I am glad to see the net neutrality debate raging. As Union Square Ventures and on our personal blogs (AVC, Continuations) we have long been proponents of net neutrality (the USV link is from 2006!). Our own bias here is clear: we are pro-startup and pro-innovation. Both are of course essential to the venture capital business, but we believe they are also the lifeblood of the economy. Surprisingly, a lot of people who argue against net neutrality don’t seem to make the connection to innovatio...

I am glad to see the net neutrality debate raging. As Union Square Ventures and on our personal blogs (AVC, Continuations) we have long been proponents of net neutrality (the USV link is from 2006!). Our own bias here is clear: we are pro-startup and pro-innovation. Both are of course essential to the venture capital business, but we believe they are also the lifeblood of the economy. Surprisingly, a lot of people who argue against net neutrality don’t seem to make the connection to innovatio...

I love to blog about all the awesome things that the Internet is bringing and how that creates great investment opportunities. But once in a while I have first hand experiences that remind me how much innovation could/should/will (?) occur in other areas. Last week was one of those. One of our kids suddenly had areas of skin the size of quarters essentially dissolve. The pediatrician thought that it was some kind of bacterial infection. But here is where the interesting part starts. In order ...

I love to blog about all the awesome things that the Internet is bringing and how that creates great investment opportunities. But once in a while I have first hand experiences that remind me how much innovation could/should/will (?) occur in other areas. Last week was one of those. One of our kids suddenly had areas of skin the size of quarters essentially dissolve. The pediatrician thought that it was some kind of bacterial infection. But here is where the interesting part starts. In order ...

I am meeting with a bunch of folks from a major ad agency today to talk about the future of the web. This is of course one of my favorite topics! Here are some of the highlights of what I am planning to cover:You ain’t seen nothing yet: expect deep transformation of many industries including advertisingA brief history of newspapers as illustration of the forces at workDisruption from unbundling and distributed content generationAdOne (the old one) vs CraigslistIndeed vs traditional job boards...

I am meeting with a bunch of folks from a major ad agency today to talk about the future of the web. This is of course one of my favorite topics! Here are some of the highlights of what I am planning to cover:You ain’t seen nothing yet: expect deep transformation of many industries including advertisingA brief history of newspapers as illustration of the forces at workDisruption from unbundling and distributed content generationAdOne (the old one) vs CraigslistIndeed vs traditional job boards...

One of the key arguments for net neutrality is that it fosters independent and rapid innovation at both the transport and application layers. It is instructive to look at a different type of network to see what happens to innovation in the absence of net neutrality. Visa and Mastercard have built dominant positions in payment networks by tightly controlling all aspects of the network, such as what devices can be connected to it and who can issue and process cards. The result has been dramatic...

One of the key arguments for net neutrality is that it fosters independent and rapid innovation at both the transport and application layers. It is instructive to look at a different type of network to see what happens to innovation in the absence of net neutrality. Visa and Mastercard have built dominant positions in payment networks by tightly controlling all aspects of the network, such as what devices can be connected to it and who can issue and process cards. The result has been dramatic...

In my Tech Tuesday posts I have covered main memory and storage (by the way, coming up tomorrow: HTTP). If you have read those or otherwise follow hardware, then you will find this short piece from BBC Technology News on a new technology known as ReRAM quite interesting. Essentially, ReRAM holds the promise of providing non-volatile storage at the speed of memory. That would provide a major breakthrough for database applications. Not only is ReRAM even faster than the Flash memory used in the...

In my Tech Tuesday posts I have covered main memory and storage (by the way, coming up tomorrow: HTTP). If you have read those or otherwise follow hardware, then you will find this short piece from BBC Technology News on a new technology known as ReRAM quite interesting. Essentially, ReRAM holds the promise of providing non-volatile storage at the speed of memory. That would provide a major breakthrough for database applications. Not only is ReRAM even faster than the Flash memory used in the...

The patent wars have really been heating up. For some time now Apple has been going around trying to get various Android devices off the market based on patent claims. Now the shoe is on the other foot as a court in Germany has found in favor of Motorola Mobility against Apple based on a patent. Of course Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google so that its trove of patents can be used in the fight against Apple and others. Apple is reaping what it has sowed. And in the...

The patent wars have really been heating up. For some time now Apple has been going around trying to get various Android devices off the market based on patent claims. Now the shoe is on the other foot as a court in Germany has found in favor of Motorola Mobility against Apple based on a patent. Of course Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google so that its trove of patents can be used in the fight against Apple and others. Apple is reaping what it has sowed. And in the...

Tomorrow I will be attending an “Innovation Summit” hosted by the Darden School of Business. I just finished reading Peter Thiel’s “The End of the Future” in the National Review. Thiel’s argument is that underlying our economic difficulties is a more profound problem: a dramatic slow-down in innovation. His examples include the fact that we now find ourselves with travel slowing down not speeding up (Concord decommissioned and no successor in sight) and the apparent lack of progress on treati...

Tomorrow I will be attending an “Innovation Summit” hosted by the Darden School of Business. I just finished reading Peter Thiel’s “The End of the Future” in the National Review. Thiel’s argument is that underlying our economic difficulties is a more profound problem: a dramatic slow-down in innovation. His examples include the fact that we now find ourselves with travel slowing down not speeding up (Concord decommissioned and no successor in sight) and the apparent lack of progress on treati...

One of the truly depressing things about listening to the presidential debates was that both sides seem to be disregarding a fundamental factor in the economy: the displacement of humans by “machines” (in quotes because these days the machines in question are computers). Because politicians are largely ignoring the importance of this trend, the proposed policy solutions all belong to the same tired arsenal of either supply side or demand side economics. It’s a bit as if you were on the Titani...

One of the truly depressing things about listening to the presidential debates was that both sides seem to be disregarding a fundamental factor in the economy: the displacement of humans by “machines” (in quotes because these days the machines in question are computers). Because politicians are largely ignoring the importance of this trend, the proposed policy solutions all belong to the same tired arsenal of either supply side or demand side economics. It’s a bit as if you were on the Titani...

My blog post for today is on “Innovation in Education” and you can find it over at the Union Square Ventures blog. Having three kids in school this is a topic that I care about personally not just from an investment perspective. Also think that education is an area in which the disconnect between what the Internet can help us accomplish and how (most) policy makers think about it could hardly be larger.

My blog post for today is on “Innovation in Education” and you can find it over at the Union Square Ventures blog. Having three kids in school this is a topic that I care about personally not just from an investment perspective. Also think that education is an area in which the disconnect between what the Internet can help us accomplish and how (most) policy makers think about it could hardly be larger.

Much as I admire the well rounded user experience on an iPhone (leaving notifications aside), there are some kinds of innovation that simply aren’t possible on the iPhone today, as it doesn’t let developers hook in deeply enough. One example is the games discovery app recently released by our portfolio company Heyzap. Once you install the Heyzap app, it notices when you launch game apps and gives you an opportunity to “check in." Checking in broadcasts your gameplay to the Heyzap network and ...

Much as I admire the well rounded user experience on an iPhone (leaving notifications aside), there are some kinds of innovation that simply aren’t possible on the iPhone today, as it doesn’t let developers hook in deeply enough. One example is the games discovery app recently released by our portfolio company Heyzap. Once you install the Heyzap app, it notices when you launch game apps and gives you an opportunity to “check in." Checking in broadcasts your gameplay to the Heyzap network and ...