A Bittersweet Moment

It is with mixed emotions that we bid Charlie O’Donnell goodbye.

As Charlie explains on his personal weblog, he is leaving Union Square Ventures at the end of next week to join our portfolio company Oddcast in the newly created position of Director of Consumer Products.

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote this post on my personal weblog explaining how we met Charlie, how we got to know him, and how we decided to hire him. It’s a great story about networking, blogging, and business.

Charlie was our first two-year analyst and he has defined the role and set a bar that is pretty high. He has injected a part of his person, attitude, energy, and intellect into our firm and we are richer for it. We will also miss having him around because he’s a great person.

That said, we are thrilled to see him go out and join an early stage company, particularly a company we are invested in. It’s an excellent outcome for him and we are thrilled that one of our portfolio companies will be able to reap the benefits of his skills, attitude, and energy the way we did.

So it’s a bittersweet moment for us at Union Square Ventures. We wish Charlie well and look forward to working with him for a long time to come.