On my mind; last week June 2025
A little brain dump at the scorching tale end of a too-busy Q2. I went to a lot of places, made five new investments, some cool stuff happened I can’t talk about yet and Common Magic hosted its first showcase to get founders together with CM’s investors.
And, beyond the intense bifurcation happening in European venture right now between huge platforms and tiny funds (just recorded an EU VC podcast on this topic), documenting what’s been on my mind.
Life after work is a phrase that keeps popping into my head.
In NY I saw Yancey who gave me a sneak peek of his proposed A-Corp (full talk here), a US legal entity designed for artists and creators to:
- collectively own the same org + its IP, brand, etc
- take both for-profit + non-profit funding
- attribute & split financial rewards
- pay insurance and bring the benefits of other structures to a group that even now have to work, as he says, like “18th century peddlers”
So many of the ideas of crypto 2021–2022 — like the DAO or the split — crop up in wildly different non-crypto spaces. CM’s portfolio company Ellipsus, building github for writers, also offers attribution and splits too.
Speaking of Microsoft Github, also got a sneak peek of Merit Systems launch product via the brilliant Elena Burger — a cool and interesting way to fractionally reward your top contributors and maintainers in open source projects.
I’d not thought before about how much artists/creators + open source maintainers/contributors have in common. Both groups are compelled to do; neither group particularly wants to think about it as Work (as in 9–5, boss tells you, etc); both groups can and should be fairly rewarded for what they do that inspires or is used by others.
By life after work, maybe what I mean is life after jobs.
I had worked for years before beginning my objectively interesting starter job in 2001 but I’ll never forget how haunted + Fight Club I felt the first few weeks in, when it became clear this is how the next few decades could look.
[of course that’s a luxury opinion; of course there will always be times to knuckle down; unevenness of who gets to choose].
But both A-Corp and Merit Systems remind me that work, as in the tasks we do versus the structure and format of Jobs, is, leaving aside cashmonies, more than work; but about dignity and participation.
There’s clearly a big lag between “what AI can do now/what cool prototypes you see on X” and “what is legible, useable, useful NOW” and looking ahead it feels clear we need to reorient how we understand Jobs and Work.
With my Common Magic hat on, this feels like an opportunity not enough people are thinking about as all funding clusters into defence and deeptech. So Q2 I’ve spent time looking at new companies in all kinds of consumer (the love that dare not speak its name in European tech), civic participation, education, next-gen cyber (new internet surfaces = new protection needs).
Education is a complex one. I don’t mean “edtech” in as in Obama era but something broader and richer. The tools we, as kids and adults, have to think critically and adaptively about the world.
Between my son’s favourite Wallace and Gromit film (cheeky gnome Norbit gets hacked) and his favourite Dogman book (Dr Scum tries to take over the world), he heard of artificial intelligence first through two different stories that depict it negatively.
What AI is, and does, and how we think about safety, are important topics. I’m not sure enough “tech people” understand how much confusion, fear and fury there is out there towards this technology and what it can do. Wish we had more nuance that the twin narratives of we’re doomed/I hate AI (my non-tech friends) and it’s going to be utopia (my tech friends).
From Dia to Digg (back!) to [redacted], testing so many good products right now.
And Protocol Berg in Berlin was one of my highlights of the quarter. A really well put-together event (intriguing and diverse talks from technical to philosophical; you had to apply; volunteer led and no sponsors) in a city that seems built to make me feel free. Strong recommend.
Stuff I read that stuck in my brain:
- the first two parts of the Generalist’s deep dive into Founders Fund and the lore of the Thiel. I’m no Thiel stan but it’s an exceptional read. brb just working on my ~paralyzing smile~
- more on the god complex — just relistened to this hyperlegible conversation between Reggie James + Packy Mc about Sam Altman’s impulse to build an omnipotent being at the same time as we have the first American pope
- then two cracking reads
- I could tell you Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead was an uncanny William Blake influenced animal rights eco-thriller set on a frozen Polish tundra but that wouldn’t come close to how good it is. Go read. Loved Complicite’s play version at the Barbican a few years ago.
- Finally insanely dense talent clusters have been on my mind (schelling points) so went crate digging for Stewart Brand’s 1988 write-up of MIT’s Media Lab. Early motto: “demo or die”. What get demo’d in the first thrilling chapter — two phone AIs (agents?) coordinating on behalf of their human owners, music-making AI duetting with violinist, green screen body tracking, massive scale holograms, 7 foot blimps learning to be fish. In 1988 I was a little bit older than my son is now; a reminder things happen both fast and slow.
