MAFIA EP 001

we need more sf party journalism. like, someone should be covering the series A parties, cave raves, sf met gala, etc

NEW from The General Podcast: the "design founder" episode. @brian_lovin x @wjosephflynn Before this conversation, Brian and Joey had never actually met, but had surprisingly parallel careers. Both spent early years at Facebook, both started multiple companies, both found their way into some of the most design-forward product orgs today, and both were nominated to come on the show by legendary design leader, @soleio. This one's for the designers. Tune in👇🎧

NEW from The General Podcast: the "design founder" episode. @brian_lovin x @wjosephflynn Before this conversation, Brian and Joey had never actually met, but had surprisingly parallel careers. Both spent early years at Facebook, both started multiple companies, both found their way into some of the most design-forward product orgs today, and both were nominated to come on the show by legendary design leader, @soleio. This one's for the designers. Tune in👇🎧

Not usually how I make intros, but since they’re two design giants meeting on camera for the first time, you should watch this terrific convo. @wjosephflynn 🤝 @brian_lovin

NEW from The General Podcast: the "design founder" episode. @brian_lovin x @wjosephflynn Before this conversation, Brian and Joey had never actually met, but had surprisingly parallel careers. Both spent early years at Facebook, both started multiple companies, both found their way into some of the most design-forward product orgs today, and both were nominated to come on the show by legendary design leader, @soleio. This one's for the designers. Tune in👇🎧

NEW from The General Podcast: the "design founder" episode. @brian_lovin x @wjosephflynn Before this conversation, Brian and Joey had never actually met, but had surprisingly parallel careers. Both spent early years at Facebook, both started multiple companies, both found their way into some of the most design-forward product orgs today, and both were nominated to come on the show by legendary design leader, @soleio. This one's for the designers. Tune in👇🎧

Huge congrats to @RattrayAlex and the @StainlessAPI team on joining Anthropic. We’re proud to have backed them since the beginning and worked alongside them as they built the API infrastructure developers and agents now rely on. From the start, Stainless had a clear view that developer experience is not a layer on top of the product. For API companies, it is the product. As agents become a primary way software gets used, SDKs, docs, and auth become even more load-bearing. Stainless saw that shift early and kept shipping at a quality bar the most discerning teams could trust. Excited to see what the team builds next. Anthropic got a great one.

The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen. Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation). Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there. Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI. As a result, 1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb. Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more. 2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future). Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire" 3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed. Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies. 4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either. No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money." I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here. Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success". Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.