For those of you who subscribe to the Slow Hunch pod via RSS or streaming platforms, you'll know I've released a few episodes over the last few weeks, but I have neglected to mention them here. My sincere apologies! Please enjoy the last 3 episodes, which were so fun to record.

Episode 5: Zoe Weinberg from ex/ante

Zoe is the founder of ex/ante, a new seed fund where we already have several co-investments at USV. Zoe's slow hunch, shaped by her experiences in conflict zones and policy work at the National Security Commission on AI, is that there will be growing demand for technology that enhances human agency and control over personal data, computing, and digital experiences. Her thesis centers on investing in technologies that directly or indirectly promote individual autonomy while supporting democratic values, positioning these as a counterbalance to both digital authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism. There could not be a more important time than now, as advances in AI and cryptography are so rapidly changing the landscape of how software is getting built and data is getting managed/transformed. Full episode here:

Episode 6: Amir Haleem from Nova Labs / Helium

Amir is the creator of the Helium Network, and relatedly, the co-founder and CEO of Nova Labs. Helium is a crowd-sourced, crypto-powered wireless network -- anyone around the world can install a Helium hotspot, plug it in to their internet connection, and earn tokens for providing connectivity to the network. It's an amazing example of what's possible if you look at an old problem in a new way, using new tools & approaches. When USV invested in Helium in 2019, Amir and team were just drawing up plans for this new network. Since then, millions of people around the globe have contributed to the network, and Nova Labs has expanded from providing tools to network builders to launching a consumer wireless brand. Amir pulls no punches talking about the experience of building a startup on double hard mode (building in a complex legacy industry like telecom and with a powerful yet tricky new tool of crypto communities). Full episode below:

Episode 7: Jake Heller from Casetext

Last but not least: Jake is the co-founder and CEO of Casetext. USV invested in Casetext back in 2014, along the thesis that software could radically redefine how legal back-end infrastructure would be built. and ultimately how legal services are provided. Jake has been a computer hacker / programmer his whole life, and a lawyer by training for most of his professional life. He's been pursuing this slow hunch of how software can really change how we manage and process information and apply it to societally fundamental sectors like law. Jake's story is fascinating, as is the story of Castext, which after a decade of hard work and mixed results because an early OpenAI partner before the launch of ChatGPT -- Jake embraced the moment and leaned the company hard into AI, becoming one of the first companies in the legal tech space to do so, and ultimately resulting in transformative business growth and a successful acquisition of the company. Full episode here:

As always, episodes of the Slow Hunch Podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and on RSS.

On this episode of the Slow Hunch Pod I'm so excited to welcome my old friend Dani Grant who is the CEO of USV's portfolio company Jam. Dani and I got to know each other dating back to when she was an analyst at USV from 2018 to 202. During that time we had a blast working together on lots of things, including making investments, writing blog posts together and building apps together.

One of the things that always stood out to me about Dani is the infectious energy that she brings to the process of building things, especially building things as a team. And that's what her company Jam is all about: Jam build tools that help product and engineering teams fix bugs and collaborate on improving products in ways that are not just efficient but joyful and fun.

In our conversation we'll talk about Dani's journey leading up to building Jam, all the way back to her childhood in mountain view where she got the bug for building, and including some of her tips for cultivating curiosity, building a personal professional network, and helping teams achieve their highest potential.

As always, you can listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple or wherever else you consume podcasts and can watch the full video on YouTube:

I'm so excited to hit publish on the latest episode of the Slow Hunch Podcast, where I chat with author, thinker and creator Steven Johnson.

As anyone who's read this blog over the years knows, the idea for the concept "The Slow Hunch" comes from Steven's book Where Good Ideas Come From. I've always loved that book and have drawn so much inspiration from it over the years.

One of the key ideas in WGICF is the "Commonplace Book", which was essentially a scrapbook of ideas, notes, and thoughts, typically kept by some of history's great thinkers. Steven chronicles how thinkers like Darwin used a commonplace book not just to capture their own thoughts, but to paste notes from readings and others' ideas. And, most importantly, the key to making a commonplace book work was committing to re-reading the notes over time, on the chance that connections likely exist that you might not have realized previously. Thus, laying the groundwork for turning Slow Hunches into big breakthroughs.

Shortly after reading the book (nearly 15 years ago now), I wrote this post seeking a digital version of the Commonplace Book. A way of replicating this experience but using digital tools and stitching together notes, ideas and thoughts from across our digital lived experience.

It took a while, but now with the advent of LLMs, it's more possible than ever to build such tools. And in fact, and of course, Steven has actually been working on one -- for the past several years he's been working with the team at Google Labs to build NotebookLM, and AI-powered commonplace book.

In my conversation with Steven, we talk about his personal Slow Hunch on the path to "tools for networked thought" -- spanning his first explorations with Hypercard in the 1980s all the way to his work on NotebookLM today.

As always, the episode can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and anywhere else you might catch a pod. Enjoy!