OP #257: What's Old Is New Again

Author

Darren Herman
May 14, 2024

Welcome back OP Community . 

After kicking off the year with 16 straight weeks of Operating Partner releases, I had to divert my extra-hour attention to our May 6 Silicon Alley Sports event which was drawing near.  I am thrilled to report that the event is now over and wow - what a fantastic time was had! Official pics and videos will be posted in the coming weeks once I receive them.

There were a bunch of OP subscribers at the event and it was great to see everyone in person.  For those not familiar with Silicon Alley Sports, it’s an organization that brings people together to play sports and all monies left over get donated to charity, this year, it’s Team Daya. The AdTechGod podcast just interviewed Jay Sears of Team Daya - you can listen here if you are interested in their mission of building schools in remote and impoverished parts of the world.

To learn more about future Silicon Alley Sports events, you can put your name down here. Our tennis event is coming up on July 24 and tickets will go on sale in the next few weeks.

💡 I am excited to see that Brian O’Kelley is back writing. For those not familiar with BOK, he’s a key figure responsible for much of the programmatic advertising ecosystem. I first met Brian when he was the CTO of Right Media (Yahoo!) and now, a few hops later, is running Scope3.

🍎 Sometimes the best of the best, Apple, miss the mark on advertising and create backlash.

💰 My friend Dylan wrote another good piece titled, The Probability of Being Acquired. Speaking of money, my friend Andrew over at a16z wrote 10 Years After “Growth Hacking.”

📈 Some interesting thoughts around media and advertising in 2024. A piece by Erez Levin on The Quality Era and Danny Weisman wrote about expected media cost inflation in the coming years.

🙋‍♀️ DMS by Luma is next week.  Will you be there?

🎙 One of my favorite albums is Throwing Copper by Live.  I totally dug the album when it came out and still enjoy listening to it.  Here’s a great piece on the history of the album. The Year Grunge Broke: Live, Throwing Copper.

✈ Staying on the topic of music, in the coming weeks, the Dave Matthews Band will begin touring in the United States. I’m trying to decide which shows I’m going to as my normal venues fall on dates that I cannot attend.

Here are some links to get us started:

Thank you for reading the OP. As always, feel free to reach out with any feedback and/or comments.

Darren

What’s Old Is New Again

Sometimes a walk down memory lane helps put today in context.

  • Pmax is performing well for marketers. Remember blackbox ad networks?

  • The rise of the Chief AI Officer. Remember the Chief Digital Officer?

  • Apples making devices thinner.  Remember the Motorola Razr?

If we’ve talked 1:1 before, there’s a good chance that I said, “it’s the same cupcake, just different sprinkles.” I’m old enough at this point to have seen this play out over and over again but it’s easy to miss and forget it. Happens to me all the time.

I also believe in the physics of the universe, especially Newton’s Third Law of Motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is especially important as a consumer investor: if a trend pulls us in one direction (e.g. skinny jeans) then we can likely see the opposite in some near-term horizon, exacerbated by the rise of algorithm culture. This is playing out now in the fashion space.

You can often understand how we’ve got here by understanding the past.

Request for Job

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She is eager to transition into a role that offers more dynamic engagements, moving away from traditional desk-bound tasks. Ideally, she is looking to delve into the fields of sports/event sponsorship and event management. Her extensive background includes 10 years managing events, particularly through her volunteer work with non-profit organizations, where her contributions have been nothing short of excellent.

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Here are some interesting articles that I read in the last week. 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.

Small Things (Rishad Tobaccowala)

The Quality Era (Erez Levin)

Thank you for reading!

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