In his latest essay Why There Aren’t More Googles, Paul Graham writes that one reason is that VCs are waiting too long for startups to have “traction." He suggests that VCs should invest earlier and less money. Paul writes:Whoever the next Google is, they’re probably being told right now by VCs to come back when they have more "traction.”andInstead of making one $2 million investment, make five $400k investments. Would that mean sitting on too many boards? Don’t sit on their boards. Would tha...

In his latest essay Why There Aren’t More Googles, Paul Graham writes that one reason is that VCs are waiting too long for startups to have “traction." He suggests that VCs should invest earlier and less money. Paul writes:Whoever the next Google is, they’re probably being told right now by VCs to come back when they have more "traction.”andInstead of making one $2 million investment, make five $400k investments. Would that mean sitting on too many boards? Don’t sit on their boards. Would tha...

As everyone knows by now Google released results that exceeded expectations for both revenues and earnings. Analysts have attributed Google’s strength to folks shifting advertising from display to keyword because it is more effective. But there has definitely been some slowdown in Google’s US growth. Google claims that this was due to its improvements in search quality. Both of these arguments are related in a way that may put a larger crimp into Google’s growth in the long term. I am convinc...

As everyone knows by now Google released results that exceeded expectations for both revenues and earnings. Analysts have attributed Google’s strength to folks shifting advertising from display to keyword because it is more effective. But there has definitely been some slowdown in Google’s US growth. Google claims that this was due to its improvements in search quality. Both of these arguments are related in a way that may put a larger crimp into Google’s growth in the long term. I am convinc...

I used to read the NYT every morning as a way to get an overview of what was happening in the world, find in-depth coverage and investigative reports, and see opinions on politics and the economy (I also used to do the same with the WSJ). But increasingly I find that I only skim the paper and then head for my computer to read techmeme and the Huffington Post. Both are great at what they do, but leave me yearning for more. I want a personalized new service that meets the following needsCovers ...

I used to read the NYT every morning as a way to get an overview of what was happening in the world, find in-depth coverage and investigative reports, and see opinions on politics and the economy (I also used to do the same with the WSJ). But increasingly I find that I only skim the paper and then head for my computer to read techmeme and the Huffington Post. Both are great at what they do, but leave me yearning for more. I want a personalized new service that meets the following needsCovers ...

For many years when New York City startups were bought by West Coast firms they were forced to relocate (Yahoo and Microsoft being the biggest offenders here), because the acquirers did not have a sufficient New York presence and almost certainly had no engineering presence here. Google changed this dramatically by building a large engineering team and overall presence here in Manhattan. Demonstrating that this is not only possible for a West Coast firm but a competitive advantage for recruit...

For many years when New York City startups were bought by West Coast firms they were forced to relocate (Yahoo and Microsoft being the biggest offenders here), because the acquirers did not have a sufficient New York presence and almost certainly had no engineering presence here. Google changed this dramatically by building a large engineering team and overall presence here in Manhattan. Demonstrating that this is not only possible for a West Coast firm but a competitive advantage for recruit...

Freemium is an attractive business model in theory. Offer a free service to attract folks and then convert some of them into a paid version with premium features. In practice it turns out to be hard to pull this off. The free version needs to be fairly functional in order to attract people. Unless the free offering is unique, which is rarely if ever the case, it also needs to be at least as good as offerings that are entirely free (competitors may be entirely free because they are ad supporte...

Freemium is an attractive business model in theory. Offer a free service to attract folks and then convert some of them into a paid version with premium features. In practice it turns out to be hard to pull this off. The free version needs to be fairly functional in order to attract people. Unless the free offering is unique, which is rarely if ever the case, it also needs to be at least as good as offerings that are entirely free (competitors may be entirely free because they are ad supporte...

Is it a good or bad time to start something new, with the economy tanking as it is? I believe the answer depends entirely on your personal financial situation and risk profile. If you have a family to support and only have enough savings for a few months, then it’s a terrible time to start. If you can afford to fund yourself and maybe a few others for a least 6 months and possibly much more (or have friends who the “more” bit) then it’s a great time. You can find talent (and space should you ...

Is it a good or bad time to start something new, with the economy tanking as it is? I believe the answer depends entirely on your personal financial situation and risk profile. If you have a family to support and only have enough savings for a few months, then it’s a terrible time to start. If you can afford to fund yourself and maybe a few others for a least 6 months and possibly much more (or have friends who the “more” bit) then it’s a great time. You can find talent (and space should you ...

Just announced our investment in Covestor.

Just announced our investment in Covestor.

At USV we have been thinking a lot about the nature of competition as the cloud computing era takes hold. The three closely related questions we are interested in are: How does cloud computing change competition at the “application” layer? How does cloud computing change the boundary between “infrastructure” and “applications”? How does cloud computing change competition in the “infrastructure” layer?Application and infrastructure are in quotation marks because they are convenient shorthands ...

At USV we have been thinking a lot about the nature of competition as the cloud computing era takes hold. The three closely related questions we are interested in are: How does cloud computing change competition at the “application” layer? How does cloud computing change the boundary between “infrastructure” and “applications”? How does cloud computing change competition in the “infrastructure” layer?Application and infrastructure are in quotation marks because they are convenient shorthands ...

There is a high probability that we are in for a recession and many folks think that it might be a fairly severe one. What does that mean for startups and VC funding? VentureBeat today has an article suggesting that funding is slowing down both from VCs and angel investors. For startups that are already well funded this is great news because they can focus on building their product / service and worry less about the markets becoming overly crowded with me-too competitors. The same argument ap...

There is a high probability that we are in for a recession and many folks think that it might be a fairly severe one. What does that mean for startups and VC funding? VentureBeat today has an article suggesting that funding is slowing down both from VCs and angel investors. For startups that are already well funded this is great news because they can focus on building their product / service and worry less about the markets becoming overly crowded with me-too competitors. The same argument ap...

Yesterday, I started a series of posts about how the move to cloud computing is affecting competition. The second question I posed was how cloud computing changes the boundary between “infrastructure” and “applications”? At the most basic level I believe that some things that were standalone applications will become features that are provided by the cloud. We have seen this play out with content. Essentially, the web to date has been “content in the cloud.” And one of the most important devel...

Yesterday, I started a series of posts about how the move to cloud computing is affecting competition. The second question I posed was how cloud computing changes the boundary between “infrastructure” and “applications”? At the most basic level I believe that some things that were standalone applications will become features that are provided by the cloud. We have seen this play out with content. Essentially, the web to date has been “content in the cloud.” And one of the most important devel...