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Call for Genomics and Software-driven Biology Startups
Jennifer Campbell – Feb 28, 2017
Everyone knows the big Web 2.0 companies use hundreds of data points to determine which ad we might prefer. And yet — in the deathmatch against disease, we reduce human health to single variables. Read more
Japan Ski Trip
Albert Wenger – Feb 27, 2017
Last night we got back from an epic ski trip to Hokkaido, Japan. Going there as a family was my 50th birthday wish and something I had been looking forward to for several years. I am thrilled to say it [...] Read more
Top Hat
Albert Wenger – Feb 15, 2017
Even back when I was in graduate school, I found the price of textbooks to be high and their quality to vary widely. Now that I have children taking college courses, I was shocked to find textbooks that cost over $200 and are still large physical objects that have to be lugged around! The high prices and lack of innovation are the result of a market structure which has become highly concentrated among just a few textbook publishers. That's why I am excited to announce that USV has led a new round of financing for Toronto-based Top Hat, which last year launched a content marketplace for higher education. Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Two Week Hiatus
Albert Wenger – Feb 15, 2017
Apologies to all those who were anticipating an Uncertainty Wednesday post today. I am taking a two week hiatus. Today for announcing our investment in Top Hat and next week I will be out skiing. Will resume the week after [...] Read more
Money as a Commons: Basic Income, Demurrage and Crypto Currencies
Albert Wenger – Feb 13, 2017
One of my favorite questions to ask business students is why companies require external financial capital (equity or debt). Answers tend to turn quickly towards some need to invest, e.g. in developing software or building a plant. But that doesn’t [...] Read more
Turning 50
Albert Wenger – Feb 10, 2017
Tomorrow I am turning 50. I don’t normally write about birthdays but in my work with entrepreneurs I often tell them that a big milestone, such as raising a new round of financing, is a good time for reflection. My [...] Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Probability (Part 3)
Albert Wenger – Feb 8, 2017
In the last two Uncertainty Wednesdays, we went over the basic math of probability and the definition of events. Today we are going to come back to the underlying framework of reality, explanations and observations which we have modeled as [...] Read more
Tucows
Brad Burnham – Feb 6, 2017
Union Square Ventures has made a substantial investment in Tucows, a 23 year old company company that has been publicly traded for over 15 years. Since we have never before invested in a public company, that requires a bit of an explanation. Read more
Value Creation
Albert Wenger – Feb 6, 2017
We spent the first week of our NYU Stern class talking about value creation. The goal is to ask the seemingly simple question as to how a given company creates value. The first step of course is to ask what [...] Read more