Development Is Cheap. Production Is Not.
This is a line from a blog post written by my brother in law Jerry Solomon. He is talking about film production, specifically short form videos. But the point is true of all projects, from designing a building, a home, [...] Read more
The Cost Of Loyalty
In the local transportation market, we now have lots of options in addition to mass transit. Here in NYC, we have taxis, Lyft, and Uber. In SF and LA, we have taxis, Sidecar (our portfolio company), Lyft, and Uber. Around [...] Read more
The Dentist Office Software Story
I've been telling this fictional story about Dentist Office Software for years to describe why we are so focused on our "networks" investment strategy. Yesterday I told it at a HackNY event we did at the USV office and my [...] Read more
CrowdRise
In November 2010 my friend Shana Fisher sent me an email suggesting I meet Edward Norton about his crowdfunding site for charities, called CrowdRise. I was pretty dismissive in my response to Shana. I told her that USV was “all [...] Read more
The Bubble Question
Everywhere I go, everywhere I speak, I get asked this question. Are we in a bubble? I've been getting asked that question for at least four years now. It's hard to sustain a bubble for four years. But we are [...] Read more
The Pro-Rata Participation Right
I've touched on this subject before. It is one the "three things you must have in a venture investment". The "pro-rata right" is the right to continue to participate in future rounds so that you can maintain your ownership. Let's [...] Read more
A VC: Sidecar
Announcing the investment in Sidecar that USV made last summer Read more
Taking To Dos and Moving Up The Y Axis
I chromecasted the kitchen laptop to our family room TV yesterday morning and watched the entire Sarah Lacy interview with Dick Costolo. Yes, I had posted it as the video of the week without watching it in its entirety. But [...] Read more
Profitless Prosperity
If a Company is making huge profits this year but will not make any profits in the future, it is worthless in the eyes of an investor. But if it loses money this year and next year and may lose [...] Read more