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Matt Mandel – Mar 20, 2024
Existing electrical infrastructure is ill-suited to our current needs. It was developed for a world where we simply sent firm AC power from centralized power plants to end-customers. Today, however, electricity flows multi-directionally, as both AC and DC, and more [...] Read more
The Fragmentation of Search
Grace Carney – Feb 29, 2024
The market structure for Search is currently being reshaped. Horizontal and LLM-based “search agents” like ChatGPT and Perplexity are placing unprecedented pressure on search engines like Google. Cracks are beginning to form, from which new possibilities of search are rapidly [...] Read more
Vertically Integrated and AI-First
Matt Mandel – Feb 22, 2024
Co-authored with Jared Hecht A new pattern is emerging that we are excited about at USV: entrepreneurs are upgrading physical industries with an AI-first and vertically integrated approach. Instead of selling software to industry incumbents, startups are increasingly deciding to [...] Read more
Code
Fred Wilson – Feb 6, 2024
USV participated in a seed financing of Code, which is building a global payments app on the Solana blockchain. Code announced the financing today on their blog. You can see a nice visualization of the Code payments experience here and [...] Read more
AI Aesthetics
Matt Mandel – Feb 1, 2024
The word “technology” comes from the Greek word techne, which refers to an art or skill or practice. Plato writes a lot about the concept, often making reference to artists such as flute players as canonical examples of those engaged [...] Read more
Training the Weird
Rebecca Kaden – Jan 30, 2024
We are entering a new age of consumer fun and function. AI is going to supercharge both the utility and entertainment of consumer products, introducing new form factors and experiences that feel made for me. As Jared wrote recently, we [...] Read more