The Exchanges

Q Absolutely. And you've got FiftyApp. Now, tell me about FiftyApp. Is this a recent, uh, development for you?

A Uh, FiftyApp was something that my friend and I were talking about before I joined USB, and I worked on it quite a bit on the summer before I, before I joined here. So FiftyApp is an app for watching and consuming pro football, NFL football. And one of the things that we, we found were frustrating. Two things that we found frustrating were that one, there's a lot of great, uh, advanced analytics that are happening around pro football and other sports, uh, that weren't really in a terribly digestible format. So one of the things that 50 allows you to do is it looks at the win percentage, uh, as the game is occurring. Uh, so your team might be up Let's say, 21 to 14, but the other team has the ball near your end zone, or sorry, near your end zone with just two minutes left, which means the other team might actually have a higher percentage of winning the game, even though they're, um, they have, you know, they're down in terms of the score. And what it does is, if you look particularly like at the past Super Bowl, which had a lot of wild swings, you get a visual graph of the game, um, Which really tells the story of the game in a way that the score, the box score doesn't. You actually get a really quick visual snapshot of how the game went, uh, which we, which we think is pretty neat, and, and we think the, the 50 uses of the last season really enjoyed, and we hope they do this c…

AI assessment note: “FiftyApp was something that my friend and I were talking about before I joined USB”

Q Absolutely. And you've got FiftyApp. Now, tell me about FiftyApp. Is this a recent, uh, development for you?

A Uh, FiftyApp was something that my friend and I were talking about before I joined USB, and I worked on it quite a bit on the summer before I, before I joined here. So FiftyApp is an app for watching and consuming pro football, NFL football. And one of the things that we, we found were frustrating. Two things that we found frustrating were that one, there's a lot of great, uh, advanced analytics that are happening around pro football and other sports, uh, that weren't really in a terribly digestible format. So one of the things that 50 allows you to do is it looks at the win percentage, uh, as the game is occurring. Uh, so your team might be up Let's say, 21 to 14, but the other team has the ball near your end zone, or sorry, near your end zone with just two minutes left, which means the other team might actually have a higher percentage of winning the game, even though they're, um, they have, you know, they're down in terms of the score. And what it does is, if you look particularly like at the past Super Bowl, which had a lot of wild swings, you get a visual graph of the game, um, Which really tells the story of the game in a way that the score, the box score doesn't. You actually get a really quick visual snapshot of how the game went, uh, which we, which we think is pretty neat, and, and we think the, the 50 uses of the last season really enjoyed, and we hope they do this c…

AI assessment note: “FiftyApp was something that my friend and I were talking about before I joined USB”

Q Now, I'd love to start off by talking a bit about you and your past, uh, working with AppSphere and then FiftyApp. How did that lead to your current status as VC at Union Square?

A Well, I was a product manager at AppSphere in Tel Aviv. I had been there for about four years and really gotten to know the mobile ecosystem really well. I think that was one of the reasons they brought me on here. Uh, so I, I'd been there about four years and kind of identified that Uh, my time there was coming to an end, um, as the company was actually being more focused in Paris than Tel Aviv, and, uh, I hadn't at all thought about joining VC, but, uh, I had, I was a regular viewer of the USB website and regular reader of Fred's blog, and where they announced that they were hiring two new analysts, and I had been following those guys forever and thought, well, I would do that. And I applied, and lo and behold, I, one, one interview after another, uh, I found myself as an analyst here, along with my counterpart, Joel Negro.

AI assessment note: “I applied, and lo and behold, I, one, one interview after another”

Q And do you think it's a good way to show your interest in a topic?

