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Union Square Ventures

also referred to as: usv

87 statements across 32 episodes · 40 bullish · 9 bearish · 25 people on the record · first statement Jun 8, 2015 by Charlie O'Donnell · said 337 times in 100 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (180), Mike Mignano (13), Rebecca Kaden (8), Albert Wenger (8), Shiv Rao (7), Nico Wittenborn (7), Andy Weissman (6), Severin Hacker (5)

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2026 48 mentions in 7 episodes 7 per episode
2025 19 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
2024 13 mentions in 10 episodes 1 per episode
2023 36 mentions in 9 episodes 4 per episode
2022 12 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
2021 6 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
2020 16 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode
2019 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2018 48 mentions in 9 episodes 5 per episode
2017 32 mentions in 11 episodes 3 per episode
2016 51 mentions in 18 episodes 3 per episode
2015 46 mentions in 7 episodes 7 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Union Square Ventures, oldest first

Jun 8, 2015
Disclosure
Charlie O'Donnell was present for USV's Indeed investment and first Etsy meeting
“Although I was there when we invested in indeed and there for the first meeting when we met Rob Kalin and at Etsy.”
Charlie O'Donnell Jun 8, 2015 ▶ 14:55 20 VC 043: How To Be A VC Analyst and Lessons From Union Square and First Round with Charlie O'Donnell, Founder @ Brooklyn Bridge Venture
Jun 8, 2015
Assertion Supported
USV partners do 1-2 deals yearly versus First Round's 4-5
“And then also they're two different types of firms, too, so the likelihood that you'd get a deal done at USV when each partner's doing one or two deals a year was, Very different than first round when they're doing four or five because they're seed deals.”
Charlie O'Donnell Jun 8, 2015 ▶ 15:16 20 VC 043: How To Be A VC Analyst and Lessons From Union Square and First Round with Charlie O'Donnell, Founder @ Brooklyn Bridge Venture
Jul 13, 2015
Insight
USV Evaluates Startup Pitches Using Broad Historical Network Frameworks
“When the term network comes up, we're talking in the most, let's say, Literally talking about networks of all types. I mean, it could be, it could go back to the railroad, railroad network. It could be actual social networks. And that gives you a real sort of …”
Jonathan Libov Jul 13, 2015 ▶ 3:55 20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures
Jul 13, 2015 positive
Insight
Network Effects Are the Primary Defensible Quality of Internet Businesses
“I think they had a real belief that networks would be the defensible quality of the internet, or the defensible thing about building a business on the internet. Whereas, let's say, In prior businesses like, ah, Microsoft Office or Windows or any other software…”
Jonathan Libov Jul 13, 2015 ▶ 5:27 20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures
Jul 13, 2015 positive
Opinion
USV Operates as a Thesis-Driven Firm Rather Than Deal-Flow Driven
“We're thesis driven, which means that we operate, we look out at what's happening based upon are sort of core beliefs about the internet and how to grow a business on the internet. So in contrast to some firms, which I which are more, I think, deal flow orient…”
Jonathan Libov Jul 13, 2015 ▶ 16:06 20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures
Jul 13, 2015
Assertion Supported
USV Required Short Video Submissions for Analyst Applicants
“Well, the initial screening involved, ah, recording two two-minute videos. I think the questions were, ah, what aspects of tech most inspire you, or what are your greatest inspirations? And the other question was, ah, I think just to tell you, tell them a litt…”
Jonathan Libov Jul 13, 2015 ▶ 2:38 20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures
Sep 14, 2015 positive
Disclosure
USV partner Andy Weissman helped Notation Capital raise its first fund
“These folks were not just mentors in the sense that they helped me learn the business, but actually they helped us raise Notations First Fund in many ways, and so Andy Weissman has been has been a mentor to us, who's a partner at Union Square Ventures.”
