For 15 years, entrepreneurs and investors the Morins and the Lessins have debated the future of Silicon Valley and tech as the closest of friends. Now six companies, two ventures funds, and more than a decade at Google, Apple and Facebook later, they are opening up the debate. From The Information, Offline Ventures, and Slow Ventures it is More Or Less.
More or Less Podcast
Jessica Lessin - Jessica Lessin is the founder and CEO of The Information, the publication known for original, in-depth reporting about technology and business. In the last decade, Lessin has grown The Information into one of the largest subscription journalism communities in the world, attracting an influential audience of business leaders globally. Lessin has covered Silicon Valley and the technology industry for almost two decades and was previously a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal. She lives in the Bay Area, with her husband and three boys. When not trying to keep up with her children, she enjoys surfing and skiing.
Brit Morin - is a venture capitalist, serial entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate creative. She is the co-founder and managing partner of Offline Ventures, an early-stage venture fund and studio where she has led investments into companies such as Kindbody, Bobbie, CoFertility, and more. For over a decade, Brit has also built and operated brands that have engaged tens of millions of women, including Brit + Co, Selfmade, and BFF. On top of this, she has served on boards such as the Girl Scouts of America and Life360 (L360) for many years. Morin is a chart-topping podcaster, best-selling author and regular correspondent for nationally acclaimed television shows. She formerly worked at both Apple and Google, and now spends her free time with her family of five in Mill Valley, CA.
Dave Morin - is a venture capitalist and technology entrepreneur. He is currently the co-founder and managing partner of Offline Ventures, an early-stage venture fund and studio. Prior to Offline, Dave was a founder and general partner of Slow Ventures. He co-founded the social network Path in 2010 and later sold it in 2015. His early career was spent at Apple and Facebook, building some of the earliest user experiences and developer platforms that billions of people now use. He has served on the board of companies like Eventbrite, Hinge, Dwell and more. Dave spends much of his free time on philanthropic endeavors around mental health, and is the Chairman of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three children.
Sam Lessin - is currently an aspiring pirate, pilot, GP at Slow Ventures and Intern at The Information. He is a two time member of the Forbes 'Midas' Seed List of the 25 best seed investors (also frequently referred to as the 'Junior Varsity' Capitalism Team)... the two times it has been published. He can’t remember if he was ever on the 30 under 30 list, but he hopes not. He has seeded some of the most successful and iconic companies of the last two decades from near zero across Crypto (Solana, Ripple, Etc.), Consumer (Venmo, Birchbox, Makerbot, Etc.), and even some enterprise (Airtable - early non-seed, Otter, Openphone & Teamshares - give it a few years :)... etc. Earlier in his career he was one of the then three VPs of product at Facebook and ran profiles, identity, privacy among other teams and was on the management team through some historic moments. He has co-founded two companies drop.io (a Brooklyn company before that was cool, sold to FB) and the Fin Exploration Company. Recently, he published a book of his Modest Proposal screenshot essays using Kindle's Self Publishing Service and is annoyed with their pricing structure, though admits it is quite clever. He started his career with a weird non-tech life detour through Bain and Company where he once helped solved a 'hot nut' problem at a factory and optimized some credit card rewards programs in SPSS. Once his brother threw up in his hiking boot in Bhutan 20 miles into a hike. He likes to ski, kite, and foil and hates calendly. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three boys, and thinks they are pretty great.