A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Most of USV’s big wins have been in companies where we were the first institutional VC to talk to the company or where we had way more conviction about the opportunity than other investors at the time of our investment. ” He was surprised and said “You are the first VC to say that.” That’s how you win big.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 22, 2020

While they can withdraw those funds from the business the next day, local founders must still secure decent backing to even begin the work. Katrin Siebenbuerger Hacki, founder, Medows. Olaf Hannemann, partner, CV VC AG. What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders?

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

There are an estimated 100,000 Italians already living in London, attracting the likes of Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder of King.com (maker of Candy Crush) and Simon Beckerman of social shopping app Depop. The good news: VC funding in Italy has grown. It has an estimated 67 VC funds, with 18 of them started since 2015.

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Haystack

JANUARY 18, 2020

Having spent time around and then in the world of VC in the Bay Area during the last decade, I’ve been reflecting on how different norms in the industry have changed. At the start of 2010, there was some unwritten VC industry conventions that have been tested, challenged, and upended in the last decade. That is for another post.

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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. — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 11, 2020. In no world does it make sense.

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500

JUNE 9, 2020

Supply chains have been disrupted, businesses have had to close or operate at limited capacity for months, and even founders have had to expand their fundraising timeframes as we saw in our 2020 Female Founders Data Report. As a VC firm, we’ve had to adapt many aspects of our business as well.

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TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

Sesie Bonsi is the founder and CEO of Bleu , a financial technology platform focused on enabling touchless payment experiences. But most venture-backed startups are “still overwhelmingly white, male, Ivy-League-educated and based in Silicon Valley,” according to a study conducted by RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC. Sesie Bonsi.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

It was expected that these figures would increase in 2020. Investments did pick up, and from July, VC funding on the continent had a bullish run until December. Although 2020 didn’t witness the series of mammoth deals in 2019 and didn’t reach the $2 billion mark, it proved to be a good year for acquisitions.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 19, 2022

For Black founders, who have rarely received more than 1% of total venture capital invested in startups, 2022 wasn’t kind, and 2023 doesn’t look promising given how things are going. To find out how Black founders are planning to manage their time, money, and expectations for the upcoming months, TechCrunch+ surveyed three founders.

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StartupNation

JULY 28, 2021

So, while it comes as no surprise that 2019 was also a record year for female founders securing these dollars, many would be shocked to learn this funding amounted to a mere 3.4% It would be reasonable to assume that VC funding would drop in 2020, especially during the uncertainty of the pandemic. at its all-time high. .

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Meanwhile, few spaces were frothier in 2016 than virtual reality, but most VCs who gambled on VR following Facebook’s Oculus acquisition failed to strike it rich. Brayton Williams, Boost VC. In both AR/VR, a founder needs to be both super ambitious but patient. Tipatat Chennavasin, The Venture Reality Fund.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

I have been investing in developer tools since the earliest days of my VC career. And he observed that the tools that have produced the most value for the founders and investors, including USV, are the tools that are “in the flow” and not on the side. It was a text-based editor for PCs.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

My largest investor was a financial firm that invested in my prior funds to get into the VC business—and in the six years since they first invested, they had built out a team and a strategy that no longer involved doing much seed. 2020: “Hold my beer.” It’s not the telling my story or that of the founders I’ve backed.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley). One event held by a few investors focused on Black founders is clearly not enough.

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Dream It

APRIL 7, 2020

— samir kaji (@Samirkaji) April 7, 2020 To guide startups through the confusion, Dreamit interviewed three leaders helping startups secure emergency funding from different perspectives as bankers, attorneys, and investors. The information on this page was updated on April 6th, 2020. Last Friday was anything but orderly.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 17, 2020

I met the founders and was happy for them. It comes with the territory in VC. USV TEAM POSTS: Matt Cynamon — Aug 13, 2020 A Quick Update On Hiring Albert Wenger — Aug 13, 2020 Marxism Remains a Dangerous Idea. Then I woke up. Investments that don’t work haunt me. It isn’t the losing money part.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Sopoong , a social impact-focused VC, intends to support environmentally minded tech founders in South Korea and Southeast Asia, while building a bridge between Korean conglomerates and startups in the sector. Sopoong has closed on around $8 million (10.3 Sopoong has closed on around $8 million (10.3

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TechCrunch

JULY 12, 2021

Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and he kept on climbing and gaining skills and single-handedly founded his own company, one which has reached Series B and raised $33 million, a significant amount of money for any startup, but particularly for a startup run by a Black founder. On the diversity front, 2020 may prove a tipping point.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 29, 2023

Much hope remains after the crypto winter almost froze the sector: the Luna crash , the bankruptcy of Celsius and the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for alleged fraud. billion such companies picked up in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Bubble had to pop,” People of Crypto co-founder Simone Berry said. “It billion and $4.2

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 17, 2020

If one founder ends up quitting a year or two before the last cliff, they still own a large share of the cap table through many rounds to come. The departing founder might consider that fair, but the remaining founder(s) are the ones adding on the additional value — and resentment is not the only issue. Image Credits: FirstMark.

