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Recent Posts
Portfolio
Another quarter has flown by and we’re quickly moving into spring. Q1 was a busy time for our firm and portfolio companies, and here’s a brief recap of some of the various news clippings, fundraising announcements, and other happenings across the V1 community. As we’ve said before, we’re just writing about the things that have […]
Data / AI / ML
Two months ago, I first introduced my vision to create a startup data repository. Since then, I’ve chatted with many of you who share the desire to democratize access to information on startups and bring transparency to what’s been a traditionally private ecosystem. I’ve been blown away by the response and appreciate every like, share, tweet, […]
Data / AI / ML
Last week, I shared some lessons learned from a Domino Data Science Pop-up that I attended a month ago. There were some very important discussions surrounding the world of data science today. One thread explored the differences between data science and data engineering. I’ll admit that I was completely unaware of the engineering behind data science when we […]
Data / AI / ML
Three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Domino Data Science Pop-up, which was one of the best days of talks on data science that I have attended. You can check out recordings of the talks as well as copies of the presentations on SlideShare. I won’t dive into all the nitty-gritty discussions on math and […]
Entrepreneurship
When founders, investors, and the whole team are aligned around a common vision, it’s one of the most powerful things that can happen to a start-up. Everybody works toward the same goals. It’s much easier to attract investors, teammates and partners to join your efforts. And, decisions are made much more efficiently since no one […]
Entrepreneurship
I remember a time when we used to say “he’s a good sales person” or “she’s a great marketing leader.” However, it’s no longer so simple. Technological advances over the past decade have transformed sales, marketing, and HR organizations. Entirely new titles and functions have sprung up in the process. Founders need to understand what […]
Entrepreneurship, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
Two months ago, we published our second eBook, Understanding Social Platforms. In it, we discuss the dynamics of each social platform type: messaging, private networks, public networks, enterprise networks, and communities. We also cover important topics for social platform businesses like metrics, exits, valuations, and our outlook for future opportunities in social. Today, we are […]
Portfolio
Our portfolio company Top Hat just closed a $22.5M (USD) Series C round. Union Square Ventures – one of our favorite co-investors – added to Top Hat’s existing investors and USV’s Albert Wenger joined their Board of Directors. This funding is big news, particularly since 2016 was a weak year for Ed Tech funding. Generally […]
Version One
On the heels of being named principal last week, I am humbled by Boris’s announcement and thrilled to begin leading deals for Version One. While many of you have already worked with me directly or read my thoughts on this blog over the years, I want to take the opportunity to share my goals: what I’m […]
Version One
Out of all the posts I’ve written over the years, this one gives me the greatest pleasure. I am thrilled to announce that my colleague of over three years, Angela Tran Kingyens, has been promoted to Principal. In this new role Angela will start leading deals for Version One and this will obviously increase our […]
Data / AI / ML, Entrepreneurship
Back in 2014, I blogged about building a user engagement pyramid for social platforms, inspired by Fred Wilson’s 100/10/1 rule. The premise of that post was simple: since user-generated content is king, the top of the pyramid (aka the most engaged users) are those who post status updates, photos and links. And, these creators are inspired when […]
Crypto / Blockchain, Portfolio
This is an exciting time for cryptocurrencies. As we recently wrote in Cryptocurrency’s Second Act, the rise of Ethereum revealed that cryptocurrency is not a winner-takes-all market. It has evolved from a sole player with a limited use case into an ecosystem with at least two cryptocurrencies at scale, and many others trying to get […]
Crypto / Blockchain
Back in 2009, Bitcoin became the first decentralized cryptocurrency. The prevailing thinking then was that the cryptocurrency market was going to be a winner-takes-all race due to the strong network effects around mining. And, most thought that Bitcoin would emerge as the winner in this race. What happened? Bitcoin, and the underlying blockchain technology, never […]
Portfolio
Welcome back! We hope everyone had a restful holiday! While we’re ready to look ahead and embrace 2017, here’s a quick recap of the major activity across our portfolio last quarter. We’re looking forward to continuing this momentum into the new year. Portfolio companies in the news In continuing to be the consumer’s financial advocate, Trim […]
Version One
This has been an important year for us as a firm, as well as the market in general. We couldn’t begin any recap of 2016 without focusing on the bubble we hear so much about. The industry entered the year bracing for an apocalypse. Every announcement – whether it was a funding round, exit or […]
e-Books, Favorites, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
If you have been following our blog or firm, you know how much we love network effects. Our investment thesis is centered around network effects, and our portfolio is full of network effects startups ranging from marketplaces to social platforms, SaaS and applications of AI and machine learning. It has been a little over a […]
Entrepreneurship, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
This is the fourth and final post covering speakers’ insights from our marketplace meetup held in San Francisco on October 20. If you haven’t already, check out previous posts detailing Andrew Chen’s (Uber) fireside chat on growth strategies, Anthony Marino’s (ThredUp) talk on managed marketplaces, and B2B marketplace dynamics from Shippo’s Mikhail Ledvich. The first […]
Portfolio
A few weeks ago, one of our newest portfolio companies, Abstract, launched their Private Alpha. You can read co-founder Josh Brewer’s announcement here. Josh was previously the principal designer at Twitter. Abstract is building a common infrastructure to support the modern design workflow. If you’re a digital designer, you’ve probably run into some or all of these challenges: […]
Entrepreneurship, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
This is the third in a series of posts summarizing our speakers’ insights from the V1 marketplace meetup on October 20. Check out other posts detailing Andrew Chen’s (Uber) fireside chat on growth strategies and Anthony Marino’s (ThredUp) talk on managed marketplaces. When we talk about marketplaces, we’re usually referring to B2C companies – eBay, […]
Entrepreneurship, Marketplaces / Social / Collaboration / Network Effects
On October 20, we hosted a marketplace meetup in San Francisco. More than 75 founders and investors joined us for the event – and for those of you who couldn’t make it, we will be sharing some of the key insights and discussions from the event in a series of posts (check out our first post […]