Nicholas Chirls Sep 14, 2015 ▶ 5:33 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital
Nov 2, 2015 positive
Disclosure
Felix Capital co-invested in The Food Assembly alongside Union Square Ventures
“I think it's going to be again LaRuche, LaRuche qui dit oui it's again called, it's called the Food Assembly in the UK. So it's a food marketplace. It's an investment we did with Union Square Venture and Fred Wilson.”
Antoine Nussenbaum Nov 2, 2015 ▶ 22:07 20 VC 084: Meet Felix Capital: A Venture Firm For The Creative Class with Antoine Nussenbaum
Feb 12, 2016 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Union Square Ventures reversed its anti-crowdfunding stance to invest in CircleUp
“Union Square had said very energetically that they would never invest into an online equity investing platform. And they met us, and they changed the Their view because they realized that we were filling a need”
Ryan Caldbeck Feb 12, 2016 ▶ 16:24 20VC FF 035: Why Crowdfunding Is Not Right For Tech Startups with Ryan Caldbeck @ CircleUp
Mar 23, 2016 positive
Disclosure
Kaden: Union Square Ventures and Benchmark prove small fund sizes work best
“I think one of the things I admire about Union Square and Benchmark is they've kept the fund sizes small and focused and we are big proponents of small fund sizes and focus at Maveron too, so I look to them for a lot of guidance.”
Rebecca Kaden Mar 23, 2016 ▶ 18:45 20VC: Maveron's Rebecca Kaden on The Patterns Of Entrepreneurship and Taking A Consumer Product From Niche To Mass Market
Jul 11, 2016 positive
Insight
Wenger: Speculative tech bubbles benefit society by rapidly funding foundational infrastructure
“These sort of frothiness in the installation phase is good from a social perspective, because it means that A lot of capital is allocated very rapidly to a sector, and then subsequently you can build interesting things on top of that.”
Albert Wenger Jul 11, 2016 ▶ 8:30 20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on Automation Replacing Humans, The Universal Basic Income and The Instalment & The Deployment Phase
Jul 11, 2016 bullish
Disclosure
USV backed Clue because smartphones will outscale traditional birth control access
“Invested in a company called Clue, based in Berlin, an app that lets women track their health and their fertility, and said yes because there are more women in the world who will have smartphones than have access to traditional birth control, and there's a hug…”
Albert Wenger Jul 11, 2016 ▶ 24:34 20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on Automation Replacing Humans, The Universal Basic Income and The Instalment & The Deployment Phase
Jul 11, 2016 positive
Disclosure
Wenger angel invested in Tumblr and Etsy before bringing them to USV
“Started making some angel investments, some of which became USV investments, and some of which were USV investments, so it's an angel in Tumblr, and it's an angel in Etsy, and I brought that deal to Union Square Ventures”
Albert Wenger Jul 11, 2016 ▶ 4:31 20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on Automation Replacing Humans, The Universal Basic Income and The Instalment & The Deployment Phase
Jul 11, 2016 neutral
Disclosure
USV focuses investments on the technology deployment phase rather than installation
“The bulk of our investment Investing tends to be in the deployment phase, which is the phase of all the things that become possible once you have the infrastructure of the new technology installed.”
