After a brief absence last week during which I disconnected from tech to spend time IRL with college friends in Mexico, I'm back today to talk about something that's been on my mind recently - contrarianism in the startup and VC world. Each edition of this newsletter is different but a prevailing theme is exploring the role of counterculture in challenging mainstream narratives. Today's piece is no different. These two "C" words both thrive on rejecting the status quo a...

Online interaction has taken over much of our social lives, but offline connection is making a quiet comeback. A new wave of IRL social clubs is emerging, tapping into a basic human need for real-world interaction. These spaces aren’t just cultural experiments - they’re becoming meaningful investment opportunities, reshaping how we think about community and connection. They're also a sign of where culture is heading next. But why now?

The internet was on fire last week. Signalgate, vibe coding, Studio Ghibli animations, so on and so forth. As dizzying as it was, it was just another episode of trend exhaustion - the internet's relentless churn of fads that leaves us nauseous. It's the equivalent of a sugar rush, exciting until the crash. Trend exhaustion is a function of content overload - the web is a 24/7 firehose of videos, memes, and hot takes, blasting us until our attention spans compress. We're dr...

Social media is at a crossroads. Over the last two decades, the category has reshaped how we connect, communicate and consume information. What began as an experiment in digital socialization has become a central pillar of modern life. But as platforms like Facebook, instagram and TikTok have grown into trillion-dollar empires, cracks in the system have become impossible to ignore. Centralized control, algorithmic addiction and the commodification of users have led to increasing frustrati...

TGIF. There’s been a lot of noise in the venture capital space in the last decade. Some good, some bad. Today, I’ll explore the evolution of the venture capital industry and discuss how capital and culture have become increasingly intertwined. Venture capital has long been a critical force in shaping technological and cultural evolution. The model emerged in the mid-20th century, and gained traction by financing high-risk, high-reward startups in “far out” industries like semiconductors, ...

Wherever you’re reading this from, I hope it’s somewhere inspiring. For decades, if you wanted to build the future, there was one place to be, the Bay Area. But change is happening. The best ideas - and the brightest minds - are no longer tethered to a few overpriced zip codes. New tech hubs are emerging, and the center of gravity for innovation is shifting. I’ve seen it firsthand. The decentralization of talent is real, and its changing the very fabric of how and...

Fresh off the chaos of ETHDenver, I'm back with a head full of ideas, a wallet full of POAPs, and a few takeaways worth sharing. This was my first time attending - I was excited to make the most of all it had to offer and catch up with some college friends and professors in the city where I attended college. What a great reason to cash in some United miles and head back out West. Let’s get into it! ETHDenver is one of the largest and most influential Ethereum and w...

Happy (as happy as one can be when crypto prices plummet) Friday. I just got back home following a week out West for ETHDenver. It was a heck of a week - amazing events, star-studded speaker panels, and a whole lot of forward thinking and innovation going on. The most interesting part about ETHDenver taking place in the midst of a broad crypto selloff is that, while asset prices are an important indicator, selloffs don’t scare away the real OGs who are building meaningful web3 a..

To kick off the first weekly edition of Fun House, let’s revisit a scene from the comedy classic Hot Tub Time Machine. HTTM follows four friends who return to a once-thriving ski town, now rundown and lifeless. Seeking excitement, they party in a hot tub, only to wake up in 1986 (without realizing it at first). Given a chance to relive their past, they must decide whether to change their futures or stay the course - all while navi..

Welcome in. Here, I'll explore ideas across crypto, technology, startups, internet culture, and social gathering, uncovering the experiments and innovations that shape how we create, connect, and experience the world.