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The Freedom To Innovate Back in 2014, USV got subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) over...
a year ago
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a year ago
Back in 2014, USV got subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) over our web3 investing activities. We hired a law firm, answered the subpoena, and that ultimately landed me in public testimony in front of the DFS staff. In my testimony, I explained...
AVC
AI Art There has been a lot of discussion about how AIs can make art and possibly replace artists, but I...
a year ago
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a year ago
There has been a lot of discussion about how AIs can make art and possibly replace artists, but I think the opposite is more likely to happen. Artists have been using AI to make art for a while now and the pace has picked up a lot in recent years. I have always loved the […]
AVC
I’ve Moved Onchain Over the last few years, I’ve moved my internet life from web2 to web3 and rarely use any web2...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Over the last few years, I’ve moved my internet life from web2 to web3 and rarely use any web2 services anymore. So I am starting a series called “I’ve Moved Onchain” to explain this journey to everyone and today’s opening post is about blogging, naturally. I’ve blogged at...
AVC
Fun Friday: Upside Pizza Club This is the second post in a row where I am bringing back an old tradition. This time it is Fun...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is the second post in a row where I am bringing back an old tradition. This time it is Fun Friday, something I haven’t done in about five years. Like last week, the catalyst is our portfolio company Blackbird Labs, which I posted about a few months ago. Blackbird is a...
AVC
Sleep I got an Oura ring a couple of years ago and have been working on improving my sleep and sleep...
a year ago
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a year ago
I got an Oura ring a couple of years ago and have been working on improving my sleep and sleep habits ever since. For much of my adult life, I have been a poor sleeper. I have always been able to fall asleep quickly, but I have been plagued by two sleep issues. The first […]
AVC
Noya Six months ago, I wrote about Direct Air Carbon Capture and ended with this: I remember hearing that...
a year ago
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a year ago
Six months ago, I wrote about Direct Air Carbon Capture and ended with this: I remember hearing that “we’ve spent hundreds of years taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into our atmosphere and we are going to spend hundreds of years taking carbon out of the atmosphere...
AVC
The Daily Bolster USV is an investor in Bolster, a marketplace for fractional and full-time executive talent for...
a year ago
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a year ago
USV is an investor in Bolster, a marketplace for fractional and full-time executive talent for startups and growth companies. This week Bolster launched a daily short (5min) podcast and email with actionable insights and advice from founders, operators, and investors. It is...
AVC
Funding Friday: Crowdfunding Restaurants Via Blackbird It has been a long time since I did a Funding Friday here at AVC. I used to do them every Friday. We...
a year ago
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a year ago
It has been a long time since I did a Funding Friday here at AVC. I used to do them every Friday. We have funded a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries here over the years. Here are a few examples. L’Appartement 4F Land To Sea There is a new wrinkle in...
AVC
Threads Like tens of millions of others, I downloaded Threads onto my phone yesterday and signed up. The...
a year ago
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a year ago
Like tens of millions of others, I downloaded Threads onto my phone yesterday and signed up. The thing that Twitter has been missing since it killed off its ecosystem over a decade ago is competition. And as we all know, lack of competition is a very bad thing. In governments and...
AVC
Software That You Can’t Shut Down The term “censorship resistant” is used a lot in the decentralized computing/web3/crypto space to...
a year ago
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a year ago
The term “censorship resistant” is used a lot in the decentralized computing/web3/crypto space to talk about a core feature of these systems. I don’t love the term censorship resistant because it is a wonky term. Software that is encoded in smart contracts (and other ways) on...
AVC
Leading From The Heart I have watched so many leaders over the years in my various roles as lead investor, board member,...
a year ago
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a year ago
I have watched so many leaders over the years in my various roles as lead investor, board member, board chair, investor, and advisor. And one thing I have learned from this front-row seat is that leading from the heart is very powerful. A leader can be the most brilliant product...
AVC
A Conversation With Mike Zamansky Mike Zamansky is the person who got me interested in K12 Computer Science Education in NYC, a cause...
a year ago
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a year ago
Mike Zamansky is the person who got me interested in K12 Computer Science Education in NYC, a cause I have now contributed almost fifteen years of my life to. Our family’s public charity, Gotham Gives, has been funding the work we do in K12 Computer Science Education in NYC for...
