Investing.
USV, startups, theses, portfolio announcements
- WebFWD: Accelerating a Better Internet
I’ve always loved Mozilla‘s mission and tactics – using awesome consumer products as the lever to make the web a better place to be. That’s why I’m happy to join their WebFWD accelerator program as a scout. That just means that I’m one of many folks who are on the lookout for products and companies...
- Backing into your network
Today, we announced that USV is investing in Hailo. I am psyched about this for a number of reasons, but primarily because it’s infrastructure that connects people to their city in new ways. What’s most fascinating is that we almost certainly don’t yet know what those ways are. I want to point out ...
- Tennis, Psychadelics, and Entrepreneurship
I’ve always thought of tennis as perhaps the most difficult of sports. It’s like hitting a baseball, but while you’re running, and with 90% of the addressable target area out of bounds (in the net, outside the lines, etc). To top that off, you’re a team of one, battling yourself, inside your head....
- digg: Sold for parts, in a good way
I haven’t been following the story of the Digg acquisition too closely, and have no perspective on the economics of it, but it does seem kind of awesome in a way. In that, the acquirers of the various parts of digg seem to have each gotten something uniquely valuable (to them) and likely have the… ...
- Web 2.0 Expo: The Opportunity for Civic Startups
Last week at the Web 2.0 Expo, I gave a talk on The Opportunity for Civic Startups. I was filling in for Code for America‘s Jen Pahlka, and the presentation itself is an hybrid of a version I did at the t=0 Entrepreneurship Festival at MIT a few weeks ago, a version Jen did at… Continue reading
- The Enterprise End-Run
This post has been a long time coming. It’s the idea that keeps coming back; the slow hunch that’s been brewing and brewing for months. For some reason, it’s taken me forever to actually write it out. So here I finally go. Last Friday night, I had the pleasure of judging a round of the… Continue ...
- Elevator pitches, weddings and babies
At OpenPlans, we’re busy signing up new clients for our products & services, and we’re also spending a lot of time fundraising (from individual donors, foundations, etc.). As such, I’ve been thinking about how we pitch our organization, and have recently spent some time over the past few days readi...