The Internet Transformation (Talk Outline)

Today at noon I am giving a talk to the Japan Business Network in New York – an informal get together organized by my brother-in-law, Charles Danziger. The topic is the fundamental transformation of industries that the Internet will bring about. I am planning to use the following outline.

Some background on Union Square Ventures
- about $300 million under management across two funds
- invest exclusively in the Internet
- based in New York but national mandate (and some international investments)
- mostly lead first institutional round
- well-known investments include Twitter, Zynga, Etsy, Foursquare

Fundamental USV thesis
- The Internet will change everything
- This will go on for a long time (decades)
- Will provide significant startup and new investment opportunities along the way

First story: Newspapers
- these were big and mighty businesses
- they existed for a long time (100+ years)
- highly profitable for a long time

Along comes: the Internet

Step 1: Unbundling of economics (online classifieds)
- job classifieds: HotJobs, Monster
- for sale: eBay
- dating: various sites
- all of the above: Craigslist
-> result: major source of profits removed

Step 2: Unbundling of content
- the rise of blogs
- specialist publications
- user generated content
-> result: splitting of audiences

Net result: newspapers everywhere are struggling

Second story: Disrupting the disruptors

Job classifieds: HotJobs, Monster

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