AVC
Voice Input Smartphones have had voice input for over a decade now and yet I don’t know that many people who use...
a year ago
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a year ago
Smartphones have had voice input for over a decade now and yet I don’t know that many people who use voice input regularly. I would guess that maybe 10 to 20% of smartphone users are using voice input regularly. That’s a guess based on absolutely no data other than observing...
AVC
The Hour Of Code I have written many times about the Hour Of Code here at AVC. It is the highlight of the annual...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I have written many times about the Hour Of Code here at AVC. It is the highlight of the annual Computer Science Education Week which is the first week of December, which is this week. Yesterday Marco Argenti, Goldman Sachs’ CIO, and I went with NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks...
AVC
What Will Happen In 2024 As we enter 2024, the capital markets have found their footing and are moving higher. The Fed has...
a year ago
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a year ago
As we enter 2024, the capital markets have found their footing and are moving higher. The Fed has taken interest rates as far as they want at this time and inflation has come down. It seems that a “soft landing” is likely. That is good news for the innovation economy because...
AVC
What Is A Protocol And Why Does It Matter? USV’s current thesis is: Enabling trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and...
a year ago
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a year ago
USV’s current thesis is: Enabling trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols. https://www.usv.com/#thesis-3-0 That last word is powerful but unfortunately less understood than the other words in that...
AVC
Open Office Hours at NYC Tech Week NYC Tech Week is next week. It will be a week filled with events for the tech sector to engage and...
a year ago
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a year ago
NYC Tech Week is next week. It will be a week filled with events for the tech sector to engage and connect with each other. A particularly great part of tech week is VC Open Office Hours. There are over 100 VC investors signed up to participate next week. Here is how it works: 1/...
AVC
My Year-End Playlist As usual, here are some songs that stuck with me this year. fredwilson · Backing It When No One...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
As usual, here are some songs that stuck with me this year. fredwilson · Backing It When No One Believed I hope you enjoy it.
AVC
The Newest Members of the USV Team Last Thursday, three new blog posts hit USV.com announcing our three new analysts: This is our...
a year ago
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a year ago
Last Thursday, three new blog posts hit USV.com announcing our three new analysts: This is our tradition at USV. When someone starts at USV, we ask them to write a post on the USV blog introducing themselves. This helps founders who come to talk to us about their companies...
AVC
AIVC I was approached by a company this week that has trained a large language model on all of the blog...
a year ago
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a year ago
I was approached by a company this week that has trained a large language model on all of the blog posts I have written here at AVC. There are 9059 of them for those that are counting. They wanted to offer me a chat bot called “ask Fred.” I told them no thanks. Let me […]
AVC
Etsy Lens I am the Chair of the Etsy Board and have been an investor and board member at Etsy since the...
a year ago
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a year ago
I am the Chair of the Etsy Board and have been an investor and board member at Etsy since the mid-2000s. It is a company that I love and get great joy from being part of. Last year Etsy quietly launched a feature that has completely changed the way I use Etsy. It is called […]
AVC
The 83b Election First and foremost, this is not tax advice. I am not a tax advisor and you should never take...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
First and foremost, this is not tax advice. I am not a tax advisor and you should never take anything you read here as tax advice. If you read something here that makes you think you should take some tax-related action, please always consult your tax advisor. With that disclosure...
AVC
Bi-Directional EV Charging EV sales in the US are on the rise, reaching 7% of all car sales in Q1 2023, up from 4.6% a year...
a year ago
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a year ago
EV sales in the US are on the rise, reaching 7% of all car sales in Q1 2023, up from 4.6% a year earlier. If that rate of growth continues, EVs will be 10% of the US car market by next year. Most people who own an EV charge it at home, using an EV […]
AVC
What Will Happen In 2023 I want to focus this post on the macro environment for tech, startups, web3, and climate because...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I want to focus this post on the macro environment for tech, startups, web3, and climate because that is where my head is at right now. I believe that sometime in the first half of 2023, the central banks around the world will start backing off the tightening that they have been...
AVC
The Annual Computer Science Fair Ten years ago, a small group of folks in the K12 Computer Science Education community in NYC decided...
a year ago
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a year ago
Ten years ago, a small group of folks in the K12 Computer Science Education community in NYC decided to put on a “mock job fair” for high school students who were taking computer science classes in the NYC public schools. That was the start of an annual day of engagement and...
AVC
Read Write Own Chris Dixon, who leads the A16Z crypto fund, and has been an entrepreneur, VC, and friend of mine...
a year ago
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a year ago
Chris Dixon, who leads the A16Z crypto fund, and has been an entrepreneur, VC, and friend of mine for over twenty years, has written a book called Read Write Own that is available for pre-order now and will start shipping at the end of the month. Chris gave me a copy right before...
