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Recent Posts
Entrepreneurship
We’re just a few weeks into 2018 and have already completed three portfolio exits: @Mattermark (by @FullContact), @MemoAIHQ (by @coinbase), and @GoPike13 (by $CSU.ca). This is a good time to share some observations about the current state of the tech M&A market – both specific insights from these transactions as well as broader observations. More […]
Entrepreneurship
After a company finds product-market fit and has raised an A Round, it usually starts scaling the team aggressively. This is a critical time: you have already shown that you’re on to something; now it’s all about executing that business model at scale. And that means you need to grow the original team, while keeping […]
Portfolio
Happy new year!! We’re more than a week into 2018 and while this is typically a time to look ahead, we wanted to take a few minutes to highlight all the news from Q4 2017. We’ve said it before, but the Version One portfolio is filled with great startups doing incredible things. And as we […]
Version One
This has been a critical year for us at Version One, as well as our ecosystem in general. The market frenzy surrounding crypto and blockchain challenges how VCs will evolve over the next years. In fact, the amount of money raised by startups via ICOs has surpassed early stage VC funding for internet companies. There is no […]
Health / Biology
It’s hard to believe that it has been a year and a half since we updated our healthcare thesis, as a follow-up to our blog series with Union Square Ventures on the future of healthcare. While we are still spending time on digital health, we have been focusing more on genomics and biosciences as a means to […]
Entrepreneurship
We’ve been spending significant time on emerging tech lately. From the frenzy surrounding blockchain applications to the surge in medical research projects that are coming out of academia, it’s clear that disruption potential is high on the barometer right now. I’ve never felt more excited about our work as VCs than I do today. I […]
Crypto / Blockchain
With both Bitcoin and Ether surging to record highs this week, everyone – entrepreneurs, investors, consumers, businesses and governments – have been caught up in the flurry surrounding cryptocurrencies. Many are trying to understand what’s happening now and where all this is headed. It’s always hard to predict how a new computing platform will play […]
Crypto / Blockchain, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
In recent years “Data is the new oil” has become a frequently used phrase in tech and investor circles to describe the incredible rise in the importance of data for today’s economy. Some of the world’s most valuable tech companies are built on tremendous data network effects and access to unique data: Google, Facebook, Amazon, […]
Version One
“It takes 10 years and $30m to become a great investor.” This quote has stuck with me from the first time I saw it. I believe the legendary investor John Doerr said it at some point, but I can’t track down the original quote anymore. Of course, I thought it was a complete exaggeration when […]
Entrepreneurship
A few years ago, we began to see SaaS companies integrate payment processing into their software. This push to integrate payments was due to a couple of factors. First, it offers a better user experience – why send somebody off-platform to pay for a product or settle an invoice? Next, adding payments to a platform […]
Version One
As a partnership evolves, you begin to formulate some basic rules and philosophies (whether formally or informally) to help guide long-term and short-term decision-making. It has been over four years since I’ve joined Version One, and just like any company, Boris and I need to continually take a step back and ask ourselves why we […]
Data / AI / ML, Entrepreneurship
“Technological innovation should give us hope, not despair.” Those words were a key part of the G7’s first-ever Innovation7, which was held last month in Turin, Italy. The Innovation7, or I-7, is a gathering of industry representatives from the G7 countries to help bridge industry and government. The theme of this summit was on making […]
Crypto / Blockchain, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
Cryptocurrencies have strong network effects, built around the concept of mining. The more miners participate, the cheaper mining gets and the more quickly transactions are validated. (On a side note, this has actually not be true as of late for Bitcoin as it ran into scaling issues which is driving up mining costs). In fact, […]
Data / AI / ML
A month ago, we hosted the second virtual hangout with data teams across our portfolio. Our goal is to link up our data teams to build a peer network, share best practices, collaborate on solutions and push the bar on data science innovation. In case you missed the summary of our first session, here’s a recap. […]
Portfolio
Another quarter has come and gone… We continue to invest in blockchain companies and funds such as Coinbase and Metastable Capital, which join our existing crypto portfolio (Blockstack, Citizen Hex and Polychain Capital). Here’s a quick recap of our other funding announcements, portfolio news, and product updates (the things we can announce publicly): Funding announcements We announced our investment in Manifold, the […]
Entrepreneurship
Recently, someone asked me about my principles for engaging with my portfolio entrepreneurs. The question was a good trigger to think about what drives my interactions with entrepreneurs and how my relationships have evolved over time. Three guiding principles provide the foundation for all my communications and engagement with entrepreneurs: 1. Listen and ask questions […]
Portfolio
We are very happy to announce our investment in Manifold, the easiest way to find and manage essential developer services. Manifold’s value proposition is to give developers a better way to find and manage all the various cloud services that can help them build and scale their applications. Today, you don’t need racks of servers […]
Crypto / Blockchain
These days not a single meeting with a fellow VC goes by without talking about Blockchain and how to invest in this space. We are all a bit puzzled by how quickly this market has evolved. With a combined market cap of all crypto currencies now topping $170b, crypto has become more than a third […]
Data / AI / ML
This week marks my fourth year at Version One. And to celebrate, I want to share the story of my interviews with Boris, my first endeavour to build a sourcing model, and his incredible leap of faith. In the summer of 2013, I was introduced to Boris by a fellow Canadian, Brendan Baker. I had […]
Crypto / Blockchain
Initial coin offerings are a phenomenally successful way of raising money. Through ICOs, startups have raised a record $1.27 billion in the first half of 2017. When I wrote the post “Will Initial Coin Offerings Fund the Future?” back in May, the total tally was around $100m. In the few months since then since then […]