Fred Wilson
unionsquareventures.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2007
Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures, writes about startups, investing, patents and the economics of web businesses.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for data on startup pivots and web economics, though one warns he is biased as a Stack Overflow investor.
38HN people shared it
10linked it in comments
37stories submitted
438story points
16 years agolast shared
2007people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The Weird Economics of Information3 people · 15 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 2Almost a third of our portfolio is under attack by patent trolls.2 people · 139 points · first shared 2010 · 72 comments on HN
- 3Why Early Stage Venture Investments Fail2 people · 24 points · first shared 2007 · 6 comments on HN
- 4VC failure rates2 people · 15 points · first shared 2007 · 7 comments on HN
- 5Web app access should be agnostic2 people · 13 points · first shared 2010 · 2 comments on HN
- 6How To Create a Successful Web 2.0 Company2 people · 6 points · first shared 2007 · 3 comments on HN
- 7Union Square Ventures: StackOverFlow Investment2 people · 3 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 8Software patents are the problem not the answer1 people · 52 points · first shared 2010 · 26 comments on HN
- 9Why The Flow Of Innovation Has Reversed1 people · 42 points · first shared 2008 · 16 comments on HN
- 10Hacking Education1 people · 22 points · first shared 2009 · 13 comments on HN
- 11Union Square Ventures invests in Delicious' Founder new startup1 people · 21 points · first shared 2010 · 8 comments on HN
- 12I Want a New Platform1 people · 14 points · first shared 2007 · 1 comments on HN
- 13The Mobile Challenge1 people · 14 points · first shared 2009 · 2 comments on HN
- 14Web Services as Governments1 people · 9 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 15Hiring a VP of Engineering or CTO For Non-Techie (First Time) Founders1 people · 6 points · first shared 2007 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
webwright · 2008-06-04
You have enthusiastic users and you think you're going to sneak up on an incumbent?
(suggest reading: http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/06/the_spooky_econ.html )
I'd add a donate (or tipjoy!) button. Or a bounty page where people can buy their favorite feature request to the top of the list.
If people want to help, maybe you could release an API? Or open-source your software?
eladgil · 2011-01-27
Support from Fred Wilson's blog that most of his successful outcomes (success defined as "exit) were pivots:
"Of the 26 companies that I consider realized or effectively realized in my personal track record, 17 of them made complete transformations or partial transformations of their businesses between the time we invested and the time we sold. That means there a 2/3 chance you’ll have to significantly reinvent your business between the time you take a venture capital investment and when you exit your business."
Source: http://unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/why-early-stage.php
dfield · 2010-11-01
Dave isn't giving you a solution. He's pointing out a number of problems that need to be solved. Just because technology works fine doesn't mean it's the optimal solution. Tech develops incrementally.
Stack Overflow has a search feature and it works fine. But wouldn't it be cool if someone aggregated results from different programming websites? (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1854731)
Check out Union Square Venture's blogpost from May: http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2010/05/stackoverflow.php. In addition to describing their investment, the post describes problems in the space. If you had never heard of Stack Overflow and you only read about the problems in that post, would you say the solution was too complex?
keltex · 2010-07-15
Take this with a grain of salt. He in an investor in Stack Overflow after all:
http://www.unionsquareventures.com/investments/index.php
cellis · 2010-01-18
I submitted it because i had just finished reading the comments on this: http://www.unionsquareventures.com/index.php
AaronChua · 2009-04-23
Thanks for reading!
Here is the post from the perspective of the VC that invested in Covestor. It highlights the opportunities in disrupting the asset management industry.
http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/04/covestor.html
bd · 2009-04-10
"When we raised our first Union Square Ventures fund, I told prospective investors to expect 1/3 of our investments to fail. I always like the 1/3 rule, which is that 1/3 of the investments will fail, 1/3 will under-perform expectations, and 1/3 will meet expectations."
http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/failure_rates_i.html
dpapathanasiou · 2008-07-15
VCs usually list job openings at their portfolio companies, so for NYC, check out the Union Square Ventures jobs page (http://www.unionsquareventures.com/jobboard.html).
Silicon Alley Insider also has a jobs page with some startups listed (http://jobs.alleyinsider.com/).
And you can use "Reg D" to find out about startups which have just gotten funding that may not be listed anywhere else (http://redeye.firstround.com/2008/06/the-death-of-st.html).
The nextNY (http://groups.google.com/group/nextNYdigital) and NYC Tech Boosters (http://groups.google.com/group/nyc-tech-boosters) boards also list jobs from time to time.
Also, even though it's not a jobs board, you should subscribe to Jay Sulzberger's mailing list (http://lxny.org/correspondence.html) to find out about tech events in NY.
Alex3917 · 2008-03-17
So I guess then that Union Square Ventures doesn't count as a real company:
http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2008/02/were_hiring.html
And neither does Blue Whale Labs:
http://www.socialtwister.com/2007/01/27/a-few-good-mammals-we-need-the…
And don't even get me started on these guys:
http://www.ycombinator.com/