Movers & Shakers: In The Room with Gaby Goldberg
Welcome back to our four part mini-series highlighting individuals who are shaking up the way it’s always been done. In today’s episode, Claudia and Madison sit down with Gaby Goldberg, an investor at The Chernin Group. A self-proclaimed Gen Zer, Gaby natively understands the creator and gamer economies. Through a self-discovery semester off from Stanford, where she spent time working at a startup in Tel Aviv, Gaby fell in love with venture capital. Through Twitter, she landed her first job in VC at Chapter One. After this experience, she found herself at Bessemer before recently joining The Chernin Group to focus on the evolving space of crypto.
Today’s episode explores insights and themes into navigating early career milestones, the concept of modern friends, and the future of Web 3. Let’s open the door.
Thanks to our partners Cooley and Silicon Valley Bank.
Key Theme 1: Navigating early career milestones
A recent college graduate, Gaby spent her time in undergrad fine tuning what gave her energy in order to determine what she wanted to do after graduation. In our conversation, Gaby unpacked the iterative process of discovering the world of venture capital. It was during a semester off from Stanford, ironically halfway around the world in Israel, where Gaby learned an investor role at the early stages may be a fit. Through Twitter, Gaby found her first opportunity at Chapter One. After time spent at Bessemer, Gaby recently joined The Chernin Group with a focus on crypto. The process of finding your first job out of college is often stressful and not a straight line. Gaby’s story exemplifies the importance of trying new opportunities and translating those key lessons into the next best role for you.
Key Theme 2: the concept of modern friends
Gaby embodies the concept of a modern friend by leveraging the internet to find many of her job experiences. Gaby coined the term “modern friend” defined as someone you meet online and then they became a real friend. She revealed that she has met most of her friends today, including her partner at TCG, online. As people spend increasingly more time online, the delta between “real” and “digital” life diminishes. The concept of modern friends removes the stigma and provides a framework for meeting people and establishing relationships in a digital first way, that aren’t just on dating apps.
Key Theme 3: The Future of Web 3
Gaby unpacked a helpful and accessible brief history of the internet which illustrated where we’ve been and where we’re going with web3. The creator economy is calling out for an evolution of ownership online. Gaby discussed the detrimental cost to creators when distribution platforms like Apple or Twitch take 30% or 50% of the revenue flowing through their platforms. In contrast, decentralized networks allow users and creators to have ownership stake in the distribution by design As the platforms reach scale, users become more aligned with the business and therefore further incentivized to help it succeed.
As a creator herself, Gaby intimately relates to these pain points. As an active commentator on the future of web 3 and a crypto-focused investor — we’d encourage our listeners to check out Gaby’s resources to dive deeper.
Thank you so much for joining us in The Room! This episode is now live on all podcast streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving week for all our stateside listeners; we’re so thankful for you! Check back next week for another episode of Movers & Shakers.