A Yeah, I, I couldn't recommend it more highly. I mean, it's probably not for everyone, but, uh, for me, and the reason why I do recommend it is because, uh, there's nothing quite like thinking out loud. It's one thing to think about a particular topic from your, let's say, from your armchair at home, but, If your attention is as short as mine, you know, you might, might only give that a few seconds of thought from here to for, uh, here and there. Okay. But when you're formulating it for a blog post and something that's meant to be consumed, you really need to think deeply, uh, and figure out every single angle so that you're, you know, you're communicating something which is coherent and clear and powerful. And I think there's really nothing quite like blogging for the sake of learning things yourself. You know, apart from actually what it's communicating out to your readers, it's quite a useful tool in terms of, um, learning about the topics that interest you.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I, I couldn't recommend it more highly.”

Q And then, let's talk about Uber. What's happening with the employment? How's that gonna affect them? Do you think they've got what it takes to, to get past all the regulation?

A Yeah, well, I, I think they're so well capitalized that they can figure out a way to make their model work with W-II's or ten-ninety-nines. Uh, I think, you know, the California ruling, uh, it's sort of important to keep it in perspective, that it only, you know, affects companies in California for now, and, you know, they can adjust, um, they can adjust their practices so that they're more in line with, uh, a ten-ninety-nine workforce than a W-II, if that's what they want. Um, I think, you know, another thing to keep in perspective is it's sort of easy to see the headlines about the lawsuits and think that all the drivers want to be W-II's, and if you actually look at some of the polls, it's actually not the case. I mean, if you even talk to a lot of Uber drivers, they're not even aware of it, and if you ask them if they prefer to be W-II or T-Nine-I, I mean, not necessarily in those terms, they say that, they'll say that they prefer Rather be independent, that they like the freedom, and they don't like being an, you know, an employee. So I think, you know, I, I, I think it's not, um, it's not such a, um, uh, the dividing lines here are not so clear, and I think they'll, they'll find a way to work them out.

AI assessment note: “they're so well capitalized that they can figure out a way to make their model work”

Q And do you think it's a good way to show your interest in a topic?

A Yeah, I, I couldn't recommend it more highly. I mean, it's probably not for everyone, but, uh, for me, and the reason why I do recommend it is because, uh, there's nothing quite like thinking out loud. It's one thing to think about a particular topic from your, let's say, from your armchair at home, but, If your attention is as short as mine, you know, you might, might only give that a few seconds of thought from here to for, uh, here and there. Okay. But when you're formulating it for a blog post and something that's meant to be consumed, you really need to think deeply, uh, and figure out every single angle so that you're, you know, you're communicating something which is coherent and clear and powerful. And I think there's really nothing quite like blogging for the sake of learning things yourself. You know, apart from actually what it's communicating out to your readers, it's quite a useful tool in terms of, um, learning about the topics that interest you.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I, I couldn't recommend it more highly.”

Q You often comment on text and the SMS industry in general, leading me to ask about the future of text. Do you believe SMS is dead? Uh, if not, what can it be applied and used for?

A I certainly don't believe, I certainly don't believe SMS is dead, and in some ways you could argue that, uh, it's relevance, it's becoming ever more relevant as we move from the desktop to mobile. Uh, whereas on the desktop, you know, your email address was your identifier. It's what you would use to actually sign up for any particular website. Whereas on mobile, if you notice, most of the time you're giving a phone number, they're sending an SMS, and you're, Uh, to give you a code that you punch in to verify that you are who you are. Um, and I think more and more it's actually becoming, uh, the most important identifier on the phone. I do also think that in, uh, in a variety of cases, I, I, you know, I'm not a believer. That SMS is going to, because there are people who are quite a bit more optimistic than I am that SMS is going to be one of the primary ways that we interact with services on our phone. I don't believe that, but I do believe that there's, uh, there's, there really is a time and place for SMS as there is for over the top messaging, uh, to take, Uh, the interaction out of an app framework and into a more conversational framework.

AI assessment note: “I certainly don't believe SMS is dead, and in some ways you could argue”

Q So can you tell us about a recent investment that you and USV have made, and why you said yes?

