Normalcy Bias: We Live in a Dynamic World (But People Don’t Believe It)
Something that consistently surprises me is how many people have a fundamentally static worldview. Their motto appears to be: Things are as they are and nothing will change. Never mind that history is full of massive change. And even more [...] Read more
VC Backed Startups and PPP: Do You Really Need It?
There has been a lot of discussion of whether or not startups qualify for forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program administered by the SBA (part of the CARES Act). I don’t want to rehash the arcana of affiliation rules [...] Read more
Privacy, Power and the Commons
Private property has become so prevalent in the world that we rarely think about the commons. Most people consider the subway as a public good, it is part of “public transport” after all. But they are unlikely to recognize the [...] Read more
Putting the Economy in Suspended Animation: A Proposal
Now that we are finally going on lockdown here in the US in order to flatten the curve of the COVID19 crisis, we also need to take drastic measures to put the economy on suspended animation. In particular, I propose [...] Read more
COVID19 Crisis, Business Advice and First Principles
I have written a few general posts about the COVID19 crisis already. Today I want to address all of those running a company or making management decisions with a simple message: avoid generic business advice! By generic advice I mean [...] Read more
COVID19 What’s Next? Innovation FTW
I wrote a post about flattening the curve last week. I believe this week we will see some kind of government enforced lockdown in the US similar to the one in place in Italy, Spain and France . It is [...] Read more
COVID19: Flatten the Curve
On February 25th we sent a Coronavirus Preparedness email to all of USV’s portfolio company CEOs. Since then it has become clear that many countries, including the US, have far underestimated the severity and spread of COVID19. As of March [...] Read more
Sanders over Trump
At the moment it appears as if Bernie Sanders might become the Democratic nominee. Bloomberg having entered the race means that the centrist vote is split four ways between Bloomberg, Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar. On the left there are only [...] Read more
Coronavirus and World After Capital
We are continuing to see the COVID19 coronavirus spread around the world with a big flare up in Italy. Johns Hopkins maintains a good global map of the outbreak . There are now quite a few experts who believe that [...] Read more