Nate O'Brien
@nateobrienn
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Building media brands. Investing at @Roadrunner_VC
New York, USA
Joined March 2020
Nearly a decade ago I signed a contract with my sister stating that I would buy her a car by 2025. Turns out she kept the contract and so I had to buy her one for Christmas. Moral of the story: don’t sign random contracts as a teenager
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Coinbase just shut down their entire affiliate program. This is a MAJOR red flag. I fear that a liquidity crisis is on the horizon.
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I’m fully convinced that this is the best part of the US to live in
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Amex Platinum card isn’t worth $695. You always end up waiting 30 mins to get into an overcrowded lounge
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I’m convinced that the YouTube like button is a dead button. It has no influence on the performance of a video.
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Life hack: just board the plane in group 1, regardless of what your ticket actually says. Works every time.
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The creator bubble is popping. For influencers: Brands deals have dried up substantially in the past 6 months. Most of my friends who were charging $30k per video are now struggling to fill their sponsor slots at $10k.
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As a creator I can say this: .85% of creator economy startups are trying to solve nonexistent problems.
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Why has nobody been able to disrupt the Bloomberg terminal monopoly? The company does $10+ billion annually with little competition.
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I bet $5 on a bunch of random nfl games. I don’t understand, what does this mean? Am I winning?
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All of the Web3 experts suddenly became AI professionals overnight. How convenient.
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I think Steve Jobs would be sad to see what Apple has become. Financialized. Marginally better products. Little creativity in design. Haven’t seen a revolutionary new feature in years.
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I love how pessimistic everyone’s 2023 economy predictions are. go look at their 2022 predictions last year and you’ll realize nobody knows anything. We’re all clueless.
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If you own a business under 20 employees, what title do you give yourself? CEO just sounds corny.
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I want to fund crazier startups. Looking for something that makes 99% of people scratch their heads and/or laugh at the idea. If you’re working on something ridiculous - dm me.
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Few people seem to understand my negative views on credit cards. Mastercard and Visa have duped the entire world into paying a 3% tax on every purchase via interchange fees. Most businesses are happy to offer cash discounts, you just have to ask.
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Yes this could simply be a result of cost cutting efforts. But they aren’t willing to even pay $5 for a new user? Feels strange to completely shut down the program. What’s their LTV of a user?.
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Those who inflated their lifestyle and spending habits have now come to the realization that marketing budgets are the first thing to get cut during recessionary periods. YouTubers who hired a dozen team members last year are now laying off their employees in order to cut costs.
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Who is raising money in 2025? .I'm looking to invest in some startups.
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Tipflation is out of control. I’m getting tired of being expected to tip 25% for someone to hand you a muffin and spin an iPad around. Like, can we just pay these workers more?.
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Hot take: The concept of an influencer/creator will peak in the mid 2020s. Let me explain. In the very near future, AI will replace every step of the content production process. By 2030, less than 20% of content will be produced by individual creators. Now someone may argue.
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Eventually marketing budgets will increase again. However, at the moment they are tightening. This is a good lesson to stay lean with expenses as a creator.
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Which life would you prefer? . Option 1: Lifestyle business. Profit $1 million per year. No employees, no set work hours. Lots of time with family. Option 2: Large business. Profit $50 million per year. 80 hour work weeks. Managing 200 employees. Minimal vacations.
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With imminent economic headwinds this year, I fear that a lot of TikTokers, YouTubers, and Instagram influencers will be forced to pick up new jobs (or shill online courses).
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I’m looking to write a bunch of $50k-$100k checks in Q2. Who is raising right now?.
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Hot take: I think smoking marijuana has been too normalized in recent years. It feels like everyone brushes over the countless negative health effects of the substance.
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People keep talking about how if you invest $500/month for the next 40 years you’ll retire as a millionaire… yeah and a million dollars will buy you a used Toyota Camry in 2063. Congrats.
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As a creator, 10,000 long-form views are more valuable than 10 million short-form views. This is a hill that I’m willing to die on.
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All I want is a farm, a wife, 8 kids, 200 cattle, and a golden retriever.
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Hot take: All of these new “luxury apartments” are ugly and look depressing af
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Being a YouTuber was a fun journey but I think that chapter of my life has officially ended.
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The most underrated cities in the US (according to me) . 1. Pittsburgh, PA .2. Knoxville, TN .3. Bend, OR .4. Oklahoma City, OK .5. Detroit, MI.
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Born too late to explore the earth, born too early to explore the universe. We are the middle children of history.
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Big tech layoffs have amounted to 55,000 people this month. I’m interested to see how many of these people will now form the next billion dollar company.
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This is the most productive desk setup in history. Change my mind
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@DudespostingWs This is so cool! It’s strange looking at that old comment. Life really changes. Thank you everyone.
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If you have two parents who love each other - you’ve won the lottery.
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We’re all living in a bubble. Your feed is either entirely pro-trump or 100% pro-kamala content. The social algorithms have divided us so much that we can’t even comprehend what the other side must look like.
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I’ll pay someone $500/month to shitpost on Twitter for one of our media brands. Whenever a dumb thought pops into your head, just blast it out on this app. Easiest $500 ever.
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Why are we more worried about a balloon instead of the 97 million American phones that have TikTok installed.