A So I think the most recent investment that we, that's, that we have announced is, uh, the company's called Obi-Wan, um, which is based, is it the company that, uh, operates the Open Bazaar Protocol, which, uh, enables more open marketplaces, and this is partially based on the blockchain. So one of the ideas here is that typically, uh, in any marketplace, you've, you've centralized, you know, the authority. So Amazon has a marketplace. Etsy has a marketplace, uh, but they are the central authorities. So when it comes time to, let's say, well, let me take a step back and say, why do we have central authorities? One of the reasons is that, uh, it's difficult, uh, to, let's say, handle disputes. Without a central authority. So if somebody sells something and doesn't get paid for it, who do they turn to if they don't have a central authority? But, uh, OpenBazaar and Obi-Wan are doing some really unique things that would, would really, uh, enable, um, would enable decentralized marketplaces. So anyone could sell anything anywhere according to protocols, um, and would do quite a bit for reducing take rates. You know, I think Amazon's take rate for their marketplace is something like 15%.

AI assessment note: “most recent investment that we... announced is, uh, the company's called Obi-Wan”

Q And then, let's talk about Uber. What's happening with the employment? How's that gonna affect them? Do you think they've got what it takes to, to get past all the regulation?

A Yeah, well, I, I think they're so well capitalized that they can figure out a way to make their model work with W-II's or ten-ninety-nines. Uh, I think, you know, the California ruling, uh, it's sort of important to keep it in perspective, that it only, you know, affects companies in California for now, and, you know, they can adjust, um, they can adjust their practices so that they're more in line with, uh, a ten-ninety-nine workforce than a W-II, if that's what they want. Um, I think, you know, another thing to keep in perspective is it's sort of easy to see the headlines about the lawsuits and think that all the drivers want to be W-II's, and if you actually look at some of the polls, it's actually not the case. I mean, if you even talk to a lot of Uber drivers, they're not even aware of it, and if you ask them if they prefer to be W-II or T-Nine-I, I mean, not necessarily in those terms, they say that, they'll say that they prefer Rather be independent, that they like the freedom, and they don't like being an, you know, an employee. So I think, you know, I, I, I think it's not, um, it's not such a, um, uh, the dividing lines here are not so clear, and I think they'll, they'll find a way to work them out.

AI assessment note: “I think they're so well capitalized that they can figure out a way”

Q You often comment on text and the SMS industry in general, leading me to ask about the future of text. Do you believe SMS is dead? Uh, if not, what can it be applied and used for?

A I certainly don't believe, I certainly don't believe SMS is dead, and in some ways you could argue that, uh, it's relevance, it's becoming ever more relevant as we move from the desktop to mobile. Uh, whereas on the desktop, you know, your email address was your identifier. It's what you would use to actually sign up for any particular website. Whereas on mobile, if you notice, most of the time you're giving a phone number, they're sending an SMS, and you're, Uh, to give you a code that you punch in to verify that you are who you are. Um, and I think more and more it's actually becoming, uh, the most important identifier on the phone. I do also think that in, uh, in a variety of cases, I, I, you know, I'm not a believer. That SMS is going to, because there are people who are quite a bit more optimistic than I am that SMS is going to be one of the primary ways that we interact with services on our phone. I don't believe that, but I do believe that there's, uh, there's, there really is a time and place for SMS as there is for over the top messaging, uh, to take, Uh, the interaction out of an app framework and into a more conversational framework.

AI assessment note: “I certainly don't believe SMS is dead”

Q And so you deep dive into a sector and you find a company that's potentially interesting. How do you kind of validate in your head whether this is an investable opportunity?

