Alex Danco on Speechwriting, Blogging, and Giving Founders Power
Fresh off the announcement of his move from Shopify to a16z, Alex Danco joins TBPN to talk about the “trade deal” that brought him here and his mission to make the firm’s written content truly world class.
He discusses why he believes writing still matters in the age of AI, how great prose can act as “power transfer technology” for founders, and why he’s betting on the overlooked art of speechwriting. Alex also reflects on his years as a founder, investor, and longtime blogger, and shares the formats he’s most excited to explore, from deal memos to launch speeches.
Timecodes:
0:00 Joining a16z
0:41 The Power of Writing & Speechwriting
2:45 Reflections on Blogging & Communication
5:10 Writing as Power Transfer Technology
6:46 Formats & Content at a16z
8:09 The Underrated Art of Speechwriting
11:21 The Evolution of Blogging & Audience
12:23 Looking Forward: Brand & Legacy
Resources:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Stay Updated:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Shopify: Tokengated Commerce - [Web3 Breakdowns, EP.28]
Today we are running a special episode in our Business Breakdowns feed. My guest is Alex Danco from Shopify - who you may remember from our Business Breakdown on Shopify in 2021. Our conversation focuses on a new concept, tokengated commerce, and how Shopify is building around this theme. Given the market turmoil in crypto assets, we talk about true use cases of tokengated commerce and why blockchain technology is unlocking something that was not possible otherwise. This episode originally ran in our Web3 Breakdowns feed and represents an interesting case study of corporations embracing blockchain technology. Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Danco.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.
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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
[00:02:16] - [First question] - What Shopify itself is as an ecosystem and service
[00:05:14] - An example of interoperability and the power of platforms outside of Shopify
[00:07:02] - How interoperability and platforms come together
[00:12:08] - Where a a constraint-standard resulted in failure
[00:14:26] - Why Shopify is so heavily invested in tokengated commerce
[00:17:10] - Lessons learned about the scarcity function of tokens and how they’ll work
[00:20:34] - Whether or not Shopify will be building their own crypto wallet
[00:24:48] - The important role blockchains play in tokengated economics
[00:28:16] - Overview of the mechanics and offering Shopify is building
[00:32:16] - Tokens help establish protocol adoption
[00:34:27] - Which blockchains and protocols will be mostly used in Shopify’s endeavor
[00:36:33] - Why can’t it be key-gated instead of tokengated
[00:39:00] - Conjuring demand and how Shopify will create demand for their new system
[00:45:46] - The differences between someone's identity and a token holder
[00:47:55] - Signals that suggest tokengated commerce will be a big thing
[00:51:02] - Why this concept hasn’t been more widely adopted already
[00:54:39] - When there will be a solution to easily create and distribute tokens
[00:56:39] - Where things will go from here
[00:59:35] - Reasons why this might not have taken off in five years
Shopify: The E-commerce On-Ramp - [Business Breakdowns, EP. 01]
Today we will be diving into Shopify. Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobi Lütke and Scott Lake around their original problem of why it's so hard to build an online business when they struggled to open an online snowboard equipment store. Today, Shopify's goal is to make commerce better for everyone and it's essentially an on-ramp for people looking to sell online.
To help us break down Shopify, I'm joined by co-host Zack Fuss and our guest Alex Danco, who works on the Money team at Shopify.
To really understand Shopify, you have to understand its different business units -- Core, Merchant Services, Ecosystem, and the new Shop platform -- and the role they each play in making commerce easier and better for merchants. We begin this breakdown by covering each of those business units and how they compare to Apple's business lines. We then dive deep into how Shopify makes money through the first and second derivative of their merchant success and how Shopify thinks about friction in e-commerce. We close with an incredible analogy of Shopify and StarCraft and the tools that Shopify has built into the still-nascent world of e-commerce.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss
Show Notes
[00:03:03] - [First question] - What Shopify is as a product
[00:04:58] - Product pillar 1: Core[00:06:58] - Product pillar 2: Merchant services[00:09:02] - Product pillar 3: Ecosystem
[00:11:04] - Product pillar 4: Shop
[00:13:08] - The evolution of commerce with the rise of the internet
[00:20:01] - Differences between high and low trust commerce
[00:24:48] - The role of friction and trust in stakeholder variety
[00:29:18] - Overview of all four product pillars’ business models
[00:32:10] - Shopify App Store
[00:33:16] - How Shopify competes and partners with their competitors
[00:35:53] - Shop Pay expands to Facebook and Instagram
[00:37:49] - Key areas where Shopify will continue to grow across their product pillars
[00:41:52] - Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay
[00:42:56] - Potential pitfalls of having such a high self-imposed quality bar
[00:44:12] - Conway’s law[00:44:12] - Aggregators versus platforms
[00:52:35] - Unique marketing aspects for Shopify’s sales and marketing with their subscription model
[00:55:37] - Shopify: A StarCraft Inspired Business Strategy
Alex Danco – Scarcity, Abundance and Bubbles - [Invest Like the Best, EP.121]
My guest this week is Alex Danco. Alex is a member of the Discover Team at Social Capital, has a background in biology, and has written about all things tech and business. While Alex is only 30, it seems like he has spent decades thinking about all the topics that we discuss, from changing business models, to railroads, to the shift from products to functions, and the rise and fall of asset bubbles. I hope you enjoy this wide ranging conversation.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
1:15 - (First Question) – A look at his day job on the discover team
2:20 – 40 problems doc
4:27 – How companies get on the list and the turnover
5:21 – Hardest problem they are looking at…housing
11:37 – The investment component that fixes housing
15:35 – Where we are in the technology cycle in the view of abundance vs scarcity
20:54 – Change in distribution and the business vs utility business idea.
28:40 – Bifurcation of small and larger businesses
32:48 – New forms of scarcity today
38:31 – The trend of massive company incumbency
41:07 – The utility of bubbles
49:08 – His favorite bubble
51:18 – Challenges and nuances of bubbles
53:35 – Zero to One Notes on Start-Ups, or How to Build the Future
1:02:22 – Future for VC funding in Silicon Valley
1:04:07 – Advice for business builders
1:08:23 – The Three True Outcomes
1:13:04 – His background in biology and innovation in that space that is coming
1:19:46 – Company examples that are of interest to him and that encapsulate his way of investing
1:24:56 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Alex
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
