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World After Capital: Digital Technology (Zero Marginal Cost)
Albert Wenger – Feb 12, 2018
NOTE: Last week’s blog post was the current introduction to my book World After Capital. Today’s post covers the first half of the chapter on Digital Technology, which discusses how zero marginal cost is unlike anything found in the analog [...] Read more
Velocity by Code Climate
Albert Wenger – Feb 7, 2018
Today our portfolio company Code Climate is launching its new “Velocity” product into public beta. The product provides teams with data driven insights into the speed of their development process. It answers important questions, such as where in the process do engineers have to wait (e.g. long continuous integration times or long wait for code to be reviewed)? Or, how much work in progress is accumulating (and how much risk does that contain)? For more examples of the types of insights provided by Velocity, you can see the product launch page. Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Spurious Correlation (Cont’d)
Albert Wenger – Feb 7, 2018
Last Uncertainty Wednesday, I introduced the topic of spurious correlation. Since then I have discovered a site that gives some fantastic examples of (potentially) spurious correlations. Here is one: The coefficient of correlation is 0.9926, i.e. almost 1 (which would [...] Read more
World After Capital: Introduction
Albert Wenger – Feb 5, 2018
NOTE: This is the current state of the introduction for World After Capital. It provides an overview of the key ideas from the book. In case you missed it, last week’s blog post has the work in progress note and [...] Read more
Hiring New Analysts
Albert Wenger – Feb 1, 2018
We are excited to announce that we are recruiting two new analysts at USV. Analysts at USV are part of the investment team and work closely with partners both on current portfolio and potential new investments. They gain exposure to our large network of startup and growth companies, as well as insight into our investment decision process. Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Spurious Correlation (Intro)
Albert Wenger – Jan 31, 2018
In the last Uncertainty Wednesday post on Sample Variance, I wrote that “Inference from data without explanations is how people go deeply wrong about reality.” It occurred to me that the best way to illustrate this is by writing about [...] Read more
World After Capital: Work In Progress & Preface
Albert Wenger – Jan 29, 2018
NOTE: One of my goals for 2018 is to bring my book World After Capital to the point where I feel it is good enough to publish in paper form. I have come to realize that if I just keep [...] Read more
Mycroft: Open Consumer Voice Platform
Albert Wenger – Jan 26, 2018
Late in 2016 I wrote a blog post titled “Voice Platforms: Open Alternative is an Opportunity.” At the time I learned about a project called Mycroft. This project has just launched its second version, the Mark II, on Kickstarter. If [...] Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Sample Variance (Cont’d)
Albert Wenger – Jan 24, 2018
Last Uncertainty Wednesday, I used meteorite impact data to make the point that sample variance may be much smaller than actual variance. Following the post, I was asked a great question on Twitter: “Is there such thing as estimation error [...] Read more