Albert Wenger Jul 11, 2016 ▶ 6:38 20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on Automation Replacing Humans, The Universal Basic Income and The Instalment & The Deployment Phase
Jul 13, 2016 bullish
Prediction Held up
USV Will Add Partners Slowly and Remain in a Single Office
“It'll always be a slow process for us. We think these partnerships are, you know, the dynamics of the partnerships are very, very important, and we'll continue to, you know, as we Add people. We'll do it very slowly, and we'll do it in a single office, and we'…”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 8:04 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
USV Took 80 Pitch Meetings to Raise First Fund in 2004
“It took us about 80 meetings and a heck of a lot of air travel to get that done, but we finally got the fund done in the early part of, I guess, 2004”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 4:45 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016
Insight
Infrastructure VC Relies on IP; Application Layer Requires a Thesis
“When you move from the infrastructure layer, where I think Investing is really defined by technical differentiation and intellectual property defensibility. You know, they're, I think, being more opportunistic, more deal flow driven, made perfect sense. When y…”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 15:32 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016 positive
Insight
Publicly Sharing Investment Theses Attracts Aligned Founders
“Putting that thesis out there and being open about it and being open about all of our thinking about markets has proven to be very helpful. Introducing us to entrepreneurs who are working in the areas that we have been thinking about.”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 16:08 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016
Disclosure
USV Avoids Direct Competitors to Enable Peer Collaboration
“Because we make an effort not to invest in direct competitors, they, they're perfectly comfortable sharing ideas with each other. So we've been able to organize, you know, because we don't do biotech For instance, you know, we can have a CEO summit where every…”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 16:47 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fred Wilson Managed Flatiron's Portfolio Post-Crash Into USV Launch
“Thing about Fred, most impressive things I've ever seen anybody do is the amount of effort that he put into managing out the Flatiron portfolio after the crash in 2000 which I got to watch, you know, up close and personal because he was very much still doing i…”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 8:50 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016 positive
Disclosure
USV Created Venture Partner Role for Albert Wenger for Sourcing Etsy
“Been very actively involved in Etsy early on and brought Etsy to the partnership. And we created a venture partner role for Albert to, you know, to sort of compensate him for having brought Etsy to the partnership.”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 7:17 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Jul 13, 2016 positive
Assertion Partly supported
USV's 2004 Fund Had Four Investments Each Return the Full Fund
“We made investments in Zynga, Twitter, Indeed, and Etsy within about a six month period. In our 2004 fund, each of those returned the fund.”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 17:46 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Oct 12, 2016
Disclosure
UTIMCO Secured a 20% LP Position in Union Square Ventures' Early Fund
“I think we had the opportunity to get 20% ownership, and that's what we wanted, just like all the VCs do in companies. At UTEMCO, and frankly, today, we like being an important part of the capital base.”
Lyndall Eakman Oct 12, 2016 ▶ 9:09 20VC: Why Many VCs Fail To Raise, Why LP Compensation Is A Massive Problem & Why Fund of Funds Will Become More Prominent with Lindel Eakman, Managing Director @ Foundry Group
Oct 21, 2016 positive
Assertion Supported
RealtyShares surpasses $200 million in funded deals with top VC backing
“RealtyShares recently announced an incredible two hundred million funded deals through the platform, so a huge congratulations to them. For that, and they've also raised funding from some of the world's best investors, including the one and only Union Square V…”
Harry Stebbings Oct 21, 2016 ▶ 0:22 20VC: Why Adaptability Is Key To Fundraising, Why Supply Is Always The First Priority In Marketplaces & Why Sometimes You Have To Hire Fast & Fire Fast with Nav Athwal, Founder & CEO @ RealtyShares
Oct 21, 2016 bullish
Assertion Supported
Union Square Ventures has one of the best performance track records
“Their funds are a little smaller than some of the other bigger firms like Sequoia, but they have one of the best performance track records of any VC.”
