Blog Post #12
On Communities Built Around Content and the Performance Benefits of Active Recovery
[Prefer Medium? Read this there by clicking here.]
Two important things stood out this weekend: The importance of resetting for the sake of enhanced thought and performance and the growth of communities around content. I’ll begin with the latter.
As it has been for many VCs over the past 12 months, Clubhouse and the future of audio-only social media was the topic of conversation at a COVID-friendly Friday happy hour in San Francisco. As each of us weighed in on our personal use cases for Clubhouse, why the “rooms” differ from a standard podcast or audiobook experience and which topics we enjoy most, I discovered something interesting: the most compelling feature of Clubhouse, the “Groups” feature on Facebook, the resurgence of active threads on Reddit and the growth of messaging services like Signal are not their product features alone, which certainly enhance their offerings and shouldn’t be discounted, but instead the proliferation of communities built and developed around content. In a post-pandemic era where seeking a greater sense of community in digital form has become a new, and permanent, way of engaging, platforms that enable customized or curated community-building experiences are positioned for exponential growth. It’s important to note that content, or relevant subject matter, is important here. When I think about the communities I participate in on Clubhouse and Facebook, two stand out as remarkably impressive in terms of engagement and activity: a group for Black female Peloton riders appropriately called “Black Girl Magic” on Facebook and a group for people interested in the topic of space called “Small Steps & Giant Leaps” led by Alder Riley on Clubhouse. Both of these communities were recommended to me by close friends with whom I’d never discussed either of these topics in-depth in person but I have been absolutely astounded at not only the level of high quality engagement found in both groups on both platforms but the sheer number of members and participants (thousands).
These are just two examples of one of the most favorable outcomes of a pandemic-influenced 2020, an increased focus on personal interests and individuality complemented by new communication channels and a heightened need for community. The natural consequence of this has been digital communities built around individuality and personal interests. I won’t debate the merits of the many turns this has taken over the past year as it relates to politics and other areas of contention but what I will state with certainty is that while this shift in human behavior was brought on by a temporary circumstance, it is permanent. While I personally don’t invest in social media platforms, I look forward to watching them continue to grow, give voice to a new, diverse set of leaders and influencers and continue to connect individuals across the globe. I’m a firm believer that engaging individuals around common interests is a key factor in reducing unconscious bias and discrimination and a simple approach to building a better world. As it relates to FinTech investing, I’m always on the lookout for payments platforms with positive network effects. Network effects complemented by community access and engagement are why Venmo and Zelle work so well and why Apple Pay’s text to pay feature does not. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of this phenomenon and I look forward to seeing more. There is a B2B payments platform with this top of mind launching later this year I can’t wait to both talk about and invest in. Until then.
The second theme I’ve focused on this weekend is recovery, and the importance of recovery for enhanced physical and mental performance. I personally ended the week spent, both from a more demanding than usual work week and an increased focus on strength and resistance based workout strategies. Rest days in both areas have been fleeting, if not completely non-existent, over the past month and by the time I’d reached Friday evening, I’d realized, it was time… The benefits of a full day recovery cannot be overstated.
One of my most reliable tools in tracking my own recovery is the WHOOP wearable, a tool that tracks and trains performance through the lens of balanced recovery and activity (or what is defined as “Strain”, a dynamic metric unique to WHOOP’s platform). I’m personally interested in devices and applications that take this type of holistic view to human health and performance as are several hungry healthcare investors. Healthcare is an area we spend an increasing amount of time in and I am personally excited by the number of founders using data to paint clearer pictures of our individual health leading us to better preventative care solutions and ultimately longer lives. As it relates to work, with recovery comes new energy and enthusiasm, better ideas, clarity of thought and — hopefully — a sound Sunday blog post. I’m happy to share that I feel rested and ready for the week and even more happy to share that this morning’s workout, a mix of resistance and functional training, was completed by 9am. On we go with the week.
See you in blog post #13.