Kevin Colleran

@michaelmiraflor Thanks for the memories Michael! Hope you are great! (and thanks to our mutual friend Ricky Engelberg for sending this to me)

Related corporate lore: Kevin Colleran was my first Facebook sales rep way back in 2004. He was straight out of Babson and was FB employee <10. Our whole team was at most, 2-3 years out of college. I remember the first time that I met him, over an agency lunch & learn with stale sandwiches. The meeting felt like a dozen others that month from likewise nascent social platforms. He sold us, and we ran The Facebook’s very first targeted paid ad campaign when the site was still limited to a few schools, to promote EA Sports NCAA Football. It felt new and exciting and obviously the future. Our integrated campaign ran team-specific imagery targeted to rival schools. Flash banners with 8 seconds of animation, 30K file size, 3x loop. I trafficked the ads manually by sending their campaign managers the JavaScript tags via email. The CTRs were off the charts, best performing site of the campaign (vs endemic gaming like IGN and sports sites like ESPN). There weren’t proprietary ad units on FB yet, so we ran 120x600s, 160x600s, and 728x90s. We celebrated the successful campaign later that month at a fancy dinner. Probably Slanted Door. Kevin offered all of us at the table jobs at The Facebook, because we “understood what the deal was.” We were a few rounds deep, but it was a serious offer. We all declined. For a while everyone on the agency side at that dinner would respond to an ongoing email chain about what our net worth would be if we all accepted the FB offer. It stopped after a few years because it got too depressing. More than a decade later I spotted Kevin at an event, at either CES or SXSW. He clearly did not remember me on sight but after reminding him of my name he pulled out his iPhone, entered “Miraflor” in his contacts and there I popped up, a 2004/5 entry: “Michael Miraflor, Associate Media Planner, Freestyle Interactive SF.” I don’t remember much about the rest of that conversation other than us mutually thanking each other for the running start at the beginning of our respective careers. Lessons to be learned about being early in a new category, career trajectories, and networking opportunities from this one.

Most creator investors are looking for value in the wrong place: monetization software or tooling. The real value sits with the creator themselves. Here’s why: 1. People matter, brands don't 2. Own the niche, not the category. 3. Build worlds, not products. 4. AI culls the undifferentiated 5. Short the mass market. See replies to keep reading

We are doing our part to prioritize the concept and importance of etiquette with the startup tech founder ecosystem!

Congrats @yrechtman . Well deserved!

@yrechtman @slow Maybe I need to grow facial hair… if I can figure out how

@yrechtman @slow Why do I look 90 years old in this cartoon image and you both look your own age. Bullshit.

Daily etiquette tip from @Slow: Founders should fly coach until they can buy a plane. NetJets is a half measure LARP. Don't be mid.

@Jack_Raines having fun in SF making his mark on the tech founder community.

@lessin @joshk It was meant to be a joke…

@KevinColleran @joshk you completely lack a sense of humor kevin... just enjoy it - it is hilarious (and stop kissing josh's Patootie)

Thank you to Time Magazine for the honor of being named the 170th best venture capital firm in the country -- When we started the firm a decade ago we couldn't have possibly imagined we would ever achieve such a distinction. better luck next year to number 171 - 176

@lessin @Nick_Davidov nope, I can assure you that we didn't apply.... but, "we are honored to be included"

@Nick_Davidov i am sure we didn't apply... maybe someone did for us as a joke? who knows!

@joshk @lessin this whole list makes me cringe knowing that legendary investors (like @joshk ) who have delivered incredible DPI are given arbitrary ratings in a list nobody can understand.

@lessin We were number 174 — can you share any secrets to your success??

@marlette Without you we would have been 171st. Can’t thank you enough!

I couldn’t be more proud of my former partners at Slow Ventures for being Time Magazine’s 170th best venture capital firm in the world. Excited to have played a small part.

my newest investment in a category I have spent my life over optimizing!

A new travel investment for me & @slow given my love of travel hacks and points optimization

@yrechtman @every Clear violation of your employment agreement…

Investors, take note. This is how you add value and get into hot AI companies like @every. I’m gonna be a billionaire because of the tagline I wrote.

We bought a billboard in SF…

Silicon Valley needed a wake-up call—so we put it on a 101 billboard.

Slow is launching our first Creator Fund—backed by institutional LPs—to support creator-first founders and redefine the future of entrepreneurship. Why does this matter? Because creators aren’t just glorified ad space anymore. The world is finally waking up to the real value they bring. Investors are seeing the returns, validating what we’ve believed all along: creators aren’t just influencers—they’re industry-shaping entrepreneurs with the power to build the next big thing. Shout out to the team @mmlightcap @lessin @KevinColleran and Billy Parks

After several years of experimenting with various ways we could finance creators and their entrepreneurial ambitions, we now have a $60m+ fund dedicated to our future efforts

Excited to see what this team builds. It is an idea I have thought about for a very long time and I think these guys have a shot at making it all work.

@lessin I guess that’s why our partner meetings have been so much more productive recently

Personally i don't listen in meetings anymore... i just say uh huh a bunch, smile, and then read the AI notes after the meeting to know what it was about.