WE INTERRUPT YOUR DAILY FIRE DISPATCHES AND BRILLIANT MORNING TAKES WITH… a treat. I’m launching a new show today for Founders Fund, which I’ve dreamt about creating for twenty years, and I’d love for all of you to check it out.

Long story short, I sat 12 tech industry legends down around a table for a night of MAFIA — a game of deception, and deduction, in which three secret liars attempt to eliminate the rest of the group, one by one, while the rest of the group attempts to figure out who’s lying to them before they’re all eliminated.

Players:

Sam Altman, Founder, OpenAI

Palmer Luckey, Co-founder, Anduril

Josie Zayner, Biohacker / Founder Embryo Corporation

Bryan Johnson, Founder, Don’t Die

Tim Urban, Writer, Wait Buy Why

Liv Boeree, Pro Poker Player / Win-Win Pod

Ryan Beiermeister, AI Policy Expert

Dylan Field, Founder, Figma

Moxie Marlinspike, Founder, Signal

Cyan Banister, Partner, Long Journey Ventures

Ryan Petersen, Founder, Flexport

Trae Stephens, Partner, Founders Fund / Co-founder, Anduril

And of course me, your favorite billionaire media mogul mayor of San Francisco, in the position of Narrator (the firm but loving referee, basically)

Check out the first episode here.

I’ve been playing Mafia since college, and back in 2011, when I first moved to San Francisco to work for Peter Thiel, I brought it to Founders Fund. I’ve hosted games at retreats of ours and random weekend gatherings ever since, and as I’ve crossed paths with players from other lineages (“Werewolf,” the lesser mortals call it), I’ve come to realize… almost everyone in tech is into some version of this game.

It’s my favorite game in the world, and not only because of how chaotic and exciting truly every round inevitably becomes, but because of how much Mafia has taught me not only about other people, and people in general, but about myself. Everyone believes they’re an incredible judge of character. But how good are you, really, at discerning the truth when you’re facing someone fully committed to manipulating you?

Do you think you could figure out who’s lying? If you really had to? If your life depended on it?

We filmed our first three episodes at San Francisco’s beloved Tosca Cafe, where the PayPal Mafia famously sat for their now iconic photo. For the next two weeks, we’ll release a new episode every Thursday. And then I’ll get to work on the next season.

Who would you like to see play this game next?

Check out the episode and let me know what you think in the YouTube comments (a real request fyi, that little algo boost is a huge help), and thanks as ever for your support. And your love. AND YOUR MONEY. Jk most of you are freeloaders, which is fine (kind of).

<3 <3 <3

-Solana