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Investing in Clue
Albert Wenger – Oct 9, 2015
Today’s post is over at the USV blog, describing why we invested in Clue, which provides a period tracking and fertility app. A big thanks also to Susan and Katie for helping me understand the importance of Clue. Read more
Political Debates on German vs US TV: Paging John Stewart
Albert Wenger – Oct 8, 2015
Last week I spent a few days with family, friends and startups in Germany. When I was at my parents we watched a television debate about Islam, religious freedom and German society. I was struck by the stark contrast to [...] Read more
Going to Mars
Albert Wenger – Oct 1, 2015
I was thrilled to hear about NASA’s discovery of water on Mars. I am hoping it will contribute to interest in a human mission to Mars. Ideally, such a mission would not be under the banner of a single nation [...] Read more
Learn To Commit
Albert Wenger – Sep 28, 2015
This past Saturday Susan, our daughter Katie and I (with help from our son Michael) taught a one day computer bootcamp for women at Cornell. Susan, who is a Cornell alum, had come up with the idea a few months [...] Read more
Kickstarter is Now a Public Benefit Corporation
Albert Wenger – Sep 21, 2015
I am super excited that Kickstarter is no longer an INC but rather now a PBC, a Public Benefit Corporation. This means the company has changed its Delaware charter to include its mission of supporting creators as pari passu with [...] Read more
Kickstarter, PBC
Fred Wilson – Sep 20, 2015
I recall meeting Perry Chen for the first time in the old USV offices on the 14th floor back in 2009 shortly after Kickstarter launched. He and his partners Yancey and Charles were onto something, I was sure of that. [...] Read more
Ad-Blocking Points the Way To Decentralizing Power And That’s a Good Thing
Albert Wenger – Sep 20, 2015
Robert Reich has an op-ed piece in the NY Times today arguing that “Big Tech Has Become Way Too Powerful” and that we should apply anti-trust regulation. There is little doubt that network effects have made tech’s new incumbents such [...] Read more
More on Subscriptions and Micropayments
Albert Wenger – Sep 19, 2015
Two days ago I wrote a post explaining why I am bullish on crowdfunding and skeptical on micropayments as an alternative to funding content, especially journalism. The explanation was a bit dry and abstract, but in the comments I provided [...] Read more
Crowdfunding Is More Likely to Replace Ads Than Micropayments
Albert Wenger – Sep 18, 2015
The rollout of iOS 9 and along with it adblocking plugins for mobile Safari has re-ignited the debate over the ethics of removing ads from pages. Marco Arment who released the paid Peace adblocker previously wrote a piece laying out [...] Read more