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...
2 weeks 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
AI Art
There has been a lot of discussion about how AIs can make art and possibly replace artists, but I...
3 weeks 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
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...
3 weeks 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
A Conversation With Mike Zamansky
Mike Zamansky is the person who got me interested in K12 Computer Science Education in NYC, a cause...
2 months 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
Leading From The Heart
I have watched so many leaders over the years in my various roles as lead investor, board member,...
a month 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
The Hour Of Code
I have written many times about the Hour Of Code here at AVC. It is the highlight of the annual...
5 months 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
The 83b Election
First and foremost, this is not tax advice. I am not a tax advisor and you should never take...
3 months 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
The Daily Bolster
USV is an investor in Bolster, a marketplace for fractional and full-time executive talent for...
2 months 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
The Freedom To Innovate
Back in 2014, USV got subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) over...
a week 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
Noya
Six months ago, I wrote about Direct Air Carbon Capture and ended with this: I remember hearing that...
a month 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
NFT Art CDMX
We spent this past weekend in Mexico City at Bright Moment’s NFT Art CDMX. Bright Moments is the...
6 months 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
AIVC
I was approached by a company this week that has trained a large language model on all of the blog...
4 weeks 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 month 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 Newest Members of the USV Team
Last Thursday, three new blog posts hit USV.com announcing our three new analysts: This is our...
2 months 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
The Buy And Hold Mindset
When markets are in turmoil, like they have been for most of this year, I like to have a...
6 months 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
What Will Happen In 2023
I want to focus this post on the macro environment for tech, startups, web3, and climate because...
5 months 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
My Year-End Playlist
As usual, here are some songs that stuck with me this year. fredwilson · Backing It When No One...
5 months 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 Blackbird Platform
The first project launched this week on our portfolio company Blackbird‘s platform. It is a friends...
a month 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
The Annual Computer Science Fair
Ten years ago, a small group of folks in the K12 Computer Science Education community in NYC decided...
a month 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
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 month 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
The VC’s Customer
I saw Dan Primack assert that the venture capitalist’s customer is their limited partners in this...
3 months 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
The AI Assist
I wrote last week that I have started coding again. And I have been amazed at how much easier it is...
4 months 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
The Cleanse
I’ve never done a cleanse. But many of my friends and family members have done them. There are...
4 months 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
What Happened In 2022
I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending...
5 months 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
Machine Learning and Schools
I read last week that the NYC Department of Education has banned ChatGPT from its networks and...
4 months 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
Sign Everything
The advances in AI over the last year are mind-boggling. I attended a dinner this past week with USV...
5 months 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
Coding Again
It has been many years since I’ve written code. I’ve hacked around in HTML and CSS a bit on this...
4 months 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
The Rebrand
I’d guess that upwards of half of USV’s portfolio companies have changed the name of their company...
3 months 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
What Does “Native” Mean
When a new technology comes to market, we often look for “native” applications of that technology....
3 months 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...
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