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How I made $1.1 million in a few hours: . In 2020 I realized that millions of people wanted to learn how to invest in the stock market. They were flush with stimmy checks & the existing content related to investing was mostly scammy people either selling courses or pumping
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One of the greatest threats to an entrepreneur is when they find themselves in the $5-10 million range of liquid assets. You lose your hunger. Get comfortable. Dangerous spot to be in.
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Let’s be honest. It’s pretty easy to spot when someone has used chatgpt in their writing. There’s something about it that just feels too clean, corporate, and boring.
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I recently realized that my greatest strength may be the ability to sit in silence, reflect, and genuinely be happy within my own head. I didn’t understand how rare that is until now.
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I see no issue with my current setup.
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Why is my Twitter feed getting increasingly violent? Literal videos of executions on my timeline.
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Airport lounges are officially for chumps. People show up early to the airport and wait in line to enter the lounge. Bro, instead just arrive right before your flight. Don’t waste your time at these normie fests.
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Chipotle used to be the best deal in town. Now I’m paying $20 for a half empty bowl of rice and beans. What happened? @ChipotleTweets @BillAckman.
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Will long-form content even exist in 10 years? Seems like Gen Z brains can barely handle 1 minute.
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I swear to god if y’all start trading those monkey NFTs again I’m turning into Michael Burry and shorting everything into oblivion.
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San Francisco is the best city in the US. Change my mind.
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Thanksgiving is fast approaching. Try these conversation starters at the dinner table:.- So how bout that election?.- Did you get your covid booster? .- Greta Thunberg .- How’s your crypto portfolio doing? .- Abortion.
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The more time I spend in the VC industry, the more bullish I get on the United States. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸🇺🇸American innovation is unrivaled.
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On YouTube: We’ve had six figures worth of brand deals canceled in the past 30 days. Either companies are panicking or running out of money. Probably a bit of both.
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I’ve never seen something fall off as hard as Apple Vision Pro.
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I’m trying to figure out this guys angle. He seems to be on a massive PR campaign. Assuming he’s getting ready to lunch a supplement company.
Bryan Johnson spends $2 million a year to be 18 years old again. In 2021, he reduced his epigenetic age by 5.1 years in 7 months (a world record). His 13-steps for a long healthy life:
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Imagine buying Amazon, Google and Microsoft at their lows in 2002. We are not at the bottom yet, but there will be so many life changing deals on tech soon. Sadly, most people will be disinterested in investing by this point.
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I’m looking to join as an LP on a few more funds this year. Anyone raising now?.
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I’m gonna start tweeting random predictions so that in 10 years I can screenshot my old tweets and make myself look like a genius.
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Bloomberg Terminals make over $10 billion per year. Why hasn't anyone been able to disrupt this space?.
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It’s 2022 and we still don’t have a high speed rail system in the United States. Why?.
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Seems like nobody cares about web3 anymore. This should be your cue to begin investing/building in the space.
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How to get canceled: .Step 1 - Download Twitter. Step 2 - Tweet whatever comes to mind. Step 3 - Wait 10 years.
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There's an inverse relationship between the amount of Gucci apparel someone wears vs how much I trust them.
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The last thing I’m gonna do is take a cold shower. No thanks. I’ll be cranking up that heat for the rest of my life.
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I think one of the greatest attributes that someone can have is to be kind of dumb, in the sense that you have total blind confidence in yourself to accomplish something that you are definitely not qualified for - and then trusting yourself to figure it out and pull it off even.
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Spend $100,000 and maybe you’ll save enough points to take a trip to the Bahamas or something whoop-de-do.
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Fine I’ll say it. The interior of a Tesla feels soulless and tacky. I don’t want to tap around on an iPad to turn on the heat. Buttons and dials have more character.
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My grandfather still sells Christmas trees for $15 on his farm. Hasn’t raised the price since 1992
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Quickbooks makes me want to smash my head through the nearest window.
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I am so unbelievably bullish on Argentina. Possibly the most underrated country on earth.
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TikTok has officially lost its edge over Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. Half of the videos on the platform are advertisements.
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My method of philanthropy is going to be selling $1 pizza in NYC at a loss for the next 50 years. That’ll be my charitable contribution to society.
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Inflation will continue to decline in the next few months - this will cause the fed to pause and eventually ease and the markets to roar upwards. Once the fed begins easing we will enter phase 2 of the inflation saga. People really don’t seem to understand how sticky inflation is
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The legalization of sports gambling was such a mistake. Millions of men are blowing their paychecks every weekend.
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Why did BeReal fail? It was once the fastest growing social media platform. Now it’s losing millions of users.
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Things we’ll have to explain to our grandchildren in 40 years, because they’ll no longer exist:. ⁃Eating animals (not lab grown).⁃The death penalty .⁃Carrying a wallet .⁃Voting in-person for elections .⁃Cursive writing .⁃Physical passports .⁃Home ownership.
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I’m the type of person to pay $3,000 for a business class flight and then skimp on guac at chipotle to save $2.65.
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Who is looking for extra work? Message me. I have lots of projects & jobs to outsource.
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Being an influencer is really just a high-paying job. It’s nice for cash flow but there really is no equity appreciation.
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I’m proud to have launched our rolling fund @roadrunner_vc in partnership with @sebfung this week. With an extensive creator network - we aim to invest into early stage startups that we believe have the potential to change the shape of the future.
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