Nav Athwal Oct 21, 2016 ▶ 26:10 20VC: Why Adaptability Is Key To Fundraising, Why Supply Is Always The First Priority In Marketplaces & Why Sometimes You Have To Hire Fast & Fire Fast with Nav Athwal, Founder & CEO @ RealtyShares
Sep 11, 2017
Assertion Not checkable as stated
USV repeatedly rejected Betaworks before making co-founder Andy Weissman a partner
“And as a New York company, we wanted what we thought the best and smartest and most empathetic venture investors in New York to invest in our company, which was USV, so we kept pitching them, and they kept saying no. They rejected my company as a business”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 3:06 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017
Disclosure
Andy Weissman: USV invests in 8 to 10 companies annually
“So we view ourselves, and we don't invest a lot, you know, maybe eight or 10 times a year, so we're long-term, very engaged partners, so that means we reserve full amounts for our companies, and we generally keep investing in them.”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 13:47 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017 bullish
Disclosure
USV has invested in quantitative funding models like CircleUp and Numerai
“We have made investments in other sectors where we believe the answer to that question may be yes. We've done that in consumer products with CircleUp. We've done it in quantitative hedge type financing with Numeri.”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 20:48 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017
Disclosure
Andy Weissman: USV recycled capital in each of its last three funds
“I think every one of our last three funds, I don't, can't recall a situation where we haven't recycled in the early stages of the fund”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 15:34 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017 positive
Assertion Partly supported
USV publishes a public blog post as its investment memo for every deal
“We're public about every investment we make. In fact, our investment memos are our blog posts. You know, when we make an investment every single time we write a blog post explaining why we made that investment, that acts as our internal and external investment…”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 23:52 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017
Disclosure
Andy Weissman lost a major deal by over-indexing on valuation
“I made a mistake by losing the deal, and I got stuck on price is probably why I lost it.”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 8:33 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
Andy Weissman: USV's fund structure has not changed in 30 years
“Because what we do is, in a way, we're very conservative in the structure, and we look like this, we look like the same VC, way VC firms looked 30 or 40 years ago. Our structure has not changed at all.”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 17:53 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
USV does not vote on investment decisions, relying on consensus
“Well, as a firm, we do not vote. We have a conversation, and that conversation leads to a point where everyone is comfortable with the parameters of an investment”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 10:41 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Sep 11, 2017 positive
Disclosure
Andy Weissman: USV operates from one office to keep partners together
“So for example, I believe this is a methodology that works best when everyone is in the same room, so therefore we only have one office.”
Andy Weissman Sep 11, 2017 ▶ 11:46 20VC: USV's Andy Weissman on The Future of The VC Industry, Why USV Does Not Vote On Investment Decisions & Why VCs Should Be Invisible
Oct 27, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: YouNow has raised over $25M from USV and Venrock
“And to fund this immense growth, they've raised over twenty five million dollars in funding from some of the greats of the investing world, including Andy Weissman at USV, David Patman at Venrock, and a future guest on the show, I'm very excited to say, in the…”
Harry Stebbings Oct 27, 2017 ▶ 0:36 20VC: Why Decentralisation is Key For Digital Media Distribution, Why Gradual Decentralisation Is The Most Practical Approach and Why Incumbents Are The Biggest Barrier To The Rise of Crypto with Adi Sideman, Founder & CEO @ YouNow
Nov 27, 2017 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Gordon: USV led edtech discourse years before making edtech investments
“And then Albert Wenger, he created the meme of hacking education, which I'm a fanboy of. And that was probably in oh nine or oh 10. He convened leading thinkers. And interestingly enough, they didn't invest in any learning and Companies for several years after…”
Bing Gordon Nov 27, 2017 ▶ 14:27 20VC: Kleiner Perkins' Bing Gordon on Lessons From Serving On Amazon & Zynga's Board, Why The Best Investors Are Good Listeners and Sceptical Optimists & The Most Important Value Add A VC Can Provide
Dec 11, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Polychain grew AUM from $4M to over $200M within two years
“Having founded the firm less than two years ago with Four million under management in their initial fund. Polychain now has over two hundred million under management, with backing from the likes of Sequoia, Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and USV, just to …”
Harry Stebbings Dec 11, 2017 ▶ 0:28 20VC: Inside The World's Leading Crypto Fund, The Future Exit Environment for Crypto Assets & The Beauty Of Benevolent Dictatorship with Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder @ Polychain Capital
Jan 29, 2018 bearish
Disclosure
Parker argued mobile internet wouldn't overtake desktop in his 2006 USV interview
“The interview was mostly around one question, which in retrospect, I was like dead wrong. They asked me would the mobile internet be bigger than the desktop internet? And so this was 2006. It was like pre iPhone coming out. State of the art was the Blackberry …”
Andrew Parker Jan 29, 2018 ▶ 4:41 20VC: Investing Lessons From Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham @ USV, How CEO's Can Operationally Utilise Their Board & The Single Most Important Quality of A CEO with Andrew Parker, General Partner @ Spark Capital
Jan 29, 2018 neutral
Assertion Supported
USV's core thesis focused on user networks defensible by network effects
“One is they helped me understand what it takes to develop an investment thesis, which by the time I left could be summarized there as large networks of engaged users, differentiated through user experience, defensible by network effects.”
