Michael Moritz

Every app needs one of the seven deadly sins

Balaji relays Michael Moritz's framework that every breakout consumer app maps to a deadly sin: Tinder is lust, Twitter is wrath, Google is sloth, DoorDash is gluttony. The lesson: deliver a visceral, instantly explainable benefit ('a newsletter that pays you').

“you know, Moritz talks about this half-jokingly as, you know, every app needs one of the seven deadly sins, you know, like lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, wrath, pride, uh, I forget the other ones, right? Um, but it's things close, right? Tinder is lust, right? And Twitter is wrath.”

Steal thisHook users with one visceral, instantly explainable benefit (a deadly sin), not a long-term abstract promise.

Calacanis: journalism and venture investing are the same questions

Calacanis traces his path from magazines (Silicon Alley Reporter, a $12M business) through the dot-com crash and Weblogs Inc. to angel investing, arguing journalism and investing ask identical questions. He notes Michael Moritz and others made the same journalist-to-VC jump.

“And really, as a journalist and a publisher, you ask questions and you try to get to truth, or at least you used to. Now you kind of— we could talk about late-stage journalism, but back in the day, original journalism, you were supposed to be independent and just ask really honest, fair questions, get the answer, don't double-check that your facts were correct and publish a story and not put a linkbaiting headline on it.”