When we first invested in Wattpad in 2011, we were excited about the community for writing and reading stories that was growing all around the world. Much as happened since then, including the publication of After which was a breakout hit and is being developed into a movie. Based in part on the success of After, the company launched Wattpad Studios to deepen collaboration with the entertainment industry. Today, Wattpad is announcing the first such partnership: a co-operation with Turner. M. ...

When we first invested in Wattpad in 2011, we were excited about the community for writing and reading stories that was growing all around the world. Much as happened since then, including the publication of After which was a breakout hit and is being developed into a movie. Based in part on the success of After, the company launched Wattpad Studios to deepen collaboration with the entertainment industry. Today, Wattpad is announcing the first such partnership: a co-operation with Turner. M. ...

Both individually and collectively we learn more from our failures than from our successes. Failures make us question our assumptions, successes generally don’t. I therefore welcome the hack of the DAO (even if I wind up losing the 0.5 BTC I had converted to Ether and invested). It is exposing a lot of assumptions and that is the path to learning. The hack will not be the end of smart contracts or blockchains. Instead it will be more like the early failures in aviation. They are what gave us ...

Both individually and collectively we learn more from our failures than from our successes. Failures make us question our assumptions, successes generally don’t. I therefore welcome the hack of the DAO (even if I wind up losing the 0.5 BTC I had converted to Ether and invested). It is exposing a lot of assumptions and that is the path to learning. The hack will not be the end of smart contracts or blockchains. Instead it will be more like the early failures in aviation. They are what gave us ...

At USV we have been using Carlota Perez’s framework that distinguishes between the installation and deployment phases of a technology. In short, the installation phase is when a technology first comes into a market and investments are capacity building. The deployment phase is when this capacity is used to actually affect broad changes in the economy and society. The installation phase is (almost) always marked by a speculative bubble. Perez documents this across many prior technologies such ...

At USV we have been using Carlota Perez’s framework that distinguishes between the installation and deployment phases of a technology. In short, the installation phase is when a technology first comes into a market and investments are capacity building. The deployment phase is when this capacity is used to actually affect broad changes in the economy and society. The installation phase is (almost) always marked by a speculative bubble. Perez documents this across many prior technologies such ...

As I wrote in my earlier blog post, VR is something that needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. Once you do experience it, get past the initial amazing fascination and start playing games a fairly glaring problem reveals itself: how to navigate the amazing worlds that are all around you. Yes, there is some limited motion tracking but it tends to be constrained to whatever space you may have in your room, which tends to be a few square meters at best (and when you reach the edge of y...

As I wrote in my earlier blog post, VR is something that needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. Once you do experience it, get past the initial amazing fascination and start playing games a fairly glaring problem reveals itself: how to navigate the amazing worlds that are all around you. Yes, there is some limited motion tracking but it tends to be constrained to whatever space you may have in your room, which tends to be a few square meters at best (and when you reach the edge of y...

The Star Trek replicator stands as the ultimate dream of on-demand manufacturing. The bad news is that despite advances in 3D printing we are many breakthroughs (including nearly abundant energy) away from realizing that dream. The good news is that we are finally finding ourselves on the cusp of a paradigm shift in manufacturing away from mass production to fast, low cost, small series (including single part) capabilities. The shift is being led by a new crop of startups, including Plethora ...

The Star Trek replicator stands as the ultimate dream of on-demand manufacturing. The bad news is that despite advances in 3D printing we are many breakthroughs (including nearly abundant energy) away from realizing that dream. The good news is that we are finally finding ourselves on the cusp of a paradigm shift in manufacturing away from mass production to fast, low cost, small series (including single part) capabilities. The shift is being led by a new crop of startups, including Plethora ...

I can still remember the first time that I experienced the web, which was on a workstation in a lab at MIT in late 1993 (Mosaic had come out in January of that year). The experience of easily accessing remote content and navigating from one site to another simply by clicking on a link was transformative. I remember how for several years after that there was a stark difference in attitude about the potential of the web between people who had experienced it and those who had only read about it ...

I can still remember the first time that I experienced the web, which was on a workstation in a lab at MIT in late 1993 (Mosaic had come out in January of that year). The experience of easily accessing remote content and navigating from one site to another simply by clicking on a link was transformative. I remember how for several years after that there was a stark difference in attitude about the potential of the web between people who had experienced it and those who had only read about it ...

My book World After Capital argues that we are living in a dangerous time of transition: industrial capitalism is breaking down and we don’t yet have a viable alternative. Incumbent politicians are still clinging to fixing the existing system while insurgent populists are arguing for big changes. This to a large degree explains the scary rise of populism we are seeing around the world and in the United States. Populist leaders have come to power around the world in recent years, such as Putin...

My book World After Capital argues that we are living in a dangerous time of transition: industrial capitalism is breaking down and we don’t yet have a viable alternative. Incumbent politicians are still clinging to fixing the existing system while insurgent populists are arguing for big changes. This to a large degree explains the scary rise of populism we are seeing around the world and in the United States. Populist leaders have come to power around the world in recent years, such as Putin...

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...

We first invested in Skillshare almost five years ago. At the time the company was focused on in person classes. While many of those were as engaging as I had hoped, it was difficult to grow. Coming to an in person class is a big commitment, teachers didn’t have an audience and many had a hard time finding a place to teach and the model only has local network effects. Michael decided that starting with online classes was a better way to go and we supported that change. The first foray into on...

We first invested in Skillshare almost five years ago. At the time the company was focused on in person classes. While many of those were as engaging as I had hoped, it was difficult to grow. Coming to an in person class is a big commitment, teachers didn’t have an audience and many had a hard time finding a place to teach and the model only has local network effects. Michael decided that starting with online classes was a better way to go and we supported that change. The first foray into on...

I am bummed to be missing Twilio’s annual Signal Conference this year. Not just because Jeff does a fantastic keynote, but because Twilio always announces a truckload of amazing new goodness. Here are just two great things from yesterday: first, a marketplace for add-ons which lets third parties connect with Twilio’s 1 million developers (a milestone also announced yesterday) and second, programmable Twilio-powered SIM cards for IoT applications (in conjunction with T-Mobile). While the annou...

I am bummed to be missing Twilio’s annual Signal Conference this year. Not just because Jeff does a fantastic keynote, but because Twilio always announces a truckload of amazing new goodness. Here are just two great things from yesterday: first, a marketplace for add-ons which lets third parties connect with Twilio’s 1 million developers (a milestone also announced yesterday) and second, programmable Twilio-powered SIM cards for IoT applications (in conjunction with T-Mobile). While the annou...