
The Butter Thesis
At USV, we talk a lot about our investment thesis. The USV thesis is a set of ideas that has guided our investing over the years. It is a tool we u...
From Crypto-Native to Crypto-Enabled
I’m not one to make big annual predictions, but one thing that seems likely to me is that 2024 will mark the emergence of mainstream apps powered by ...
You Never Know When You've Had a Good Day
Many years ago, when I had just started working at USV, I remember there was kind of a complicated situation that unfolded in a seemingly bad way, and I'll never forget what Brad said in response. He said:you never know when you've had a good dayI didn't really understand what that meant, so he told me a story that went something like: back around the year 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom, there was a guy who was a senior exec at a successful startup. That person had a falling out with ...

The Butter Thesis
At USV, we talk a lot about our investment thesis. The USV thesis is a set of ideas that has guided our investing over the years. It is a tool we u...
From Crypto-Native to Crypto-Enabled
I’m not one to make big annual predictions, but one thing that seems likely to me is that 2024 will mark the emergence of mainstream apps powered by ...
You Never Know When You've Had a Good Day
Many years ago, when I had just started working at USV, I remember there was kind of a complicated situation that unfolded in a seemingly bad way, and I'll never forget what Brad said in response. He said:you never know when you've had a good dayI didn't really understand what that meant, so he told me a story that went something like: back around the year 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom, there was a guy who was a senior exec at a successful startup. That person had a falling out with ...
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
I am on a plane right now, watching home renovation shows on HGTV, thinking about how much fun it is to fix things up. Doing projects around the house (last year I built an exterior staircase and made new kitchen countertops, the year before that I built a mudroom), coding and buding apps, and working w founders to improve companies (what we so at USV) are all the same - starting out with something with promise, seeing the vision for the potential, and doing the work to fix it up. It is just so satisfying, so fun, and so rewarding. It's also scary and stressful, full of unknowns. Luckyfor me, both as a DIY home improver, and as a self-taught coder, and now as a yeoman venture capitalist, it's easier than ever to learn from the outside. I learned how to code by reading books, using open source code, and by benefiting from the questions and answers if countless others on stack overflow.I learned how to build and fix homes from a short stint working in construction after college, but now mostly by watching videos on YouTube. I'm learning VC on the inside, but learned so much beforehand from the outside, reading books and blogs of the generous folks in the industry (here's looking at you, Brad and Fred) But anyway, point is just that making things, and fixing things, is just the best. It's my favorite thing to do, and what I plan to do in as many ways as I can, for as long as I can.
I am on a plane right now, watching home renovation shows on HGTV, thinking about how much fun it is to fix things up. Doing projects around the house (last year I built an exterior staircase and made new kitchen countertops, the year before that I built a mudroom), coding and buding apps, and working w founders to improve companies (what we so at USV) are all the same - starting out with something with promise, seeing the vision for the potential, and doing the work to fix it up. It is just so satisfying, so fun, and so rewarding. It's also scary and stressful, full of unknowns. Luckyfor me, both as a DIY home improver, and as a self-taught coder, and now as a yeoman venture capitalist, it's easier than ever to learn from the outside. I learned how to code by reading books, using open source code, and by benefiting from the questions and answers if countless others on stack overflow.I learned how to build and fix homes from a short stint working in construction after college, but now mostly by watching videos on YouTube. I'm learning VC on the inside, but learned so much beforehand from the outside, reading books and blogs of the generous folks in the industry (here's looking at you, Brad and Fred) But anyway, point is just that making things, and fixing things, is just the best. It's my favorite thing to do, and what I plan to do in as many ways as I can, for as long as I can.
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