Matt Huang

It's a two-sided market where one side is extremely concentrated and the other side is super lazy, low willingness to pay. Just how you draw it up. Yeah, exactly. So we went to YC and raised some angel and seed money and continued to build and eventually it just wasn't working the way we wanted. So we pursued acquisition of opportunities and ended up getting acquired by Twitter.

It's a two-sided market where one side is extremely concentrated and the other side is super lazy, low willingness to pay. Just how you draw it up. Yeah, exactly. So we went to YC and raised some angel and seed money and continued to build and eventually it just wasn't working the way we wanted. So we pursued acquisition of opportunities and ended up getting acquired by Twitter.

And that itself was an interesting chapter. What did you learn in that M&A? In the M&A process? This was the era when they weren't acquiring the business, they were acquiring us. It was a talent acquisition. We interviewed there, Airbnb, and Palantir. Ended up choosing Twitter, probably the least well-run of the three companies.

And that itself was an interesting chapter. What did you learn in that M&A? In the M&A process? This was the era when they weren't acquiring the business, they were acquiring us. It was a talent acquisition. We interviewed there, Airbnb, and Palantir. Ended up choosing Twitter, probably the least well-run of the three companies.

I would say the most important takeaway for me, I don't think there's a lot of things to learn from failure or a failed startup on a substantive level. But I think there are certain lessons. I certainly learn this now much more or experience this now much more as a parent. Some things you have to learn by experiencing them. You can read all you want. You can think that you understand them.

I would say the most important takeaway for me, I don't think there's a lot of things to learn from failure or a failed startup on a substantive level. But I think there are certain lessons. I certainly learn this now much more or experience this now much more as a parent. Some things you have to learn by experiencing them. You can read all you want. You can think that you understand them.

But the aha doesn't really happen until you're in it. And I think the ambiguity of trying to create something new from scratch and the loneliness of the founder journey and kind of all the founder empathy stuff was probably the main takeaway. And I think that's the biggest thing that has helped me from that experience.

But the aha doesn't really happen until you're in it. And I think the ambiguity of trying to create something new from scratch and the loneliness of the founder journey and kind of all the founder empathy stuff was probably the main takeaway. And I think that's the biggest thing that has helped me from that experience.

Well, I knew I wanted to be in technology and building things. I was definitely not sure whether tech Silicon Valley was the ideal place to do that. That actually connects to, I toyed with the idea for a little bit of going to build something in China. Because this was 2012 now, Silicon Valley, I felt at the time was somewhat saturated. Obviously, it wasn't. But the iPhone was released in 2007.

Well, I knew I wanted to be in technology and building things. I was definitely not sure whether tech Silicon Valley was the ideal place to do that. That actually connects to, I toyed with the idea for a little bit of going to build something in China. Because this was 2012 now, Silicon Valley, I felt at the time was somewhat saturated. Obviously, it wasn't. But the iPhone was released in 2007.

You had a lot of mobile apps get built. I think 2012 was the year Instacart and Snapchat were started. Those were probably the last two big consumer outcomes that were mobile first. I'm probably missing something. And that's what I was interested in. Enterprise is not really, I think it's super interesting for some people. It's not interesting for me.

You had a lot of mobile apps get built. I think 2012 was the year Instacart and Snapchat were started. Those were probably the last two big consumer outcomes that were mobile first. I'm probably missing something. And that's what I was interested in. Enterprise is not really, I think it's super interesting for some people. It's not interesting for me.

And so China felt like the place where you could have that level of compounded annual growth of the underlying space. And I thought, hey, I'm Chinese American. Maybe I'll have an advantage there. When I took the trip, I realized, no, I'm not actually Chinese. It's a very different thing. But that ended up leading me to the ByteDance investment. And we can unpack that.

And so China felt like the place where you could have that level of compounded annual growth of the underlying space. And I thought, hey, I'm Chinese American. Maybe I'll have an advantage there. When I took the trip, I realized, no, I'm not actually Chinese. It's a very different thing. But that ended up leading me to the ByteDance investment. And we can unpack that.

But when I came back, the next time I felt like there was that underlying multi-decade potential to compound with Tailwinds was crypto.

But when I came back, the next time I felt like there was that underlying multi-decade potential to compound with Tailwinds was crypto.

If you visualize back in 2012, every U.S. venture capitalist and company was trying to go to China. China was entering Hollywood. It was very much a globalization at the forefront. And I thought maybe that's where I should spend time. I took vacation from Twitter. So this was like a week-long vacation. I had some mutual friends with folks who were VCs or tech people in China.

If you visualize back in 2012, every U.S. venture capitalist and company was trying to go to China. China was entering Hollywood. It was very much a globalization at the forefront. And I thought maybe that's where I should spend time. I took vacation from Twitter. So this was like a week-long vacation. I had some mutual friends with folks who were VCs or tech people in China.

And so they helped me set up a bunch of meetings. And so I land in Beijing. And I had been there before. The summer before MIT, I went to do some language learning. But even in just that time, which was basically six years, the whole city was transformed. Like you land and it's a massive, massive city, very gray.

And so they helped me set up a bunch of meetings. And so I land in Beijing. And I had been there before. The summer before MIT, I went to do some language learning. But even in just that time, which was basically six years, the whole city was transformed. Like you land and it's a massive, massive city, very gray.