Skip to content
All-In PodcastAll-In Podcast

E14: Salesforce acquires Slack, DeepMind’s AlphaFold breakthrough, Trust Fund Socialists & more

Follow the crew: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Referenced in the show: NYT - The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/style/trust-fund-activism-resouce-generation.html Coinbase - An upcoming story about Coinbase https://blog.coinbase.com/upcoming-story-about-coinbase-2012afc25d27 NYT - ‘Tokenized’: Inside Black Workers’ Struggles at the King of Crypto Start-Ups https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/technology/coinbase-cryptocurrency-black-employees.html Show Notes: 0:00 Besties intro, fashion talk & the All-In Syndicate 3:47 Insights on Slack being acquired by Salesforce for $27.7B - why did they sell, are there any nitpicks, was this a home run for Salesforce? 19:14 Sacks on going up against Marc Benioff and Salesforce Chatter while at Yammer, importance of holding onto winners as long as possible 27:26 Why is DeepMind's AlphaFold a major breakthrough? When will it begin impacting drug discovery? Dangers of AI at scale 47:07 Republican party misfires, Georgia runoff implications, can Trump pre-pardon his family, Biden's effective strategy so far 59:21 Trump's Section 230 gambit, will Trumpism fade away? 1:05:23 Trust Fund socialists 1:26:14 Coinbase vs. NYT round 2, https://www.thesyndicate.com/allin #allin #tech #news

Jason CalacanishostChamath PalihapitiyahostDavid Friedberghost
Dec 3, 20201h 32mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Slack’s sale, AI’s protein leap, and capitalism’s culture war

  1. The episode covers Salesforce’s $27.7B acquisition of Slack, analyzing why Slack sold, what Salesforce really bought, and how enterprise sales strategy and network effects shaped the outcome.
  2. They then dive into DeepMind’s AlphaFold breakthrough, explaining protein folding, why this unlocks a new era in drug discovery and biotech, and the dual-use risks for powerful biological tools.
  3. The conversation shifts to U.S. politics: Trump’s post-election behavior, Georgia Senate runoffs, Section 230, pardons, and Biden’s centrist, low-drama transition strategy.
  4. They close with a critique of ‘trust fund socialists’ and a New York Times hit piece on Coinbase, defending capitalism’s track record and arguing for apolitical workplaces while mocking media virtue signaling.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Slack’s biggest strategic miss was delaying a serious enterprise sales motion.

The hosts argue Slack’s product-led, bottom-up growth needed to be paired earlier with aggressive, top-down enterprise sales to close large deals and defend against Microsoft, which might have allowed Slack to remain independent and much larger.

Salesforce bought Slack’s inter-company network effects, not just chat software.

Chamath emphasizes Slack’s ‘inter-company edges’—cross-company channels that substitute for email—as a unique network effect that can make Slack the login and communication layer across an entire enterprise when combined with Salesforce’s distribution.

AlphaFold turns protein structure prediction from an intractable science problem into a software problem.

Friedberg explains that by learning to predict 3D protein shapes from amino acid sequences with near-experimental accuracy, AlphaFold enables rational protein design—potentially transforming medicine, materials, climate solutions, and food systems.

Powerful biological tools will drive both massive innovation and massive biodefense needs.

The group notes that AI-driven protein design can create revolutionary therapies and environmental tech, but also novel bioweapons; they predict biodefense will become one of the largest industries later this century as biology becomes ‘democratized.’

Biden’s calm, centrist strategy is tactically weakening the far left and reassuring moderates.

Sacks argues Biden’s establishment cabinet picks, restraint on court-packing, and refusal to pursue criminal charges against Trump help him avoid being painted as radical, while sidelining progressive figures that could hurt Democrats in swing races.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Nobody ever got rich in their seventh‑best idea.

— Chamath Palihapitiya (quoting Warren Buffett)

My biggest mistake as an investor has not been the losers, it’s been selling the winners prematurely.

— David Sacks

This is literally dollars and pennies to make proteins. Any high school biology class can do this now.

— David Friedberg

If you want democracy, the only economic philosophy that’s been partnered with democracy to work well is capitalism.

— Chamath Palihapitiya

The way capitalism works, you only get rich by selling something to somebody that they want that makes their life better.

— David Sacks

Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack: valuation, strategy, and missed opportunitiesEnterprise SaaS go-to-market: bottom-up vs. top-down sales and network effectsDeepMind’s AlphaFold and the protein folding problemBiotech’s future: programmable proteins, biodefense, and dual-use concernsU.S. politics post-2020 election: Georgia runoffs, Trump’s legal fight, Section 230, pardonsWealth, inheritance, and ‘trust fund socialists’ criticizing capitalismMedia dynamics and workplace politics: New York Times vs. Coinbase, apolitical companies

High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

Add to Chrome