Andrew Parker Jan 29, 2018 ▶ 5:32 20VC: Investing Lessons From Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham @ USV, How CEO's Can Operationally Utilise Their Board & The Single Most Important Quality of A CEO with Andrew Parker, General Partner @ Spark Capital
Jan 29, 2018 positive
Disclosure
USV hired Andrew Parker in 2006 without a resume or reference checks
“They never asked for my resume. They never checked any references. They just wanted to see my web presence. So I showed them my blog at the time because this is pre-Twitter or pre-Tumblr or anything like that. They brought me in for a 40 minute interview and t…”
Andrew Parker Jan 29, 2018 ▶ 4:28 20VC: Investing Lessons From Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham @ USV, How CEO's Can Operationally Utilise Their Board & The Single Most Important Quality of A CEO with Andrew Parker, General Partner @ Spark Capital
Apr 30, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Neumann: Top seed funds like USV outperform when market prices are low
“If you look at the best performing venture funds in history, at least seed stage, like things like USV, you will find that they started investing in a market where the market price was below the indicated discounted price. When the market is above where the in…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 17:13 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Jul 2, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monegro: Buying Bitcoin directly outperformed USV's early-stage crypto equity investments
“I calculated how much better or worse an investment it would have been to just buy Bitcoin and buy the same amount of dollars worth of Bitcoin, and found that Bitcoin would have been a much better investment”
Joel Monegro Jul 2, 2018 ▶ 5:41 20VC: Why Most The Value In Crypto Will Accrue in Governance, When Institutional Capital Will Enter The Space and How To Think About Liquidity In Crypto with Joel Monegro, Founding Partner @ Placeholder.VC
Oct 1, 2018
Insight
Kaden: Referral and retention are the earliest signs of customer love
“And often the earliest indication of that is referral and retention, because when we love something, what we do is we come back and we tell our friends”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 11:26 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Oct 1, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaden: USV Requires All Startup Investments to Align With Firm Thesis
“Obviously one thing that's different about USB is we have a real thesis driven approach. So we believe in a model of kind of collectively coming up with a sense of where we think the opportunity lies and where we think the shifts are happening and really placi…”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 20:44 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Oct 1, 2018 positive
Opinion
Rebecca Kaden: Crypto and blockchain ecosystems should be regulated
“We don't think it should be unregulated. We think it should be regulated.”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 24:14 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Oct 1, 2018 bearish
Prediction Held up
Kaden: USV will not invest in startups competing directly with Amazon
“So the short answer is I don't want to invest In companies that think they're going to take down Amazon right now, because I believe it's extremely difficult, particularly at the stage we're going at.”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 13:42 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Oct 1, 2018 negative
Insight
Kaden: Startups dependent on continuous paid acquisition are poor VC investments
“We don't believe that businesses that are going to pay to acquire customer after customer are great venture businesses. They require way too much capital, and you don't get enough leverage on those dollars.”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 10:02 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Oct 1, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Kaden: USV and Maveron intentionally resist the trend of fund size inflation
“So both Maveron and USV have similarly sized Funds by Design. Both firms believe in relatively small funds, a very focused approach to kind of series seed and series A investing, and resisting this macro environment of raising massive amounts of capital as oth…”
Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 19:56 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
Nov 2, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
USV and Benchmark are rare exceptions to VC fund bloat
“Union Square Ventures, Benchmark, or some other exceptions to what I said.”
