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…
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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…
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The ability to make fast decisions often means the difference between good and great – this is true for both entrepreneurs and investors. At Version One, we usually know within a few days whether we should invest in a company or not. After we get this initial feeling, we can…
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It’s typically a binary outcome for marketplace start-ups at the beginning: either you figure out the chicken-and-egg problem or you don’t. But, marketplaces can face a binary outcome at the other end too: either you scale your marketplace into a large, stand-alone company that can go public, or you find…
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Running a start-up is profoundly different than running a big company. When you’re small, founders are close to the action and can make sure all the important things happen. But as a start-up scales, founders can’t have their hands in everything: many companies lose focus on the customer; decisions get…
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