Culture

Deeper than the media

Naomi Osaka turned heads last week after announcing she would not be speaking to the media during the French Open as a way to focus on her mental health.…

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This Picture is Worth +/-1,000 ETH

The innovation of the internet was to make information cheap, accessible and capable of being infinitely duplicated. This construct opened the world to abundant and inexpensive information. Humanity forever changed…

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Closing the Pleasure Gap

For the past two years, Listen has developed a thesis called “Better You,” which focuses on the factors that drive personal health and wellness — mental, sleep, nutrition, activity, livelihood,…

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Voice of the consumer

Startup: “We’re maniacally focused on the consumer.” VC: “Great, how many consumers did you talk to before launching your brand?” Startup: “Oh, we don’t do research. I mean…

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Theraplay

Coming out of our 2018 thematic jammer, we made “therapy” a focus area for new investments. The belief was (and still is) that the concept of exercising your mind was…

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What capital can’t do

In July of 2018, Brandless raised $240M from Softbank’s Vision Fund. The funding event would have caused a stir in the Listen office given our questions on their anti-branding approach.…

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Making safety cool

Maybe it’s the renegade mindset or the invincible nature of humans, but for some reason safety has rarely been culturally cool. Especially when you’re asking people to alter their appearance.…

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Investing in my mind

My first therapy session was when I was six years old. My recently married Indian-immigrant parents knew that most blended families end in divorce and vowed to make it work.…

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