’s it. Send audio jawnz to your friends. And set a meaningful trigger to consume. It’s like a daily playlist at the end of the day, built by your friends. I’d call it Mixtape. For any VC reading this, I’ll take a check now. For any engineers reading this, you can build this if you want. But I want 5% and a board seat. Thank you.
II. VR Gardening
In a recent blog post, somewhere in there, was a throw away thought about VR gardening being a good meta-space social product. I think there’s something very pure about this.
My parents had us help in the yard growing up in the Poconos. The collaborative nature of growing is simply the setting and task for conversation. I think it is a universal truth that people are always looking for an excuse to get closer. We find mechanisms to lower walls. Working together is one. Drinking serves much to this goal.
Just take a moment and imagine a digital world that is simply a sky-scrapper of tulips. A bridge of orchids. You work on a rose fountain with your new friend. Sharing that your mother is sick. You trim a digital stem. It falls to the ground, and vanishes. You finish your conversation as another flower blooms in iridescence not possible in the real world. And this simply expands forever.
III. Forever Beautiful
The other day I grabbed coffee with my girlfriend as a little break from the work day. I told her that I would love to walk through flower walls my entire day. To surround myself with beauty. And if we could do this through AR headsets being warn constantly… that is attractive at first glance.
As we add constant visual digital layers, what does this mean for what we choose to see. Do I forget homelessness if I can choose to turn them into a bush? I think you can throw a thousand examples at this.
IV. FINAL ONE-OFFS
“Snowcrash” is still blowing my mind. I’ll be done with it this week. Might go deep on Neal Stephenson. Is Diamond Age the next one I should go for. Send me more book recs.
As a black founder I find myself wanting to call people out, but Peter Thiel could smack me and then write a check and I’d take it. We all have a price.
Colors Studio is my favorite place to discover music and artists, and it is probably my go to example of why curation in this format will beat my Spotify Discover. But this is also why Rap Caviar is a single human. He recently left though, and I can tell the playlist has suffered.
If this is a simulation, then we are all avatars, and my current company is the most important work possible.
I’m obsessed with the idea of having new words as we build new worlds. I feel slightly alone on this.
I think that’s it for now. Much love. Also, down to answer questions on consumer internet as prompts. If someone wants to get @pmarca to follow me on Twitter, that would be great. Besos.