November 2022 - "Elon Musk's Twitter Master Plan and the Power Dynamics of Office Furniture."
Welcome to Under the Radar, Up to Speed. This is where I’ll be posting the things I come across that pique my interest and that I think are worth sharing. Hopefully you enjoy them too!
In this week’s edition:
Tweet: Elon’s Master Plan
A thread waiting for you to unspool… Twitter user @CroissantEth dives into the question of why did Elon Musk purchase Twitter and comes up with a seemingly plausible theory that he is looking to turn Twitter into a decentralized social network.
If that bombshell wasn’t big enough, he claims this is actually part of Elon’s master plan to build a super-app X.com that would operate similar to WeChat in China.
@CroissantEth dives into this and is able to bring receipts with many direct quotes from Elon laying out each part of this plan.
Podcast: Benchmark Part II: The Dinner
Benchmark Capital is one of the most prolific VC firms in the world boasting a reputation of multiple best-in-class fund returns over the last three decades under completely different teams. They have some of the biggest names in technology in their portfolios including: Ebay, Twitter, Instagram, Uber and Snap to name a few.
Perhaps more interesting that their stellar reputation is their unique approach to the venture space with a model that goes against the grain at every turn. From its egalitarian organizational structure (no CEO, no titles/ level, just 5 equal partners) to its philosophy around keeping its fund size small and focusing on fund multiple as its north star for success, all the way to its circular desk layout.
One of the areas shrouded in mystery is the partners weekly dinners - an agenda-less meeting to cultivate free flowing ideas and spirited debate. They sit around a custom table for seven that is designed with the purpose of avoiding uneven power dynamics.
The 5 partners will often bring in 1-2 guests of honour to join them from the Silicon Valley elite and this week they brought in the hosts of the podcast Acquired who not only joined them for this dinner, they got to film the whole thing...
An exciting opportunity to look behind the curtain at the conversations and interactions of the one of the most exclusive traditions in venture capital.
Book: “The Senior Compensation Bible” by Devon Henning
Disclaimer: I bought this 46 page ebook for $19 on a whim after watching a couple of the authors TikTok videos.
Though not the normal type of purchase that I make, I’d seen enough to be intrigued. Having worked in tech recruiting I’ve been involved in many offer negotiations in the mid-high 6 figure range but never worked on executive level roles. I was curious about how their compensation packages were structured and what additional components were bought into play at this level.
Spoiler: Everything is on the table. Some examples of out of the box negotiation items: wardrobe allowance, children's private education paid for and international homes.
A lot of this information was well presented and even though it was light on some areas regarding types of equity and offer negotiation, Henning provides links to solid resources which explore these areas in depth. I don’t believe this was ever meant to be a comprehensive guide but is something I suspect I will refer back to frequently, likely rereading whenever I am going through my own job change.
Typically one of my criteria to recommend a book is if there is a clear anecdote or idea that jumps out to me. This is the one that I loved from this book:
At this point it’s good to simplify things by saying at the end of the day there are really only 3 types of equity:
1. Change your car.
2. Change your house.
3. Change your life.
This was a lightbulb moment for me and is a really powerful way to look at what it is you’re negotiating for especially when looking at equity at early stage companies, he goes on to write:
If you’re negotiating stock options, you want to know which of those three categories you’re sitting in and how to get to the next level. To figure that out, there are three questions you should ask when it comes time to talk about options.
Question 1: What is the current strike price?
Question 2: What % of options are represented in the offer?
Question 3: What will my ability be to earn more options?
If you’re interested in learning more about negotiation a couple of additional resources:
Ramit Sethi has one of the better video’s I’ve seen on salary negotiation
“Never Split The Difference” by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss is a classic in this space. Lots more information on his companies Youtube channel The Black Swan Group .
One of Chris Voss’s sayings was another lightbulb moment for me that is my #1 rule of negotiation:
Never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn’t take something better
News: FTX, SBF, CZ and other acronyms.
The FTX story took the world by storm over the last week sending crypto twitter into a frenzy. Over the last few days we’ve seen the tracking of private jets leaving the Bahamas, Elon joining random twitter spaces unannounced to share how SBF wanted to be part of the twitter deal and revelations of the “company culture” at FTX including an onsite psychiatrist who’s job was write scripts for prescription stimulants.
If you want to get a full rundown of how the FTX/ Alameda collapse occurred Jason Choi’s 61 tweet thread is the most complete explanation I’ve seen:
Given the wild twists as this story was unfolding, multiple conspiracy theories also got their moment in spotlight. Here are my 3 favourite so far:
Throughout all of the chaos, the memes were also flying. At the time that CZ (Binance CEO) was still planning to acquire FTX, a recreation of the famous twitter sink picture probably takes the crown:
Awesome quote from Chris Voss. I would love to hear your updated opinions on the chaos that has ensued with SFB especially now that they have him in cuffs. Love the stuff on benchmark. Really love their desk layout and the weekly dinners. Such a great way to stimulate ideas and cooperation. Great read!