Writing

There are so many challenges facing us right now that the smaller things often get overlooked. One of those things is summer internships for students who are focused on a career in tech. Many companies are struggling to stay afloat [...]  Read more

Something that consistently surprises me is how many people have a fundamentally static worldview. Their motto appears to be: Things are as they are and nothing will change. Never mind that history is full of massive change. And even more [...]  Read more

There has been a lot of discussion of whether or not startups qualify for forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program administered by the SBA (part of the CARES Act). I don’t want to rehash the arcana of affiliation rules [...]  Read more

As we continue to make our way through this pandemic, I keep coming back to the question of how do we help those in the most need right now. Last week it was our health care responders on the front [...]  Read more

Continuing to look for glimmers of hope and positivity in the middle of this crisis, one area that is for sure glimmering is at-home creativity. I know from seeing the numbers from some of USV’s portfolio companies in the “creator” [...]  Read more

As Billboard is reporting this morning , our portfolio company SoundCloud is putting up $15mm to support it’s creator community in this difficult time for musicians. Musicians can’t tour right now. That’s a huge part of their earnings. Many are [...]  Read more

My friend Matt Blumberg, who ran USV’s former portfolio company Return Path for twenty years before selling it last spring, got a call from Colorado’s Governor Polis two and half weeks ago asking him to fly out and be the [...]  Read more

If you have a roof that needs to be inspected but you don’t want people crawling all over your house right now, if you have mission-critical infrastructure that needs to have its regular inspection done but you don’t want third [...]  Read more

Last week Congress passed the CARES Act which provides a vast array of financial relief provisions to people and businesses in the US. Congress is providing relief to small businesses via a forgivable loan program administered by the Small Business [...]  Read more