A Well, one of the things that's unique about USV, uh, and so far as I can tell, because this is the only venture capital firm that I've ever worked at, and I've only been here for 10 months, is that 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, uh, which are more, I think, deal flow oriented, where they're, where they're looking out on the market for what deals are out there and available and whether or not they might be the right fit for those deals. Um, We're, we tend to follow, um, our thesis and our intellectual interests quite a bit more. Um, and we're trying to, and we try to look at companies and things that are happening out in the market in a way that helps us further our understanding. And, you know, one of the funny things I think is, you know, that, um, These don't, it doesn't necessarily lead to, we're looking for a company like X or a company like Y. Uh, if you take a company like figure one, which is one of our portfolio companies, which, um, that, that company came in, uh, so that investment happened right around the time that I was hired. So I wasn't there for the pitches or anything like that. But one of the funny things is you see a lot of companies in the healthcare space, or at least USB…

AI assessment note: “we're thesis driven, which means that we operate... based upon Are sort of core beliefs”

Q What would you like, what would you like to see from it? What would make you use it over Spotify?

A The one thing that I found that I think is compelling also about Apple Music is, and this is something I've really only grown to appreciate in the last month, as you saw that, you know, that's that tiff between Taylor Swift and Apple is, uh, that actually really got me to appreciate how an artist can connect directly with their fans these days. I mean, it sounds a little bit cliche, but it really, until you look at Taylor Swift's blog and see, uh, Uh, how genuine it is. I mean, you know, I had sort of always written her off as someone whose, you know, persona and music was sort of a group effort, you know, sort of managed, um, and, you know, when this whole TIFF came about, I started looking into it quite a bit deeper, and even through Twitter, I learned that she's actually running the show there, uh, which made me really come to appreciate her, and it actually also, you know, in, in, in reading her blog, really, uh, Got me thinking that someone's music and, and the, the media and the, and the things they write probably all belong in the same place, and that actually could, that could work out quite well for Apple Music.

AI assessment note: “someone's music and, and the, the media and the, and the things they write”

Q What would you like, what would you like to see from it? What would make you use it over Spotify?

A The one thing that I found that I think is compelling also about Apple Music is, and this is something I've really only grown to appreciate in the last month, as you saw that, you know, that's that tiff between Taylor Swift and Apple is, uh, that actually really got me to appreciate how an artist can connect directly with their fans these days. I mean, it sounds a little bit cliche, but it really, until you look at Taylor Swift's blog and see, uh, Uh, how genuine it is. I mean, you know, I had sort of always written her off as someone whose, you know, persona and music was sort of a group effort, you know, sort of managed, um, and, you know, when this whole TIFF came about, I started looking into it quite a bit deeper, and even through Twitter, I learned that she's actually running the show there, uh, which made me really come to appreciate her, and it actually also, you know, in, in, in reading her blog, really, uh, Got me thinking that someone's music and, and the, the media and the, and the things they write probably all belong in the same place, and that actually could, that could work out quite well for Apple Music.

AI assessment note: “music and, and the, the media... probably all belong in the same place”

Q And so you deep dive into a sector and you find a company that's potentially interesting. How do you kind of validate in your head whether this is an investable opportunity?

A Well, one of the things that's unique about USV, uh, and so far as I can tell, because this is the only venture capital firm that I've ever worked at, and I've only been here for 10 months, is that 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, uh, which are more, I think, deal flow oriented, where they're, where they're looking out on the market for what deals are out there and available and whether or not they might be the right fit for those deals. Um, We're, we tend to follow, um, our thesis and our intellectual interests quite a bit more. Um, and we're trying to, and we try to look at companies and things that are happening out in the market in a way that helps us further our understanding. And, you know, one of the funny things I think is, you know, that, um, These don't, it doesn't necessarily lead to, we're looking for a company like X or a company like Y. Uh, if you take a company like figure one, which is one of our portfolio companies, which, um, that, that company came in, uh, so that investment happened right around the time that I was hired. So I wasn't there for the pitches or anything like that. But one of the funny things is you see a lot of companies in the healthcare space, or at least USB…

AI assessment note: “we tend to follow, um, our thesis and our intellectual interests quite a bit more.”