This is going to be BIG.

MAY 31, 2022

So, it wasn’t too surprising when I got back my results from Base (a subscription data-driven personal health company also in the BBV portfolio) that my cholesterol, particularly by LDL (bad cholesterol) had ticked up to the point where I needed to do something about it.

health 195

health incubation communities ventures 195

Paul G. Silva

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Could you elaborate on how you’ve seen this impact your portfolio companies, especially those that are experiencing fast growth? A 5% revenue share until a target of $500k is reached could become a significant expense for a rapidly growing company. I was impressed. Its analysis of my strengths and weaknesses was accurate too!

pitching 246

pitching advice sustainability entrepreneurs 246

Dream It

MARCH 6, 2020

Berman comes from a real estate background, and he co-founded Camber Creek after realizing an opportunity to “create a double alpha situation,” both investing in high-growth startups and using those startups to improve the operations of his own real estate portfolio. Mitchell Schear was President of Vornado/Charles E.

real estate 406

real estate pitching VC opportunity 406

The Seraf Compass

OCTOBER 16, 2024

The journey has been a learning experience, one that has shaped how I approach portfolio management and long-term wealth building. But as I moved into investing, I quickly realized that this new world required a different mindset.

startup founder 163

startup founder founder startup investment 163

Revolution

AUGUST 2, 2022

While in town, Mahati met up with portfolio companies ( Swaypay , Partyslate , and Mad Rabbit ), investors at M25 and Manifold Group, and startups headquartered in the city?—?with with more than a few Foxtrot pit stops in between. Where we went: Scottsdale, AZ ??

economic growth 344

economic growth innovation communities startup ecosystem 344

The Seraf Compass

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Putting in place a well-thought-out investment strategy is a crucial component when building a high- performing portfolio of early stage companies, especially if that portfolio is going to generate acceptable returns. There is so much more to running a fund than leaping in, chasing companies and slinging cash around.

strategy 360

strategy VC investing investment 360

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

A power law distribution exists in outcomes in any early stage portfolio and a seed portfolio is no differernt. There are only several hundred companies in the world with market caps of over $100 billion and roughly a quarter of them have come out of venture capital portfolios in the last thirty years. That makes sense.

VC 363

VC sustainability investing investment 363

Dream It

APRIL 2, 2019

Dreamit incorporates the intelligence, data, and new relationships gained during acceleration into its venture investment process to build a high-potential, diversified portfolio. Since 2008, Dreamit has worked with over 320 companies.

ventures 284

ventures startup accelerator innovation 284

American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 4, 2024

This momentum allows us to expand our reach, scaling investments and preparing for the launch of Fund II, which will support an even larger portfolio of impactful startups.” Those in The Fund’s portfolio of groundbreaking companies have the potential to reach similar heights.

leadership 97

leadership startup accelerator mentorship entrepreneurship 97

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Marketing, recruiting, building data products & tools, event management, analyzing the portfolio, etc. Listen, I think most of us if you gave us a choice would prefer “just” to be great investors and to spend all of our time on portfolio work. And all the platform stuff. And that Greg Bettinelli chap? What’s he doing?

ventures 361

ventures leadership mentorship venture capital 361

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 30, 2025

One of my portfolio companies, Esembly , runs a Cloth Diapering 101 class that nets them more conversions via follow up e-mails than traditional advertising directly to the site gets them. Panels, talks, and classes can all be great for the collection of e-mail addresses as well.

startup 286

startup communities networking media 286

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 18, 2021

We have identified a number of areas where we must do better: Increase the number of Black founders we back Increase the number of Black team members at USV Increase the number of Black VCs we work with and support Increase the number of Black board members in our portfolio Increase the number of Black leaders in our portfolio Increase the number of (..)

venture capital 233

venture capital board capital ventures 233

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

The founder and CEO of our portfolio company Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, explained this well in a tweetstorm last week: He ended with this tweet: Recently Apple announced a way for developers to suggest updates to the App Store policies.

finance 72

finance financing development innovation 72

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

Today I called it, “our own little VC led, portfolio-by-portfolio company version of RIP Good Times from 7 years ago.” When you accelerate too quickly often a pull back is inevitable as you recalibrate. And the truth is that I think this is just a harbinger of what we will see in the private markets very, very soon.

VC 392

VC capital culture venture capital 392

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 1, 2020

We have been investing in learning for over a decade at USV and have built a terrific learning portfolio focusing on companies that are providing services direct to the learner (as opposed to selling “ed tech” to institutions). My partner Rebecca wrote about our most recent education investment, Sora , on the USV blog today.

education 253

education creativity investment investing 253

The Seraf Compass

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

As active early stage investors and directors of Launchpad Venture Group, we are asked frequently about how we track our portfolio of investments and how we stay on top of the financial performance of each company. And, we are asked about how we track the overall performance of our total portfolio.

investment 286

investment investing ventures 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

The Upfront VII and Growth teams are made up of 10 partners: 6 leading investment activities & 4 supporting portfolio companies including Talent, Marketing, Finance & Operations. We believe in being active partners with our portfolio, working alongside founders and executive teams in both good times and in more challenging times.

ventures 408

ventures startup peer-to-peer venture capital 408

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 23, 2021

I realized a long time ago that the VC’s customer is the founder/CEO/portfolio company and that our investors (called LPs in VC speak) are our “shareholders” That was a very defining moment for me and has clarified what matters the most in a VC firm. 2/ We regularly provide our LPs with a lot of information on our portfolio.

