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Half Of All VCs Beat The Stock Market

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

There has been this narrative about investing in VC funds that you have to get into the top quartile (25%) or possibly the top decile (10%) in order to generate good returns. I have heard that for as long as I have been in VC and probably have written it here a few times. As you can see, investing in VC funds can be very profitable.

VC 279
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How the Seed-Stage VC Trend Began, The Downsides of Unicorns & Much More

Both Sides of the Table

If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC. Startup Lessons'

VC 348
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This Week in VC with @VCMike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures

Both Sides of the Table

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. And in my interviews with many VCs I feel that people can watch these and get to know the VC’s as human beings a bit better. So how did Mike get into VC?

VC 230
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This Week in VC with Om Malik & Paul Jozefak

Both Sides of the Table

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. We spent the first 45 minutes or so talking about industry trends (in this order): The history and background of True Ventures, one of my favorite early-stage VC’s (and the one with whom Om is a venture partner). Real-time search engine. Total Raised: $366mm.

VC 225
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Backblaze’s IPO shows it’s possible to go public sans mountains of VC cash

TechCrunch

million in outside equity since our founding in 2007. However, it turns out that online demand generation through native content is actually a huge lever for Backblaze, so, sure, the blog readers metric actually does matter. Prior to issuing $10.0 Here’s a reminder. What a silly non-GAAP metric!

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Tumblr

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

USV seeded Tumblr along with our friends at Spark in the summer of 2007 and were actively involved in the development of the company until its sale to Yahoo! I maintained an active Tumblog from before we invested in 2007 until October 2016, when I stopped posting there. There was no moment when I decided to stop posting there.

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Why You Should Put Yourself Out There and Try New Products

Both Sides of the Table

In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. In 2008 I started VC blogging. I had blogged when I was an entrepreneur. In 2006 I started using Facebook and most of my friends & colleagues thought I was strange.