Ryan Caldbeck Nov 2, 2018 ▶ 14:05 20VC: Ryan Caldbeck on Why The Business Model of VC is Broken, Who is To Blame, How The Best Funds Will Use Data Intelligently Moving Forward & Whether We Are In A Consumer Bubble Or Not?
Sep 20, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Akhund: Over half of Union Square Ventures founders had kids
“We were funded by Union Square Ventures, and the average founder at Union Square Ventures is older, and more than half of them already had kids”
Immad Akhund Sep 20, 2019 ▶ 13:08 20VC: Mercury Founder Immad Akhund on Why Angel Investing Makes Founders Better Operators, The Right Way For Founders To Discuss and Present Competition To Investors & How To Think About Your Initial Wedge Into The Market and How It Expands Over Time
Feb 14, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
DuckDuckGo hits 1.6 billion monthly searches and profitability with 83 staff
“Over the last 12 years, Gabe has scaled DuckDuckGo to doing over 1.6 billion searches every month, a team of 83 fully remote full-time employees, and also raising funding from some of the best in the business, USV, and also, most importantly, being a profitabl…”
Harry Stebbings Feb 14, 2020 ▶ 0:31 20VC: How Founders Should Think Through Distribution and Customer Acquisition Today, The Challenges of the Digital Advertising Duopoly Currently & How To Structure Company Post Mortems Effectively with Gabriel Weinberg, Founder & CEO @ DuckDuckGo
Aug 8, 2022 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
The VC Industry Faces a Reckoning With Many Firms Shutting Down
“I think there will be a lot of folks that go away in this cycle. I watched it in the last go round. You know, Spark and USV and all these firms didn't exist before the last cycle. And they really made their names coming out of the O eight crisis. And on the ot…”
Mo Koyfman Aug 8, 2022 ▶ 58:52 Mo Koyfman: The Secret to Winning in Venture; Why Small Funds Outperform Large Funds | 20VC #915 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 8, 2022 positive
Insight
Durable VC Firms Require Clear Leadership Rather Than Equal Partnerships
“And while both can certainly work and there are certain, and there are notable exceptions here, like union square ventures, for instance, which works very well as a partnership structure, the more durable firms in my experience often have very clear leadership…”
Mo Koyfman Aug 8, 2022 ▶ 9:51 Mo Koyfman: The Secret to Winning in Venture; Why Small Funds Outperform Large Funds | 20VC #915 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 21, 2022 positive
Opinion
Shah: Union Square Ventures is the best pound-for-pound VC fund
“I just, I follow a lot of honestly what USV does of like try to learn. I think they're the best pound for pound fund in the world both operationally and in every way.”
Semil Shah Nov 21, 2022 ▶ 41:30 Semil Shah: Lessons Learned Scaling from a $1M to a $50M Fund | 20VC #951 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 23, 2023
Disclosure
Wenger: USV's Opportunity Fund has no minimum revenue requirements
“We don't have a growth fund, for example, we have a fund that we call the Opportunity Fund. And why do we call it the Opportunity Fund? Because things we put in there need to feel like they're actual opportunities. And so it doesn't have any revenue requiremen…”
Albert Wenger Jan 23, 2023 ▶ 21:59 Albert Wenger: Elon & Twitter; Impact of SBF; Income Inequality; Will they ban TikTok? | 20VC #969 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 23, 2023
Insight
Wenger: Cash flow positivity is the only safe place for high-valuation startups
“If you have raised at a high valuation, you, and you have a lot of money in the bank, you have to get a cash flow positive. It's the only safe place. Literally the only safe place is cash flow positive.”
Albert Wenger Jan 23, 2023 ▶ 45:28 Albert Wenger: Elon & Twitter; Impact of SBF; Income Inequality; Will they ban TikTok? | 20VC #969 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 23, 2023
Insight
Wenger: VC generational transitions fail when senior partners hog the economics
“By not hogging the economics.”