VC 269

VC mix-use opportunity investment 269

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 31, 2022

Foreign investments can broaden a company’s portfolio while introducing your people to diversities of culture and experience. A geographically diverse portfolio lowers your exposure to these risks while potentially unlocking entirely new sectors not available in your current market. The good, bad and ugly of foreign investments.

strategy 241

strategy investment investing culture 241

Revolution

MAY 23, 2023

Strategics in this space typically have a portfolio of hard assets (i.e., buildings) and are more interested in improving the portfolio’s underlying performance through revenue maximization or cost reduction. But this is a slippery slope as portfolio companies feel pressured to put on a dog and pony show for every LP.

real estate 278

real estate venture capital VC innovation 278

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 13, 2020

Our portfolio company Numerai , which operates the crowdsourced Numerai Hedge Fund and is the creator of the Numeraire crypto token introduced their latest effort, Numerai Signals , with this video yesterday: USV TEAM POSTS: Albert Wenger — Oct 10, 2020 Innovation Upends Extrapolation: Urbanization.

innovation 304

innovation finance financing 304

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 22, 2021

In the ten months that have passed since I wrote that I am pleased to say that we have seen a noticeable increase in board diversity in our portfolio. But I can also tell you that the state of diversity in startup/growth company boards and our portfolio is still awful. A number of my partners have done the same. 3/ Prioritize this.

board 261

board startup VC technology 261

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Earlier this week I purchased 1% of a collection of five 1985 Nike Air Jordan sneakers using our portfolio company Otis’ mobile app. I paid $330 for ten shares (out of a total of 1000 shares) implying a value of $33,000 for the five pairs, or roughly $6600 each.

investment 331

investment investing technology entrepreneurship 331

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.” So if you truly want to be great at investing you need all the right skills and access AND a diversified portfolio. You’re thinking about one bullet at a time.

sustainability 294

sustainability board construction strategy 294

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

SPACs have been around for at least thirty years and I have always thought of them as a “liquidity path of last resort” for our portfolio companies. Our very best portfolio companies would be offered an opportunity to go public by the top investment banks on wall street. On the left has come direct listings.

VC 279

VC capital board founder 279

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

I have had the great pleasure of working with Matt Blumberg and the senior leadership team of USV’s former portfolio company Return Path (which was sold in 2019) for much of the last twenty years. We have already introduced Bolster to a bunch of USV portfolio companies and the enthusiasm for this model is really high.

board 218

board leadership venture capital VC 218

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

Not only that, we have other portfolio companies to worry about. So, the extent to which any one VC would be openly critical of another’s portfolio company or the investors behind it is limited by the fact that you’ve got other companies that need their late round money.

culture 302

culture incumbents enablement sustainability 302

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 3, 2021

I’m active on X number of portfolio companies and meet with them at Y intervals, meaning that I should have Z portfolio company meetings per week. I baked in time to connect with my one other full-time employee as well as time for follow-ups from the portfolio company meetings I was taking.

pitching 300

pitching board media consulting 300

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 9, 2020

Michelle Zatlyn is the co-founder and COO of our former portfolio and now public company Cloudflare ( NYSE: NET ). In this conversation she did with the Gotham Gal a few weeks ago, she talks about how she and her co-founder Matthew decided to work on cybersecurity versus many other ideas they had.

founder 302

founder entrepreneurship 302

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Jam was built by Dani Grant and Mohd Irtefa , who met as product managers at our portfolio company Cloudflare. Jam integrates with existing tools like Jira, GitHub, Slack, Figma, Loom, and others to make the feedback collected on Jam as actionable as possible.

investment 50

investment investing entrepreneurship 50

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 7, 2021

This chart from our portfolio company Wren’s website shows how we might get there: The bet on the price of carbon is a belief that the world will choose to eliminate its addiction to carbon over the next thirty years and that one way or another carbon emissions will become very costly and carbon capture will become very profitable.

investment 363

investment investing 363

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

If I was to guess, the demographics of people pitching me are reflective of two things—what my own network looks like and what my portfolio looks like. Given that I have a more diverse portfolio than most I would say that on average my gender pitch split is perhaps about 50/50.

advice 429

advice pitching venture capital VC 429

The Seraf Compass

AUGUST 30, 2023

As your angel career develops, and you start to build a larger portfolio of companies, you are increasingly asked to make follow-on investments. Not only do companies need investment to get off the ground, the faster they grow, the more cash they need.

investing 280

investing investment development 280

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 25, 2020

I am working on this in my portfolio and USV is working on this in our broader portfolio. Most startup boards are made up of a few founders and a few VCs. No wonder you have no diversity on the board. Here are some suggestions for addressing this situation. We are not control investors so this is a process of advocacy and persistence.

board 241

board VC venture capital founder 241

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 1, 2022

Last week we held USV’s annual Portfolio Summit here in NYC. Every year we invite the leaders of our portfolio companies to come to NYC and spend a couple of days with us and each other. However, we were not able to do that in 2020 and 2021 so this was our first Portfolio Summit since 2019.

VC 216

VC investment investing founder 216

Dream It

MARCH 20, 2020

NarrativeDX ( Healthtech - Fall 2014 ) is the latest win for the Dreamit portfolio. Today, the company announced that it is being acquired by health care performance improvement pioneer Press Ganey. Kyle Robertson, Founder and CEO of NarrativeDx. This comes on the heels of NarrativeDX’s recent funding round just one year ago last February.

health 351

health sustainability accelerator enablement 351

American Entrepreneurship

APRIL 10, 2025

Building a Future-Proof IP Portfolio In a testament to its innovation leadership, IonQ now controls a portfolio of over 930 patents covering both quantum computing and networking technologies.

collaboration 84

collaboration leadership networking education 84