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Recent Posts
e-Books, Entrepreneurship
Over the past ten years, we have invested in and worked with close to 100 startups. Along the way, we have seen teams, ideas, and practices work spectacularly well. And, we’ve seen others that didn’t work out as expected. We decided to take the experiences and insights learned over the past decade and compile them […]
Entrepreneurship
The consumer subscription business model is certainly not a new concept. And as we’ve been investing in more B2C companies recently, we’re reminded just how popular this strategy to monetization continues to be. Even marketplaces, which traditionally just took a piece of each transaction, are now looking to charge monthly or annual fees. For example […]
Health / Biology, Portfolio
Last week, I shared that I am looking for opportunities in femtech, and in the post, I wrote: In the future (and we’re starting to see this happen now), tests will be taken in the home with results delivered immediately: imagine something like a pregnancy test or glucose test strip in the home but to diagnose […]
Health / Biology
I recently froze my eggs. I was actually surprised by how much energy, effort and time was involved. It’s not as straightforward as taking a “fertility test” today and then deciding to freeze your eggs tomorrow. The entire process demands months of preparation – from getting your body to optimal health to coordinating with care […]
Entrepreneurship
I know many people that are dyslexic: entrepreneurs, close friends, family members. And almost all of them have suffered from the general perception that dyslexia is a learning disability. Most of them had a terrible time with a school system that generally doesn’t recognize that dyslexic individuals learn differently – which usually results in them […]
Crypto / Blockchain
Nearly two years ago, I published a post exploring four key opportunities in crypto. In it, I outlined four crypto waves, ranked from furthest to least developed: Store of value Disruption of financial markets Disruption of every other information market Disruption of what a firm means Looking back, I see that we’ve have good progress […]
Entrepreneurship
Boom is one of the most ambitious start-ups I know – their mission is to develop supersonic planes and make the world more accessible. As you can imagine, you need incredibly talented people to achieve this goal. So when Blake Scholl, Boom’s founder and CEO, recently shared insights into the company’s hiring playbook in an […]
Crypto / Blockchain, Portfolio
We are very excited to announce our participation in Nexus, an Ethereum-based insurance mutual. The concept of a mutual insurance (an insurance company that is owned entirely by its policyholders) is one of the earliest insurance organizations and goes all the way back to England in the late 17th century to cover losses due to […]
Entrepreneurship
The WeWork drama of the past weeks is a great reminder of how perceptions of a start-up opportunity can change very dramatically in a short period of time. What was one of the highest flying start-ups with a private market valuation of $47B was brought down to Earth when trying to IPO. (Important to note […]
Portfolio
Before we head into the last quarter of the year, let’s take a few minutes to highlight some notable announcements made over the summer in the V1 portfolio. Launches and product updates Jobber launched several new automated sales and marketing features to help home services companies (like landscapers, electricians, plumbers, painters, and cleaners) grow their businesses. […]
Version One
A few weeks ago I shared my reflections on my first year as a GP. Along with all the well wishes (thank you!!), many asked what Version One is investing in these days. Our portfolio companies aren’t as quick to publicize fundraising rounds like they used to and as such, we’re not making as many […]
Crypto / Blockchain
Our portfolio company Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties and the Dapper Wallet, today announced Flow, a new blockchain for entertainment applications. Why do we need another blockchain, you ask? And wasn’t CryptoKitties built on Ethereum? And aren’t there already many other blockchains that are trying to do what Ethereum cannot do (or cannot do […]
Version One
The first week of September is my VC anniversary. This milestone is always a great forcing function to reflect on the past year, my contributions to the startup community, as well as my overall goals. I’ve now been in VC for six full years, and I’ve written reflections dating back to 2013 when I started […]
Version One
The venture capital market has become very noisy over the past few years, especially on the early-stage side. Not a day goes by that a new fund isn’t being announced. Entrepreneurs have an increasing amount of financing options – that’s good news, but it also makes it harder to choose the right partners for your […]
Entrepreneurship
Inspired by Bill Campbell’s influence and having seen firsthand how our founders and CEOs have grown as a result of having an executive coach, I recently put out a call on Twitter for recommendations for coaches. I received a ton of recommendations (happy to share if you ping me) – thank you to everyone! I’m still trying to […]
Entrepreneurship, Crypto / Blockchain
It was 20 years ago next month that we started JustBooks, creating a marketplace that connected buyers and sellers of used, rare, and out-of-print books. We initially launched in Germany before expanding into the UK and France, and then sold the company to our North American competitor AbeBooks in 2001. My co-founder Hannes Blum and […]
Version One
Last week I blogged about the return multiples for our Fund I and how they perfectly illustrate just how much the power law drives VC return. Alex Norman from AngelList asked how these return multiples have changed over time and what insights could be won from that data. It was a great question and I […]
Version One
We raised our first fund in summer 2012. It was a $15m early-stage fund that we invested in 20 portfolio companies over the course of two and a half years. We’re now seven years in and the portfolio is maturing. I plotted the return multiples (as of June 30, 2019) for all 20 portfolio companies […]
Version One
A year ago, we set out to add to our team. You may recall that we opened a search for an associate last summer. We appreciated spending time with many candidates, as well as the many intros and referrals from our friends. Unfortunately, we didn’t find someone who was the right fit for us – and […]
Entrepreneurship
A question I have been pondering for some time now, especially since a lot of our portfolio companies are now distributed organizations… This tweet sparked a lot of thoughtful reaction and discussion. Here’s where things have landed at the moment: According to the responses, entrepreneurs running remote organizations seem pretty happy with the current software […]