I am very excited about what we are doing over at usv.com with the Topic of the Week. Last week we discussed undoing incumbent marketplaces and this week it is about community ownership of applications. We wanted usv.com to be an extension of the discussions that we have internally and this new approach feels like we are getting closer. Instead of a loose collection of links the topic approach gives the conversation more shape and direction. So if you are interested in the question of who sho...

A big part of our investing at Union Square Ventures is to find businesses that have network effects. Marketplaces fit with that because participating in a marketplace tends to become more valuable as the marketplace grows (that’s assuming the marketplace does a good job spreading liquidity among participants). The reason to be interested in network effects from an investor perspective is that they offer a source of defensible competitive advantage. That in return implies that a company that ...

I am very excited about what we are doing over at usv.com with the Topic of the Week. Last week we discussed undoing incumbent marketplaces and this week it is about community ownership of applications. We wanted usv.com to be an extension of the discussions that we have internally and this new approach feels like we are getting closer. Instead of a loose collection of links the topic approach gives the conversation more shape and direction. So if you are interested in the question of who sho...

A big part of our investing at Union Square Ventures is to find businesses that have network effects. Marketplaces fit with that because participating in a marketplace tends to become more valuable as the marketplace grows (that’s assuming the marketplace does a good job spreading liquidity among participants). The reason to be interested in network effects from an investor perspective is that they offer a source of defensible competitive advantage. That in return implies that a company that ...

I just returned from DLD. I will write a post with some more thoughts when I have less catching up to do, but in the meantime here is the video of my talk And here are the slides (this time without a line spacing problem) And finally, if you speak German you can also hear me talk about the same topic.

I just returned from DLD. I will write a post with some more thoughts when I have less catching up to do, but in the meantime here is the video of my talk And here are the slides (this time without a line spacing problem) And finally, if you speak German you can also hear me talk about the same topic.

The secular stagnation discussion has a bad title and sounds wonkish but is extremely important – it is about nothing short of understanding what the economy is and should be about. If you want a lot of detail you can read through Marc Andreessen’s epic secular stagnation tweet storm and all the great source material that he links to. At the heart of the secular stagnation discussion is the idea that somehow the economy is growing more slowly than it should. See for instance the following quo...

The secular stagnation discussion has a bad title and sounds wonkish but is extremely important – it is about nothing short of understanding what the economy is and should be about. If you want a lot of detail you can read through Marc Andreessen’s epic secular stagnation tweet storm and all the great source material that he links to. At the heart of the secular stagnation discussion is the idea that somehow the economy is growing more slowly than it should. See for instance the following quo...

Here is the transcript of my talk about a Basic Income Guarantee and the Right to be Represented by a BOT from TEDxNewYork. All of our economic theory, all of our business practice, all of our public policy, they were all developed during an era of scarcity. Scarcity means that when you want more of something, there’s an additional cost to be paid. And that was always true for physical products but it’s no longer true for digital information. That extra view of the funny cat video on YouTube,...

Here is the transcript of my talk about a Basic Income Guarantee and the Right to be Represented by a BOT from TEDxNewYork. All of our economic theory, all of our business practice, all of our public policy, they were all developed during an era of scarcity. Scarcity means that when you want more of something, there’s an additional cost to be paid. And that was always true for physical products but it’s no longer true for digital information. That extra view of the funny cat video on YouTube,...

In my talk at Techconomy Detroit I proposed two policy measures for dealing with the transition to the information age: a basic income guarantee (universal basic income) and what I then called the right to an API Key. At the wonderful TEDxNewYork I was given an opportunity to expand on both of these ideas and I am now calling the second on “the right to be represented by a bot.” Here is the video:

In my talk at Techconomy Detroit I proposed two policy measures for dealing with the transition to the information age: a basic income guarantee (universal basic income) and what I then called the right to an API Key. At the wonderful TEDxNewYork I was given an opportunity to expand on both of these ideas and I am now calling the second on “the right to be represented by a bot.” Here is the video:

It is hard for me to believe that I wrote my post “I Want a New Platform” over seven years ago. At the time that post led to our investment in MongoDB, which was then called 10gen. The company was started by Eliot Horowitz and Dwight Merriman inside of AlleyCorp, the New York based incubator started by Dwight and Kevin Ryan (Business Insider and Gilt Groupe also came out of AlleyCorp). Kevin had previously been an investor and board member in my own incubator and had become a friend. When he ...

It is hard for me to believe that I wrote my post “I Want a New Platform” over seven years ago. At the time that post led to our investment in MongoDB, which was then called 10gen. The company was started by Eliot Horowitz and Dwight Merriman inside of AlleyCorp, the New York based incubator started by Dwight and Kevin Ryan (Business Insider and Gilt Groupe also came out of AlleyCorp). Kevin had previously been an investor and board member in my own incubator and had become a friend. When he ...

Why write here about the massacre at the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo? Because most of what I have been writing on Continuations is about developing a coherent view of what comes next for humanity. It is about finding a way forward in a world of extraordinary new technological capabilities and dislocations. The attack on Charlie Hebdo stands for and is part of a fundamental rejection of not just the type of future I envision but also of the modernity we currently live in. This...

Why write here about the massacre at the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo? Because most of what I have been writing on Continuations is about developing a coherent view of what comes next for humanity. It is about finding a way forward in a world of extraordinary new technological capabilities and dislocations. The attack on Charlie Hebdo stands for and is part of a fundamental rejection of not just the type of future I envision but also of the modernity we currently live in. This...

Yesterday I wrote about how free or low priced online courses are beginning to put pressure on pricing in education. As a small addendum to that: the same day the New York Times ran a front page story about home schooling recognizing the growing importance of that movement (which in turn is enabled by much of the same content). Today I want take a look at what is happening to healthcare costs and whether there is any hope for technological deflation here also. If you haven’t seen this chart f...

Yesterday I wrote about how free or low priced online courses are beginning to put pressure on pricing in education. As a small addendum to that: the same day the New York Times ran a front page story about home schooling recognizing the growing importance of that movement (which in turn is enabled by much of the same content). Today I want take a look at what is happening to healthcare costs and whether there is any hope for technological deflation here also. If you haven’t seen this chart f...

I was going to write some more about deflation today but then Vice posted a piece on Universal Basic Income (UBI) by Nathan Schneider yesterday. I suggest you read it and then come back here for a response. 1. After introducing my support for UBI, Nathan writes “[Albert is] worried about the clever apps his company is funding, which do things like teach languages and hail cars, displacing jobs with every download.” No. I am not worried about what we fund. I love what we fund. Hailo makes call...

I was going to write some more about deflation today but then Vice posted a piece on Universal Basic Income (UBI) by Nathan Schneider yesterday. I suggest you read it and then come back here for a response. 1. After introducing my support for UBI, Nathan writes “[Albert is] worried about the clever apps his company is funding, which do things like teach languages and hail cars, displacing jobs with every download.” No. I am not worried about what we fund. I love what we fund. Hailo makes call...