Skillshare
The Internet has been an amazing platform for creating and distributing educational content. Khan Academy has become the canonical example cited here but terrific free content is emerging from many different sources such as the Open Courseware initiative and even [...] Read more
Lending Club
Have you ever wondered why a bank charges an 18+% interest rate on credit card balances (regardless of credit history), but only pays depositors 1% on their balance? These are fantastic economics for bank management and bank stockholders, but not [...] Read more
The PROTECT IP Act Will Slow Start-up Innovation
As venture capitalists, we believe deeply in the value of decentralized, emergent, start-up innovation. The Internet has been an unusually fertile ground for this type of innovation largely because, for the first time in history, it has been possible to [...] Read more
Canvas
We are big fans of communities at Union Square Ventures. The partners in our firm have been investing in Internet communities for almost 15 years and we are constantly reminded of the power of the community. Whenever we are presented [...] Read more
Wattpad’s Continued Re-Imagining of the Book
This week is Book Expo America which is the biggest book trade show in the US. That's a great moment for reflecting on how the book is being transformed in the age of the Internet. Mary Meeker in her slide [...] Read more
Kickstarter
In the fall of 2009, we met the founding team at Kickstarter. Perry, Yancey, and Charles had built a marketplace where anyone could fund and follow creativity of all kinds. We were immediately taken with the team and the idea.We [...] Read more