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Investment Thesis @USV
Andy Weissman – May 27, 2012
Venture firms operate a bunch of different ways. Some have a geographical focus, others have a sector focus, still others have a stage focus. Union Square Ventures' focus has evolved into what we call a "thesis" but is probably better [...] Read more
Behance
Albert Wenger – May 14, 2012
We have long believed that the Internet is about giving "power to the people." One way in which the Internet does that is by letting people show what they have created to the world. People do that in all sorts [...] Read more
B Corporation
Albert Wenger – May 10, 2012
Etsy announced yesterday that the company has become a Certified B Corporation. In doing so Etsy joins a growing group of now over 500 companies that includes Patagonia and Seventh Generation. We are excited about this as it fits well [...] Read more
Funding Circle
Andy Weissman – Apr 1, 2012
The shift from hierarchical models of resource allocation to more efficient marketplaces is occurring not only in handmade goods or creative projects, but in the provision of financial services as well. New digitally-native financial services that use technology in ways [...] Read more
Codecademy
Andy Weissman – Oct 23, 2011
A few weeks back, Ryan Bubinski, who co-founded Codecademy with Zach Sims, said to me that he thought learning how to code should be a fundamental skill on par with learning how to read or write or do arithmetic. And, [...] Read more
Turntable
Fred Wilson – Sep 13, 2011
Sometimes you end up loving something you don't want to. When turntable.fm launched, I wanted to avoid it. There was the Facebook login button that I didn't want to use. There was another music service I didn't want to add [...] Read more
Wattpad
Albert Wenger – Sep 12, 2011
Stories have been with us probably as long as language has, and the need for stories appears deeply rooted in all of us. We have come a long way from quite literally sitting around a fire to sophisticated technologies such [...] Read more
Skillshare
Albert Wenger – Aug 16, 2011
The Internet has been an amazing platform for creating and distributing educational content. Khan Academy has become the canonical example cited here but terrific free content is emerging from many different sources such as the Open Courseware initiative and even [...] Read more
Canvas
Fred Wilson – Jun 13, 2011
We are big fans of communities at Union Square Ventures. The partners in our firm have been investing in Internet communities for almost 15 years and we are constantly reminded of the power of the community. Whenever we are presented [...] Read more