OP #245: Super Fan Interactions, Vision Pro, Grammys

Author

Darren Herman
February 06, 2024

Happy Tuesday OP Community,

✨I am headed down to New York City this week to attend a PwC Executive Forum on GenAI. I went to their forum six months ago and found it worthwhile. I look forward to sharing some new insights back with the OP community. And yes, I’m looking forward to catching the NY Knicks game tonight at MSG.

🎫My friend Jesse K writes a great music & culture newsletter called Beats & Bytes. He opined on some topics on the forefront of the music industry and I think they are spot on. One of the topics he talks about is the Super-Fan-to-Artist interaction which if you are a longtime reader of the OP, you’ll note that this has been an angel investment area for me re: athletes and fans.

I believe that artists and athletes will be selected by professional teams not only by their skills but also their fanbase. There’s a wide range of athletes coming up who have skills and tremendous fanbases that will enable professional teams to capitalize even more than before. Super fans want to interact with these athletes (Daps) and musicians (The Realest) and those two platforms are early manifestations of this.

Speaking about music, I did enjoy the Grammy Awards. I liked the new format which was more experiential and music-forward. I was rooting for Noah Kahan as Best New Artist but that award went to Victoria Monet. Congrats Victoria. And wow, Jay-Z came out swinging…

💡If you are wondering what else you can do with an investment banking background, Todd Speece gave a short but sweet rundown on his LinkedIn. I think this is highly relevant to many members of the OP community.

👓If you build software or market a product, I urge you to have at least some knowledge about the Apple Vision Pro. First off, it launched last week and could be the evolution of TV + screen experiences. It may not.  But it also may. Apple is behind the platform and I bet they have lots of soon-to-announce content producers creating apps, or porting existing apps to the Vision ecosystem. Have you seen the videos of people watching basketball games on the Vision Pro?  A couple of places to start: this article in The Atlantic, this one in Wired, and this big piece in Vanity Fair. 

As for the $3,500 initial price point; I think it’s smart. Test your product for product-market-fit with a highly engaged artificially small group that is “bought in” and then roll out to the masses and using economies of scale, bring down the cost to something that will get premium mass adoption.

Here are some links to get us started today:

Thank you for reading. If you received this OP letter and are not already a subscriber, you can subscribe here.

❓ One thing you may be able to help me with. An OP reader pointed out that many of my links drive to articles hidden behind a paywall. I was wondering if any other newsletter writers or publishers are reading this to brainstorm ways to allow the OP community access to these articles. Please reach out if you have some thoughts.

Have a great week.

Darren

Play Sports & Do Good.

Many of you know that I’m the Chairman of Silicon Alley Sports, an org that was established over 17 years ago. A whole bunch of you in the OP Community participate with us when we come together a few times per year to play golf, tennis, and pickleball.

At Silicon Alley Sports, our mission is to unite the power of play with a purpose. We bring together a dynamic community of entrepreneurs, founders, digital executives, venture capitalists, angel investors, and ecosystem supporters from the heart of Silicon Alley.

Our goal is not just to play sports, but to foster a unique networking opportunity beyond the hustle of Manhattan, creating a space where like-minded individuals connect, collaborate, and contribute to meaningful causes. Each year, we channel our collective passion for sports into helping those in need, demonstrating that in our community, every game is an opportunity to make a difference.

To see/hear what our events are like, our supporters over at The Buddy Group put together these two videos for us after last year’s Silicon Alley Golf and Pickleball Invitational. In writing this, I re-watched both and smiled. I think you will enjoy them but also but will get a good sense of the type of event this is.

Tickets will be going on sale the week of February 12 for our flagship event taking place on May 6 at the Ardsley Country Club in Westchester County, NY, roughly a 35 minutes drive from Manhattan. While I’ll announce when tickets go on sale through this letter, you can sign up for early access by filling out our form. You’ll receive the official launch email from us.

We launched our SAS LinkedIn group last week and have ~80 members so far. If you’d like to join us, click here.

I've done extensive reading this week and I hope you'll enjoy the following links that I've curated. If you come across an article that you believe would be a great addition to future OP letters, don't hesitate to share it with me. However, please note that I retain the discretion to decide on the content that goes into each OP letter.

Vertical Software 2.0 (Point Nine Land)

Quitting Time (Prof. Galloway)

The Indie Era of Startups (Bryce Roberts)

Technical Stagnation (Jason Crawford)

Thank You For Your Attention

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