Yesterday we publicly announced our 2016 fund and with it an evolution that has taken place behind the scenes at USV. Andy and I are now the managing partners with Fred, Brad and John continuing to invest and participate fully in the firm. John’s post and Fred’s post explain this in more detail. So instead of also writing about this change, I want to reflect on what I have learned from the past and share what I am excited about for the future.
I have now spent over two decades in and around startups including the last decade at Union Square Ventures, beginning as a venture partner in 2006 when I led our investment in Etsy. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do something I love with amazing people.
Looking back, the biggest lesson is as simple to state as it is hard to live: keep growing as a person. Every startup is an opportunity for the people in it and around it to grow. Stuff goes wrong all the time. And the opportunity to grow as a person comes from examining how you react when stuff goes wrong. For example, when I first became an investor I pushed too hard in response to problems. Instead of helping the team come up with a solution, I would push one at them (and to make matters worse, often more than one). Why did I react this way? It was my own fear of failure as an investor. It took me some time as well as great advice and support from Brad and Fred to let go of that fear. So when the next thing goes wrong in your startup, don’t just figure out how to fix it but also use it as an opportunity to grow as person.
Today our portfolio company Twilio is going public. I am excited for Jeff and the entire team there. They have done a phenomenal job building a communications platform. For me, having been able to work with a team from small beginnings through ups and downs to such a moment is a great privilege.
Looking forward, I am convinced that we are just at the beginning of the transition from an industrial society to a knowledge one. In large areas of human activity, we are essentially still doing things as if the internet didn’t exist. In education, most schools look and act pretty much the same way they did 20+ years ago with students grouped by age and teachers in presentation mode. In healthcare, most doctor’s visits start by filling out reams of paper forms including a health history that represents a fraction of the potentially available data. We have made investments in both education startups (Edmodo, Skillshare, Duolingo, Codecademy) and healthcare startups (Figure1, Human Dx, Clue). Those companies and others are beginning to deliver on some of the potential to transform these areas, but the bulk of the changes are still ahead of us representing tremendous opportunities. That’s not just true in those fields but in many others, including the law (e.g., Casetext), manufacturing (e.g,, Shapeways, Simscale), and financial services (e.g., FundingCircle, CircleUp, Coinbase) (and I am still leaving out important areas and companies). Then of course there is the promise of blockchain technologies to help re-decentralize the internet (Blockstack, OB1, Mediachain).
So it is an exciting time. I feel better prepared than ever to help founders build their companies and there are still many great companies left to build!
