“Understanding Social Platforms,” now summarized in a presentation deck

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 […]

Revisiting the Engagement Pyramid

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 […]

A recap of Q4: Great momentum for 2017

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 […]

Announcing our second eBook: Understanding Social Platforms

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 […]

Is social dead?

At Version One, we’ve centered our investment thesis around companies that leverage network effects. We have talked at great lengths about them in marketplaces and in artificial intelligence and machine learning startups. Social platforms can have incredibly strong network effects, but we’ve been relatively quiet on the subject. And, we’re not alone. It seems like a long […]