Andy Weissman, partner at Union Square Ventures (USV), shares the origin story of how USV repeatedly turned down Betaworks when he pitched them before eventually hiring him as a partner.
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“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”
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AssertionPartly supported
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