I have written a few general posts about the COVID19 crisis already. Today I want to address all of those running a company or making management decisions with a simple message: avoid generic business advice! By generic advice I mean anything of the form “do x,” such as “cut 20% of cost now.” Why? Because it may or may not apply to your specific situation. Across the USV portfolio, the COVID19 crisis has had wildly different impact on companies. Some companies are experiencing dramatic accele...

I have written a few general posts about the COVID19 crisis already. Today I want to address all of those running a company or making management decisions with a simple message: avoid generic business advice! By generic advice I mean anything of the form “do x,” such as “cut 20% of cost now.” Why? Because it may or may not apply to your specific situation. Across the USV portfolio, the COVID19 crisis has had wildly different impact on companies. Some companies are experiencing dramatic accele...

I wrote a post about flattening the curve last week. I believe this week we will see some kind of government enforced lockdown in the US similar to the one in place in Italy, Spain and France. It is really the only way left at this point to have even a chance of not completely overwhelming the healthcare system (and even that’s questionable). So what’s next after that? The key of course as always will be innovation. The single most urgent piece here is testing. Ideally we can get this to the ...

I wrote a post about flattening the curve last week. I believe this week we will see some kind of government enforced lockdown in the US similar to the one in place in Italy, Spain and France. It is really the only way left at this point to have even a chance of not completely overwhelming the healthcare system (and even that’s questionable). So what’s next after that? The key of course as always will be innovation. The single most urgent piece here is testing. Ideally we can get this to the ...

We are continuing to see the COVID19 coronavirus spread around the world with a big flare up in Italy. Johns Hopkins maintains a good global map of the outbreak. There are now quite a few experts who believe that the virus may be impossible to contain and could result in a global pandemic. This is something the world is woefully ill prepared for. The danger we are now finding ourselves in can be directly traced to our reliance on the market mechanism for allocating attention. A global pandemi...

We are continuing to see the COVID19 coronavirus spread around the world with a big flare up in Italy. Johns Hopkins maintains a good global map of the outbreak. There are now quite a few experts who believe that the virus may be impossible to contain and could result in a global pandemic. This is something the world is woefully ill prepared for. The danger we are now finding ourselves in can be directly traced to our reliance on the market mechanism for allocating attention. A global pandemi...

On February 25th we sent a Coronavirus Preparedness email to all of USV’s portfolio company CEOs. Since then it has become clear that many countries, including the US, have far underestimated the severity and spread of COVID19. As of March 10th any company that can have employees work from home should do so. Of course that is not possible if you are operating a production facility, or distribution center, or other labor that has to be carried out in person. For those companies, they should of...

On February 25th we sent a Coronavirus Preparedness email to all of USV’s portfolio company CEOs. Since then it has become clear that many countries, including the US, have far underestimated the severity and spread of COVID19. As of March 10th any company that can have employees work from home should do so. Of course that is not possible if you are operating a production facility, or distribution center, or other labor that has to be carried out in person. For those companies, they should of...

I have written and spoken a lot about how technological progress is incompatible with privacy. One example I have used is someone bioengineering a virus in their basement. It turns out a much simpler example is what we are seeing today: a new virus that’s spreading. We cannot both have fast, easy international travel and also have privacy of travelers. If you travel and later come down with the coronavirus, we need to know where you went and who else may have been exposed. At a minimum societ...

I have written and spoken a lot about how technological progress is incompatible with privacy. One example I have used is someone bioengineering a virus in their basement. It turns out a much simpler example is what we are seeing today: a new virus that’s spreading. We cannot both have fast, easy international travel and also have privacy of travelers. If you travel and later come down with the coronavirus, we need to know where you went and who else may have been exposed. At a minimum societ...