Building a Future We Wish Existed
summary
A career map from building Blogger to inventing Twitter to launching Medium and founding Obvious Ventures, claiming the next 30 years move from digitizing the economy to decarbonizing and decentralizing it. Specific lessons: pivot to simple products that scratch a founder’s own itch (Blogger), avoid chasing easy wins that lack product–market fit (Odeo raised about $3M and stalled), favor network effects over standalone tools (Twitter’s 140‑char network), and back climate tech — Obvious now manages over $1B and funds Beyond Meat, Lilium, Proterra.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction and purpose
- 1:00Growing up in Nebraska
- 3:00From Nebraska to Silicon Valley
- 5:00Founding Blogger
- 7:30Leaving Google for new risks
- 8:30Founding Odeo and podcasting
- 11:20Inception of Twitter
- 14:10Vision behind Medium
- 15:50Starting Obvious Ventures
- 17:40Advice for founders
- 21:30Future categories to build
- 24:40Closing thoughts
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