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Revolution

MARCH 1, 2023

VC dollars are at risk, we conducted a historical analysis of top quartile fund managers over the past quarter century (as far back as we could access reliable Cambridge Associates data). We looked at the analysis in two parts: the 1997–2010 time period and the 2011–2020 time period. And what does this mean for founders?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 8, 2020

The second quarter of 2020 is now behind us and we will see the data on it soon. And finally, there are so many great founders out there coming up with excellent business ideas. But looking back on the second quarter of 2020, what I see is a hyperactive venture capital market firing on all cylinders.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 1, 2022

However, we were not able to do that in 2020 and 2021 so this was our first Portfolio Summit since 2019. That is 65 founders and leaders that had not been to a USV Summit, and in some cases, we had not met them in person. Those of us who work in VC and startups can work remotely and get most everything we need done.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 13, 2020

As Sandy Kemper, founder and CEO of our portfolio company C2FO puts it in this blog post : The greatest financial relief we can give small and mid-sized businesses in this economic crisis is faster payment of their outstanding invoices — liquidity. We also need things like payroll tax deferrals and other relief from the CARES Act.

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TechCrunch

MAY 28, 2022

.” The document reads like a follow-up course to its infamously ill-timed “Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020” memo of March 2020. There were, however, some tidbits that stood out, such as a subtweet that I’m guessing is meant for Tiger Global and a precise explanation of how founders should define fluff these days.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 26, 2021

Despite the pandemic, 2020 saw $158 million invested into 108 deals, representing the third year in a row of over $100 million in investment in startups. According to a PwC report, 2020 was also the third year of more than 20% year-over-year growth in dollars invested. Elevate Acting CEO James Pinner.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 10, 2020

Many founders want to do SAFE note financings for their early rounds to save time and money. I am not suggesting the founder go without a lawyer. USV TEAM POSTS: Nick Grossman — Jul 31, 2020 Hardware-based Identity. ” The key to being able to do that is the availability of standard financing forms.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 10, 2022

Women in VC have caught the entrepreneurial bug. Why does any founder start anything? So she found a partner, Joanna Drake, and launched Magnify Ventures in 2020. Over the past year, numerous notable women investors have left their roles at established firms to launch funds of their own.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 3, 2022

Today, at the helm of the Black Founders Matter venture fund, Michel has kept that mentality. The fund announced today the formation of the 25 by 25 Pledge , which encourages venture capitalists to commit to investing a quarter of their funds into BIPOC women founders by the year 2025. I just see it as the start.”

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. The founder negotiated with the fund and ultimately accepted a 15% lower price.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 29, 2022

This brings GetVantage’s total raised so far to $40 million, along with a seed round in 2020, the same year it was launched by Bhavik Vasa and Amit Srivastava. Many online entrepreneurs are underserved, he added, because “the VC model is somewhat broken and really based on who you know.”

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 10, 2020

The 1K project was built by Alex from NYC, Minda from Seattle, and a group of over 20 volunteers consisting mostly of tech founders. Today, I would like to highlight The 1k project. This is an effort to pair people with means with individuals who have lost their jobs and need some help to get through to the other side.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Even after the unprecedented year that we had in 2020, the VC markets picked up in 2021 and founders raised 157% more capital in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year. Global VCs have invested $268.7 billion as of July 2021, already passing the total investment amount in 2020.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 8, 2022

The dynamics that play into this forecast, aside from the impact of COVID, include a youthful population (the youngest globally), rising smartphone adoption and internet penetration that has led to a burgeoning tech ecosystem backed by local and international VC dollars.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 2, 2020

.” I have seen many founders try the “run right away” approach and it is super hard to make that work. Of course, there are examples of founders who did that and succeeded. USV TEAM POSTS: Nick Grossman — Jul 2, 2020 Second Chance Studios David Gabeau — Jun 26, 2020 Augmented Reality NFTs.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Ridgeline is a new VC firm that invests in B2B companies with a specific goal in mind: helping its portfolio companies sell to complex organizations that are hard to crack, but can be great customers if you break into them. “It’s going to allow us to see things before they pop up in the general radar. .

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VC growth. We are proud to announce the close of our 7th early-stage fund with $280 million to invest in seed and early stage founders. What do you do with a $650 million platform? We will continue to work hard to make you all proud.

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