Andy Weissman is a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV). Recounting advice from partner Brad Burnham after missing a promising deal, he reflects on the power-law economics of venture capital.
Opinion
Weissman: Venture capital is a service business and VCs should be invisible
“By the way, I don't believe at a fundamental matter, I'm old fashioned in the way that I believe actually VCs should be invisible, you know, and so I know you ask this question to a lot of people, what would you like most like to change in the world of VC? I'v…”
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”
Insight
Andy Weissman: Venture Capital Success Stems From Process, Not Foresight
“And so, I believe that a large, if not the largest part of that, is about the process you create to make those decisions, and if you have a process, and you perfect that process, and you stick with that process, sometimes it works, and that's luck, right? Whet…”
Insight
Weissman: Traditional VC works near-perfectly for software, but nothing else
“I believe on one point that early stage software technology based venture capital is a near perfect craft for what it does. And by that, I mean, it is a near perfect allocation of a certain type of capital, risk capital, into endeavors that are focused on retu…”
Insight
Weissman: ICOs act as an external catalyst for financing innovation
“Part of what is exciting about ICOs, if one believes in what's happening, and there are lots of Reasons to be skeptical is that they are resulting in an external stimulus for change in financing structures for a certain type of sector”
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…”