00:21:05 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:21:05] S0: Wait is that? [00:21:06] S2: I have zero clue. I don't know. Love that. Yeah. It could have been just years ago or two. I have, I don't remember, but like in my mind, I'm still 23. I have no idea. I love that. It's a great age. Yeah. So I, yeah, I just like, I started publishing it publicly and like by word-of-mouth and friends, like it was a really valuable resource because it was curated. Yeah. Like I knew which companies were good. There were signaling, right? Ones that could still be interesting and the signaling by means of like investors or amount of money or like time between rounds, like those are things you can see optically. Yeah. And I also just like started storing a bank of information in my brain, right? Of like all these companies over time. It's like you you have a better sense of which ones if you have that, like, constant exposure and top of mind. There one where [00:21:59] S0: you could kinda see, like, patterns emerging and being like, one's gonna be... This one's gonna hit? Definitely not OpenAI. Really? I don't think I [00:22:08] S2: even saw that, like Did you? Like that came out of [00:22:11] S0: nowhere. Yeah, I guess it kind
00:22:11 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:22:11] S0: nowhere. Yeah, I guess it kind [00:22:14] S2: of did. Yeah. But I feel like, you know, I think like Stripe was really obvious. And these are really cool. Cause like they're now companies that huge companies. Yeah. You know, I've been tracking them for seven years. That's crazy. And Coinbase, like, I mean, were like a handful of these companies that continued to grow. Like, I've been watching Flexport for like years and years and years, Figma, like, you know, a bunch of these companies I've interviewed now and it's really awesome. [00:22:45] S0: Okay. I have a tangential question on like spotting companies and tracking talent is like, at what point did you start committing more heavily to like Twitter X as a platform? Cause I feel like you've grown really dramatically on that platform. [00:23:01] S2: This is a very clear answer. Yeah. So it was when Elon took it over. [00:23:06] S0: Really? Okay. [00:23:07] S2: Yes. I just, like I had started doing some, like, I didn't, this was all organic. Like I had no reason. I wasn't trying to make like a million dollars off of a newsletter. Like I was not in the newsletter pump marketing game. Like there was, that was not a thing. [00:23:22] S0: You're like, I'm writing a newsletter for my friends who have curated companies. Yeah.
00:23:22 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:23:22] S0: You're like, I'm writing a newsletter for my friends who have curated companies. Yeah. [00:23:25] S2: It's a resource for work. Yeah. And so I was using it as a utility. I wasn't using it to like, you know, create, not like garbage, but like, you know, clickbait and whatever, even though, like I will make stuff that is funny because I think it is funny clickbait, but it's still valuable information. That's kind of like the irony. So anyway, so like I had started doing a little bit of like marketing and brand building, this was probably when I was at upfront and like putting it on, and I had never done this before. I was putting it on LinkedIn. Turns out if you put something on LinkedIn, people see [00:23:56] S0: it. People
00:23:57 · Molly O'Shea
[00:23:57] S2: do They subscribe. See Yes. It grows. Like most of my newsletter subscribers had come from LinkedIn. Yeah. And I'm like made it a little icon and everything, but anyways, huge fan of Elon. I've obviously been watching Elon's companies throughout the history of time and see how just purely relentless he is as a operator and as like an inventor and as like a technologist. And so, I had read like the books on him, the Walter Isaacson book, like, you know, either you just study someone for a period amount of time. It's like, distinctively places and like uses a playbook for all of his companies. It's like, I don't have any money to buy a Tesla, but I'm sure like, if I had a Tesla, like I would understand like how he built it, like vertical integration and all that stuff. Like he really like will be maniacal about creating processes and then like deleting things that are inefficient. So I was like, okay. There's definitely some game theory there. Once he took over X, I was like, game on, like, is going be a game. It's going to be some sort of like game of words or whatever. Like, you know, I hadn't studied any of the other stuff. I don't care about social media. Like I'm really not like a social media person. I'm sure like I had gotten like into it just through like Instagram and stuff, but like, it's not like I'm like addicted. I just don't have that kind of connection to it. And, once he took over X, it was like, oh, this is obviously going to be a game. And I'm like a really great writer and a creative and whatever. And I was working at a fund at the time that was an RIA. Like, couldn't post anything. Can't
00:25:36 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:25:36] S0: post anything. [00:25:37] S2: Yeah. Like that could have been anything related to our portfolio or companies or whatever. So it had to be PC. Like, I don't wanna get canceled. Like it was all professional and like made sure it was on the mark. And so I used that as a playbook to game Twitter and grow. So I had some ideas. Yeah, tell [00:25:55] S0: me more about that. I'm so interested. This is the first time hearing about the, like the reason for your transition is super interesting. So I'm interested. Yeah. [00:26:04] S2: See how you're And like Twitter has been a huge part of my growth. So like I love it, like X now, sorry. But no, like this was a really important part. They open source the algorithms, I'd study that and I'd use it. [00:26:20] S0: You would go into the developer docs and study it? [00:26:22] S2: No, I would read the summaries like a normal person. I'm not reading developer docs. [00:26:28] S0: I'm just imagining you in there like really studying now. [00:26:33] S2: Okay, press command. No, I don't even know what the terms are, but like, you know, like it would show like how they weight certain things. Like, you know, I'm a good writer, so I can understand like what is a good psychological hook. Obviously, like these aren't, I'm not like trying to like, you know, like get you or like [00:26:54] S0: that kind
00:26:54 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea, S1
[00:26:54] S0: that kind [00:26:54] S2: of thing, but I'm like crafting good stories. Like it's all about storytelling, which is the same with startups, which is the same with fundraising, which is the same with anything in life, sales. And so like, I just started to learn how to like tell really good stories in 140 characters or two eighty characters and more specifically in the first line. [00:27:12] S0: Yeah. Where did where did breaking come from? [00:27:17] S1: I don't know, but I've [00:27:18] S2: obviously abused that. And like, I think I get I think I get penalized every now and again for the... Because, like, they specifically said [00:27:25] S1: that they would, like, ban. [00:27:27] S0: Like we're banning breaking. And they're like, [00:27:30] S2: if you use it too much, we're gonna down rank your content. Wow. What? Well, okay. So I'll just use that for funding announcements and stuff. But sometimes I'm just breaking, Paige like, interviews Molly. No, can't wait to post I [00:27:47] S0: guess my, maybe one of my questions there is kind of like the balance of breaking news versus like a more thematic or like timeless content that isn't as grounded on milestones? Like how do you think about in your interviews, a balance of the two? Because I feel like you do a great job of that.