Albert Wenger Jan 23, 2023 ▶ 47:37 Albert Wenger: Elon & Twitter; Impact of SBF; Income Inequality; Will they ban TikTok? | 20VC #969 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 23, 2023
Insight
Wenger: Multiple focused funds force more discipline than one large fund
“Because it forces discipline. Like if you raise one big fund, you can be less disciplined than if you have three vehicles where you have a very specific thesis for each vehicle. And each time you can ask yourself, does this fit with the thesis? Or am I just, y…”
Albert Wenger Jan 23, 2023 ▶ 22:19 Albert Wenger: Elon & Twitter; Impact of SBF; Income Inequality; Will they ban TikTok? | 20VC #969 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 23, 2023
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wenger: USV will not raise new funds for a while after 2022 vintages
“No, I mean, look I think we have brand new, 20, 22 funds. We have a new opportunity fund, a new core fund, a new climate fund. And so we're probably not going to be in market for a while because we've kept our funds very small.”
Albert Wenger Jan 23, 2023 ▶ 22:46 Albert Wenger: Elon & Twitter; Impact of SBF; Income Inequality; Will they ban TikTok? | 20VC #969 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 6, 2023 positive
Opinion
Basu Trivedi: USV belongs in the VC pantheon alongside Sequoia and Benchmark
“I think USV doesn't get the credit that it deserves. I think it should be in that pantheon of greatness that sort of Sequoia and Benchmark are typically put in.”
Nikhil Basu Trivedi Sep 6, 2023 ▶ 1:03:14 Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Why 99% of AI Investments Will Go Bust | E1057 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 17, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaden: Union Square Ventures' best investments came from non-mainstream bets
“In many of the best examples that I studied from USP's history, it was very much not the case, and so I think a lot about where can I develop strong perspective that may not be the hottest thing of the moment.”
Rebecca Kaden Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 7:05 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 17, 2023 neutral
Insight
Kaden: AI's biggest impact comes from existing companies integrating the technology
“Impact in the portfolio has actually come from existing portfolio companies application of it, which has for many of them changed trajectory or meaningfully evolved their business.”
Rebecca Kaden Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 22:11 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 17, 2023 negative
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kaden: Most struggling startups will die rather than be acquired
“I think we might see a little bit of M&A, but I actually think that M&A is really hard right now. I think you're just going to see a lot of them unfortunately die because M&A works if some other piece has a lot of cash, right? Or has a lot of asset and you're …”
Rebecca Kaden Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 34:29 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 17, 2023
Prediction Held up
Kaden: Seed-stage startup mortality rates will rise significantly
“I think we have way increased mortality rates.”
Rebecca Kaden Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 32:47 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 6, 2024 negative
What-if
Chirls: Coinbase would have succeeded without Andreessen Horowitz and USV
“Would Coinbase not have been successful? If they hadn't take money from Andreessen Horowitz and USV. No, I think they would have been just as successful.”
Nicholas Chirls Sep 6, 2024 ▶ 47:20 Nicholas Chirls: Why Big VCs Ruin Startups, VC is a Ponzi Scheme Today & Most VCs are Bankers |E1198 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 19, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Hacker: Silicon Valley VCs passed on Duolingo over Pittsburgh location
“We actually did get a lot of interest from Silicon Valley VCs at a time, but they all made it a requirement To move to Silicon Valley. So we're like, you've got to move here, right? Like, when are you going to move here? That was the, always the question. Okay…”
Severin Hacker May 19, 2025 ▶ 1:22:59 Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 19, 2025
Disclosure
Hacker: Duolingo had only one Series A offer, from Union Square Ventures
“We may have to cut this afterwards, but I think we only had one offer. It was Union Square or back to university.”
Severin Hacker May 19, 2025 ▶ 1:22:28 Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Opinion
Union Square Ventures Is the Best at Active Portfolio Selling
“Union Square broadly, and we're not an investor there, we wish we were, but I think they've perennially been the best at selling, and they've got a very strict protocol that they run through, you know, from years eight to 12 on those funds, and with those foun…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 16:24 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 9, 2026 negative
Opinion
Weitzman: Union Square Ventures has storied name but lacks strong leadership
“What I would do is I would join Union Square Ventures. I would join an institution that has a really storied name, but doesn't have particularly strong leadership. And I would become the leadership for that organization.”