AVC
The Heist On Saturday, September 9th, the Gotham Gal and I arrived at JFK airport after an eight-hour flight...
a year ago
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a year ago
On Saturday, September 9th, the Gotham Gal and I arrived at JFK airport after an eight-hour flight from Paris. While waiting for our luggage, I got pushed a notification in my web3 wallet that there was an NFT drop underway that I could participate in. So I clicked on the link,...
AVC
The VC’s Customer I saw Dan Primack assert that the venture capitalist’s customer is their limited partners in this...
a year ago
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a year ago
I saw Dan Primack assert that the venture capitalist’s customer is their limited partners in this tweet about the Citizen app, the recap, and their VCs: I DM’d Dan to let him know that is not the right way to think about the venture capital business. Back in 2005, in the early...
AVC
Sign Everything The advances in AI over the last year are mind-boggling. I attended a dinner this past week with USV...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The advances in AI over the last year are mind-boggling. I attended a dinner this past week with USV portfolio founders and one who works in education told us that ChatGPT has effectively ended the essay as a way for teachers to assess student progress. It will be easier for a...
AVC
Coming Back Up For Air The last time I posted was May 23rd, three weeks ago. There was a time when I wrote every day. When...
a year ago
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a year ago
The last time I posted was May 23rd, three weeks ago. There was a time when I wrote every day. When I had not yet posted on any day, I felt like something was missing, like I had not yet had my cup of coffee. Clearly, I have moved on from that need to write […]
AVC
The Blackbird Platform The first project launched this week on our portfolio company Blackbird‘s platform. It is a friends...
a year ago
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a year ago
The first project launched this week on our portfolio company Blackbird‘s platform. It is a friends and family program at a restaurant in Williamsburg Brooklyn called Gertie. Blackbird wrote about it today on their excellent Supersonic blog: Throughout, when you tap Gertie’s...
AVC
NFT Art CDMX We spent this past weekend in Mexico City at Bright Moment’s NFT Art CDMX. Bright Moments is the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
We spent this past weekend in Mexico City at Bright Moment’s NFT Art CDMX. Bright Moments is the premier NFT art “gallery” in the world. I use that term in parentheses because Bright Moments is much more than a gallery but that word is well understood. USV is a member of the...
AVC
Machine Learning and Schools I read last week that the NYC Department of Education has banned ChatGPT from its networks and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I read last week that the NYC Department of Education has banned ChatGPT from its networks and devices. I understand that reaction and mentioned the issues that AI/ML create for educators in a post a few weeks ago. I attended a dinner this past week with USV portfolio founders...
AVC
What Does “Native” Mean When a new technology comes to market, we often look for “native” applications of that technology....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
When a new technology comes to market, we often look for “native” applications of that technology. What is a “native” AI application? What is a “native” Web3 application? I have not seen a better articulation of “native” than my partner Albert’s post from 2009 on native mobile...
AVC
What Happened In 2023 I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending...
a year ago
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a year ago
I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending (What Happened) and one looking forward to the year ahead (What Will Happen). This is the first of these two posts. The second one will run tomorrow. I ended my What Will Happen In...
AVC
The Cleanse I’ve never done a cleanse. But many of my friends and family members have done them. There are...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’ve never done a cleanse. But many of my friends and family members have done them. There are various flavors of cleanses but the basic idea is you cut back your consumption of food and drink and replace it with mostly liquid nutrition for anywhere from a day to a month. I...
AVC
The AI Assist I wrote last week that I have started coding again. And I have been amazed at how much easier it is...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I wrote last week that I have started coding again. And I have been amazed at how much easier it is now that I can code and deploy in the cloud without having to spin up anything myself. But the other massive improvement in programming is the “AI assist.” I am working in a...
AVC
What Happened In 2022 I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending and one looking forward to the year ahead. This is the first of these two posts. The second one will run tomorrow. What happened in 2022 is the bottom fell out of the capital...
AVC
Flooding I spent a good part of my childhood at West Point, the US Military Academy. I got an email yesterday...
a year ago
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a year ago
I spent a good part of my childhood at West Point, the US Military Academy. I got an email yesterday with photos of the flooding at West Point. My dad and brother used to work in that grey stone building called Mahan Hall. And the same storms that did this to West Point did worse...
