The other day I was pointed to an essay about how people are overreacting to Trump. That we should all adopt a wait and see attitude instead. In thinking about how to reply it occurred to me that this is exactly how big companies lose against startups. They wait around to see what the startup will do, and by the time they have figured out that it’s important it is too late to catch up. This is why Andy Grove’s motto at Intel was “Only the paranoid survive.” So working with startups has taught...

The other day I was pointed to an essay about how people are overreacting to Trump. That we should all adopt a wait and see attitude instead. In thinking about how to reply it occurred to me that this is exactly how big companies lose against startups. They wait around to see what the startup will do, and by the time they have figured out that it’s important it is too late to catch up. This is why Andy Grove’s motto at Intel was “Only the paranoid survive.” So working with startups has taught...

Last week I noticed that I had received several cold emails from entrepreneurs that started in exactly the same fashion:Apologies for the cold email, I usually get an introduction, but my network in New York area isn’t so strong. I found Union Square Ventures while I was looking for top class Venture Capital looking to invest in the tech industry.So I decided to tweet about it because it appeared as if people had just copied a template. Sure enough the source for this is a blog post titled “H...

Last week I noticed that I had received several cold emails from entrepreneurs that started in exactly the same fashion:Apologies for the cold email, I usually get an introduction, but my network in New York area isn’t so strong. I found Union Square Ventures while I was looking for top class Venture Capital looking to invest in the tech industry.So I decided to tweet about it because it appeared as if people had just copied a template. Sure enough the source for this is a blog post titled “H...

I am writing this from Web Summit in Lisbon where I have just spent the morning meeting with some terrific startups. One question that was on a lot of people’s minds was what the election of Trump as the US President will mean. I think the right answer is: nobody knows and nobody will know for quite some time. The only thing that we can know right now is that the amount of perceived uncertainty has just shot up dramatically (*). And when that happens a lot of investors put their foot on the b...

I am writing this from Web Summit in Lisbon where I have just spent the morning meeting with some terrific startups. One question that was on a lot of people’s minds was what the election of Trump as the US President will mean. I think the right answer is: nobody knows and nobody will know for quite some time. The only thing that we can know right now is that the amount of perceived uncertainty has just shot up dramatically (*). And when that happens a lot of investors put their foot on the b...

At present there are three common exit options for venture backed and bootstrapped startups: trade sale (most common), IPO (increasingly rare) and sale to a PE firm (growing). We need innovation here both in the existing options and by creating new ones that are a better fit for companies that have a vision/mission that is important to them above and beyond financial return. Such vision/mission doesn’t necessarily need to be of the obvious social good variety, but could also include “settling...

At present there are three common exit options for venture backed and bootstrapped startups: trade sale (most common), IPO (increasingly rare) and sale to a PE firm (growing). We need innovation here both in the existing options and by creating new ones that are a better fit for companies that have a vision/mission that is important to them above and beyond financial return. Such vision/mission doesn’t necessarily need to be of the obvious social good variety, but could also include “settling...

Today our portfolio company Clarifai has announced its $30 million Series B financing led by Menlo Ventures. It constitutes an important milestone in the history of the New York City startup ecosystem: generous early backing for an ambitious technology vision. I have been around the NY technology and startup world since the late 90s. There were a lot of justified knocks against the efforts here. It was difficult to find engineers for startups. Well, Google helped solve that by locating a majo...

Today our portfolio company Clarifai has announced its $30 million Series B financing led by Menlo Ventures. It constitutes an important milestone in the history of the New York City startup ecosystem: generous early backing for an ambitious technology vision. I have been around the NY technology and startup world since the late 90s. There were a lot of justified knocks against the efforts here. It was difficult to find engineers for startups. Well, Google helped solve that by locating a majo...

The IPO process is pre-Internet and that needs to change ASAP. With the tech IPO window open we are once again being treated to the maddening spectacle of the opening pop in which the first trade price is massively above the IPO price. All sorts of theories are proffered for why that is rational and the right thing to do. It isn’t. In the year 2016 here is how a company should go public. The company, with the help of banks, brokers and the exchange should build a complete buy and sell order b...

The IPO process is pre-Internet and that needs to change ASAP. With the tech IPO window open we are once again being treated to the maddening spectacle of the opening pop in which the first trade price is massively above the IPO price. All sorts of theories are proffered for why that is rational and the right thing to do. It isn’t. In the year 2016 here is how a company should go public. The company, with the help of banks, brokers and the exchange should build a complete buy and sell order b...

Yesterday evening, Allen Lau from Wattpad helped me organize a small casual dinner with other entrepreneurs and investors in Toronto. We have three existing investments in Toronto: Wattpad and Figure 1 in the city and Kik in Waterloo. Toronto has all the makings of a great ecosystem for tech startups and I am sure over time we will be finding more exciting companies here: 1. There are schools with excellent engineering programs, including the world renowned Waterloo and University of Toronto ...

Yesterday evening, Allen Lau from Wattpad helped me organize a small casual dinner with other entrepreneurs and investors in Toronto. We have three existing investments in Toronto: Wattpad and Figure 1 in the city and Kik in Waterloo. Toronto has all the makings of a great ecosystem for tech startups and I am sure over time we will be finding more exciting companies here: 1. There are schools with excellent engineering programs, including the world renowned Waterloo and University of Toronto ...

Yesterday a debate erupted on Twitter between VCs over whether term sheets should express a company’s valuation in pre-money or post-money terms and whether that even matters. This started with a blog post by Rob Go from Nextview on why post-money valuation term sheets have become more popular. That led to a somewhat combative tweet by Jerry Neumann that post-money term sheets pit entrepreneurs against their existng early stage investorsVCs who offer post-money term sheets get moved to the bo...

Yesterday a debate erupted on Twitter between VCs over whether term sheets should express a company’s valuation in pre-money or post-money terms and whether that even matters. This started with a blog post by Rob Go from Nextview on why post-money valuation term sheets have become more popular. That led to a somewhat combative tweet by Jerry Neumann that post-money term sheets pit entrepreneurs against their existng early stage investorsVCs who offer post-money term sheets get moved to the bo...

And now for something different: just some pragmatic advice. You should run all hands meetings in your company. They are a key bonding and communication opportunity. You can have them until you are quite large – for instance, Twilio, which as gone public, still does them. Here is the key though: make sure to solicit questions and topics ahead of time. You should even make it possible for employees to do so anonymously. For some people that seems obvious but I have seen quite a few situations ...

And now for something different: just some pragmatic advice. You should run all hands meetings in your company. They are a key bonding and communication opportunity. You can have them until you are quite large – for instance, Twilio, which as gone public, still does them. Here is the key though: make sure to solicit questions and topics ahead of time. You should even make it possible for employees to do so anonymously. For some people that seems obvious but I have seen quite a few situations ...

Network effects are central to our investment thesis at USV. We believe that they provide one of the few (the only?) source of sustainable competitive advantage. We have also been outspoken about wanting to limit the power that these network effects provide to winning companies. One proposal that I have made is to shift more power to the edge of the network by giving humans the right to be represented by a software bot. It is useful to think about how contestable a market with network effects...

Network effects are central to our investment thesis at USV. We believe that they provide one of the few (the only?) source of sustainable competitive advantage. We have also been outspoken about wanting to limit the power that these network effects provide to winning companies. One proposal that I have made is to shift more power to the edge of the network by giving humans the right to be represented by a software bot. It is useful to think about how contestable a market with network effects...