Cliff Weitzman May 9, 2026 ▶ 1:20:32 Cliff Weitzman: What I Learned from 100 of the World’s Top CEOs & Why Tokens Will Outspend Salaries · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 16, 2026 positive
Disclosure
USV backed Abridge seed partly due to Duolingo precedent
“Also Union Square Ventures funded, and I'm sure that had something to do with USV being more comfortable with me, because I certainly didn't have a track record.”
Shiv Rao May 16, 2026 ▶ 59:05 The Five Year Desert to Product Market Fit & a $5.3BN Valuation with Shiv Rao, Founder @ Abridge · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Insight
Mignano: Fred Wilson's key VC lesson is to never pass on price
“I asked him, what are a couple of the biggest lessons? And one of them was, never pass on price. So Fred says, never pass on price.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 48:31 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Mignano: USV invested in small nuclear reactor startup Radiant
“USV a few years ago invested in a great company called Radiant, which is building small nuclear reactors that literally come off of a factory line.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 30:34 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
USV Passed on Anchor Before Co-Founder Mike Mignano Became an LP
“I've always been in or around New York, and as a builder, when I was building Anchor in New York 10 years ago, I got to meet USV, and I had an incredible, despite them passing, had an incredible experience. Started a very, very long friendship. I ultimately be…”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 5:41 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Mignano: USV Did Not Invest in Major Foundation Model Companies
“So, USV, again, I think has never been afraid to take a position, and I think USV maybe, ah, did not invest in any of the big model layer companies.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 29:09 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 neutral
Insight
Mignano: Small venture funds must focus deeply on a few thesis areas
“And I think when you're small, you kind of have to pick Your spots. You have to have constraints and focus on a small number of things, and so I think to the extent that we see things different, it's because we focus really, really deeply, and for a period of …”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 37:46 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026
Insight
Mignano: Founders matter most in venture, followed by market and product
“When I first started this job, I would have said product, market, founder. I've completely flipped that. Now, founder, market, product. I think that the founder is the most important thing.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 52:31 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Mignano: Union Square Ventures is investing from a $275 million core fund
“For us, the fund that we're investing out of now, the core fund, it's a two hundred seventy five million dollar core fund”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 46:23 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
USV Will Always Impose Price Limits on Early-Stage Investments
“Just to bring it back to the USV strategy, I think for us, again, if we're investing a little bit later stage, we need to really believe that it's a market winner, and the multiple can be very, very, very high, and in that case, I think we can be a little bit …”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 48:42 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Mignano: USV is investing heavily in open-source AI and agents
“At USV, we're really interested in the Rebel Alliance. This new universe of open weight models and open source harnesses and distributed compute and agents, right? Human aligned agents.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 10:34 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026
Insight
Mignano: VCs must avoid projecting operator ideas onto startup founders
“You can't project your own ideas on the founder. Sure, you can offer ideas, of course, if the founder wants, but especially as a former operator, you know, you often think, Oh, I know how this business should be built, or I know how this product should work. A…”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 51:06 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
USV Waives Ownership Target for Investment in FOMO Trading App
“We think it can be a lot bigger than it is now. And so, for this one, we're not gonna be ownership focused. We're just gonna, we're gonna put a check in.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 45:25 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Mignano: USV invested in micro data center company Rune
“We have a bet in a company called Rune. Amazing company. Have you heard of Rune? They're building micro data centers that sit directly next to generators. You know, wind farms and things like that to solve the portability issue.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 31:21 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 negative
Disclosure
Mignano: USV avoids enterprise investing to focus on market obliteration
“At USV, we like to bet on businesses that obliterate, that literally obliterate markets and existing business models. And so, you know, we're, we actually don't do a lot of enterprise investing for this exact reason.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 32:50 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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