AVC
Coding Again It has been many years since I’ve written code. I’ve hacked around in HTML and CSS a bit on this...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It has been many years since I’ve written code. I’ve hacked around in HTML and CSS a bit on this blog and a few other places. But I have not actually written an application in a very long time. I think it might be thirty years since I’ve done any real programming. Over the...
AVC
CEO 360s I’ve written about this topic before. It is an important topic and I want to raise it again. Boards...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve written about this topic before. It is an important topic and I want to raise it again. Boards often discuss CEO performance without really knowing how things work inside the company. And CEOs often have very little visibility to how they are doing and what the board thinks...
AVC
The Buy And Hold Mindset When markets are in turmoil, like they have been for most of this year, I like to have a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
When markets are in turmoil, like they have been for most of this year, I like to have a buy-and-hold mindset when it comes to making new investments. It is hard to know when you’ve reached the bottom and can start buying again, but if you think about a ten or twenty-year hold,...
AVC
The Rebrand I’d guess that upwards of half of USV’s portfolio companies have changed the name of their company...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’d guess that upwards of half of USV’s portfolio companies have changed the name of their company during their lifetime. It is not hard to understand why. Founders start out with an idea and not much more. By the time they have built a product, built a team, and found product...
AVC
Empire AI Last summer I sat down with Tom Secunda, who co-founded Bloomberg LP with Mike Bloomberg, to talk...
a year ago
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a year ago
Last summer I sat down with Tom Secunda, who co-founded Bloomberg LP with Mike Bloomberg, to talk about areas of shared philanthropic interest. Tom told me that academic institutions do not have access to the kind of AI/ML infrastructure that the top tech companies have and he...
AVC
Transit Tech Lab The Partnership for NYC, alongside its partners at the MTA, the Port Authority of New York and New...
a year ago
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a year ago
The Partnership for NYC, alongside its partners at the MTA, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, NJ TRANSIT, and NYC Department of Transportation, launched a call for applications for the 6th annual Transit Tech Lab this week. To kick off this year’s program, the...
AVC
How This Ends (Part Three) The venture capital sector has been in a sustained downturn for almost eighteen months. How does...
a year ago
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a year ago
The venture capital sector has been in a sustained downturn for almost eighteen months. How does this downturn end? Well, it may have already ended, but let’s see about that. We will know for sure in a few quarters. The NASDAQ peaked at roughly 16,000 in November 2021. By June...
AVC
Yubikey Authenticator I got a new Pixel 7 last week and have started the tedious process of moving over to a new phone....
a year ago
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a year ago
I got a new Pixel 7 last week and have started the tedious process of moving over to a new phone. One of the more painful chores in moving from one phone to another is moving the Google Authenticator app and all of the two factor codes to the new phone. My partner Nick told […]
AVC
My Year-End Playlist Every year I put together a playlist at the end of the year with some of the new music I found and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Every year I put together a playlist at the end of the year with some of the new music I found and got into. Most of these songs are under the radar which is my favorite kind of music. So I hope you find something new that you like in here.
AVC
Helium Mobile USV has been an investor in the Helium network since 2019. I have always loved the idea of using...
a year ago
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a year ago
USV has been an investor in the Helium network since 2019. I have always loved the idea of using web3 technologies to let consumers to “peer produce” a communications network creating a people-powered network. Helium started out powering communications between low-power “Internet...
AVC
Subscribing To AVC For many years, there were three ways to subscribe to AVC: 1/ Email – Get new posts delivered to...
a year ago
12
a year ago
For many years, there were three ways to subscribe to AVC: 1/ Email – Get new posts delivered to your inbox 2/ RSS – Get new posts delivered to your RSS reader 3/ X – Follow AVC on X X revoked the API access that I was using to autopost three or four months ago. […]
AVC
The New York Tech Sector The New York Times had a piece yesterday suggesting that tech will no longer be a growth engine for...
a year ago
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a year ago
The New York Times had a piece yesterday suggesting that tech will no longer be a growth engine for NYC and the surrounding metro area as it has been for the last twenty years. I am not going to link to the piece because it is behind a paywall but if you want to read […]
AVC
Art On The Wall I’ve written about this topic a bunch over the years. It is something I’ve been interested in for...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve written about this topic a bunch over the years. It is something I’ve been interested in for quite a while. Our homes are filled with big hunks of plastic hanging on the wall that are off most of the time. They look like this: Now that’s a lovely scene. Some nice plants. A...