Writing
Choose
The Primitives Protocol
Nick Grossman – Apr 4, 2024
For over a decade now, USV has been eagerly anticipating the emergence of “Web3” alongside “crypto”. What we mean by this is that while blockchains and crypto assets are still viewed by the world at large as financial technologies, they [...] Read more
Investing at the Edge of Large Markets Under Transformative Pressure
Nick Grossman – Jan 23, 2024
Union Square Ventures turns 20 this year. Brad and Fred began to deploy the first USV fund in 2004. The dot com bubble had recently popped, modern smartphones hadn’t been invented, “social media” wasn’t a thing, and the first bitcoin [...] Read more
You Never Know When You’ve Had a Bad Day
Many years ago, when I had just started working at USV, I remember there was kind of a complicated situation that unfolded in a seemingly bad way, and I'll never forget what Brad said in response. He said: Read more
AI + Crypto: Best and Worst Cases
Nick Grossman – Jun 28, 2023
I think of AI and crypto as two very different, but very much related, elements of society moving from the industrial age to the digital age. At USV, we (along with lots of others over the years) have used the [...] Read more
Motivating via Excitement vs. Fear
Nick Grossman – Jun 25, 2023
My favorite song from the past two years was Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over , the second verse of which goes like this: This might not be an easy time There’s rivers to cross and hills to climb Some days we [...] Read more
Odyssey
Nick Grossman – May 25, 2023
3.5 billion people in the world do not have access to reliable electricity, and over $1T in renewable energy investments are needed in emerging markets in the next decade. Achieving this coverage can only happen if we can greenlight [...] Read more
Being in Motion
Nick Grossman – Feb 27, 2023
I find myself today flying across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, en route to Denver for ETH Denver followed by LA for the Upfront Summit . I often end up writing blog posts on planes — partially because of the [...] Read more
Beautiful Permanence & Messy Change
Nick Grossman – Feb 8, 2023
I am traveling home today from Switzerland, having been there for a week for a few board meetings (and also some amazing skiing in between, notching a life goal I’ve had since I was a teenager). Every time I travel [...] Read more
Ostrom
Nick Grossman – Dec 7, 2022
One of the pillars of the USV investment thesis is “trusted brands”, and a core component of brand trust is structural alignment. Structural alignment means that from a fundamental business model perspective, the company’s economics and incentives are aligned with [...] Read more