Rebecca Kaden
Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures. On 1 show, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorjournalist@rebeccakaden ↗usv.com ↗
Rebecca Kaden is a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, where she focuses on early-stage investments in consumer, healthcare, and network-effects businesses. She was previously a General Partner at Maveron and has backed companies including Modern Fertility, Outschool, Stash, and Allbirds.
1shows
3appearances
51statements
8resolved
7supported
1contradicted
88%fully supported
26said about them ↓ Everything Rebecca Kaden said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kaden: Seed-stage startup valuations will decrease in the near future
“I think seed valuations are going to go down.”
Kaden: Multi-billion dollar venture funds writing $2M seed checks does not work
“The strategy of very large funds writing two million dollar checks does not work.”
Kaden: LPs say some recent seed funds will fail to raise again
“Some seed funds won't be able to raise another fund given the vintage we just left. We're hearing that from LPs”
Kaden: AI application-layer tools will capture significant market value
“If you believe all of the value is going to aggregate in a very small number of underlying models and platforms, that may be correct, but I think what you're hearing here is there's a tremendous amount of excitement around application layer and point solution …”
Kaden: Paid ads on Google and Facebook enrich platforms, not startups
“I, you know, I think Peter Fenton's also making a comment on the acquisition landscape where most of paid acquisition is coming through these third party platforms like Facebook or Google, where you're actually largely boosting the equity value of the platform…”
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.”
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.”
Kaden: VCs are highly hesitant to lead down rounds and reprice startups
“We are seeing across the board, investors are very hesitant to come in and reprice things, and to do the down round, and deal with the anti-dilution, and navigate the mess.”
Kaden: Dedicated seed funds can beat multi-stage firms by finding founders early
“A dedicated seed fund that can be focused on meeting people before it's obvious when they're just getting started and put all the energy there can absolutely get in it.”
Kaden: Non-consensus ideas will drive future venture capital returns
“We are increasingly back to an era where the returns are going to be created through outsized and better ideas and hypotheses versus then consensus.”
Kaden: General Catalyst bought a hospital system to expand its platform
“You see that with General Catalyst buying a hospital system, right?”
Kaden: Seed-stage startup mortality rates will rise significantly
“I think we have way increased mortality rates.”
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 …”
Kaden: Amazon dominates functional shopping but leaves room for emotional discovery
“My view is that Amazon is dominating, but it's a specific tactical and emotional piece of the commerce puzzle, and it's largely functional. They're the best at logistics. They're the best at assortment. They're the best at speed. They're somewhat the best at v…”
Kaden: Dollar Shave Club yielded strong venture returns, Bonobos did not
“The examples you gave of Dollar Shave and Bonobos have wildly different outcomes. One of them was a huge win for their investors and their team and kind of showed that you can get the return on it that they wanted going in, which is Dollar Shave, and the other…”
Rebecca Kaden: Crypto and blockchain ecosystems should be regulated
“We don't think it should be unregulated. We think it should be regulated.”
Kaden predicts Amazon Echo will become a mainstream physical controller
“I think a lot of the features on it right now are kind of delight, probably more than utility, but as they integrate more and more, I could definitely see it becoming a mainstream way of people to create interaction and kind of function in the physical world.”
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.”
Kaden: AI startups with momentum command massive Series A valuation multiples
“We are seeing this obviously things in high flying categories, things that touch AI and have momentum, right? Massive multiples right now.”
Kaden: Slower Series A startups face severe fundraising difficulty
“On the other hand, I think anything with a complicated story, things that are figuring it out and are seeing some growth curve, but it took a while for that to figure it out, so maybe they had to spend some of that seed money, so their, you know, ultimate reve…”
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.”
Kaden: Startup founders acknowledge their peak funding valuations were inflated
“Also, I think a lot of, some of the founders understand that the last rounds, they never, they don't think their companies were really worth that at the last round.”
Kaden: LPs are overallocated to venture capital amid a liquidity drought
“They've been over allocated to venture. The liquidity cycle isn't really there. They're nervous about these vintages.”
Kaden: LPs will reshuffle allocations rather than exit venture capital
“I don't think it's like there's going to be a massive retreat also because innovation is exciting and it will always be, and this is at the heart of it. And Long-term such a believer in it, but I think you're gonna see at least a little bit of a reshuffling an…”
The other half of the tape: Rebecca Kaden's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 26 times in 13 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 24Mike Mignano 1Arielle Zuckerberg 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 26
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 3 mentions in 1 episode
2019 4 mentions in 1 episode
2018 9 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Why Entrepreneurs Should Let Everyone Rip Apart Their Business Idea, How To Construct Frameworks for Success & Why You Should Not Always Test Your MVP with Afton Vechery, Founder & CEO @ Modern Fertility
- 20VC: The Metrics That Matter In Early-Stage Consumer, Why Moats Matter More Than Brand Today and How VCs Deal with S*** Hit The Fan Moments with Jason Stoffer, Managing Partner @ Maveron
- 20VC: Index's Danny Rimer on His Biggest Lessons On Price, Ownership, Board Dynamics & Building Consumer Businesses from Backing The Likes of King, Skype, Farfetch, Glossier and more...
- 20VC: 3 Core Considerations When Investing In Physical Product Co's, Are We In A Direct-To-Consumer Bubble & Why Many Sub $100m Funds Are Moving Earlier and Earlier with Nick Brown, Managing Partner @ Imaginary
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
2017 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: What Larry Paige, Mary Meeker and Ben Horowitz All Have In Common, Why You Have To Build A Movement Not A Brand & Why This Really Is A Great Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Joey Zwillinger, Co-Founder @ Allbirds
- 20VC: Why Not Every Element of A Scalable Business Has To Scale, Why You Should Be Bearish on Retail & Why Fewer Businesses Are Getting Started Today Since The Great Depression with Brad Hargreaves, Founder & CEO @ Common
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
2016 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: When To Transition From Growth to Profitability & The KPI's of The On Demand Economy with Frank Mycroft @ Booster Fuels
- 20VC: Why Bots Are The New Black, Conversational Interface Is The Next of For Consumerisation and The Determinants Of A Successful Marketplace with Annie Kadavy, General Partner @ CRV
- 20VC: Arielle Zuckerberg @ Kleiner Perkins: A Review Of My First 6 Months in Venture
- every mention in 2016, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Rebecca's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures | 3 | 51 | 88% 7/8 | full record on 20VC → |