Union Square Ventures

Mike Mignano is a General Partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the most iconic venture firms in the world, whose investments include Coinbase, Stripe, Etsy, Twilio, Cloudflare. Before joining USV, Mike was a Partner at Lightspeed, where he backed breakout AI companies including Granola and Suno. Prior to investing, he co-founded Anchor, acquired by Spotify. AGENDA: 00:00 Is Fear of Failure the Secret Weapon Behind Great Founders? 07:20 Why Leave Lightspeed for USV — and Is Thesis-Driven Venture Still Alive? 09:50 Is the Real AI Money Still in Infrastructure, or Are Apps Finally About to Explode? 13:00 Who Wins the AI Model War: OpenAI, Anthropic, Open Source, or the "Rebel Alliance"? 19:00 Are We About to Hand Our Entire Lives Over to AI Agents? 21:00 Can Anthropic Keep Growing Like This — or Will Token Spend Break the Model? 26:00 Can AI Routing Become a $50BN Company, or Is It Just a Commodity Pipe? 30:00 Will the AI Energy Crisis Create the Next Monster Venture Outcomes? 36:00 Can Startups Survive Microsoft, OpenAI, and the Brutal Power of Bundling? 45:00 Should VCs Ignore Price When Backing Generational Companies? 55:30 Is Traditional Media Dead — and Who Becomes the New Tech Kingmaker?

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture PartnersUnion Square Ventures

Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Mike is currently a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Before Lightspeed, he spent five years building Anchor, which he sold to Spotify in 2020, and then led Spotify’s podcast, video, and live products for three years. It's probably safe to assume every podcast you listen to uses Mike’s product, and we go way back to the very beginning and talk through how the team at Anchor pulled it all off.Mike also shares his frameworks of “Doing the Dumb Thing” and "Super Goals," which are high-stakes, focusing goals with a clear and urgent time frame, open-ended method of achievement, and a single measure of success. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (4:22) Why AI makes consumer investing interesting again (8:05) Podcasting in the early 2010’s (14:03) The benefits and drawbacks of RSS (21:50) Building v1 “Instagram for audio” (25:53) Advice for building a close-knit community (29:28) Raising their first small round (31:38) Inside their splashy launch at SXSW (39:17) Why the first product failed, but allowed them to raise money to build Anchor (45:26) What makes a good product founder (47:39) Re-launching v2 a year later (53:51) What is a Super Goal (56:32) Finding Product Market Fit with months of runway left (59:02) Getting to a million podcast creators (01:02:09) Launching the first podcast ad network (01:04:10) Why anchor started sponsoring its own ad network (01:08:13) Spotify’s acquisition of Anchor (01:14:22) How Spotify won in podcast market share (01:16:34) Why the future of podcasts is video Referenced: Mike’s Podcast “Generative Now”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXW6zY9x-gk1oPyjZ_qBCDEYKTbPpGa8S Mike’s blog posts: https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-standards-innovation-paradox https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-power-of-supergoals https://mignano.substack.com/p/startups-vs-incumbents-the-battle https://mignano.substack.com/p/all-podcast-roads-lead-to-video Where to find Mike: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mignano LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mignano Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, and author of The World After Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a frank conversation about whether AI will lead to job loss and what to do about it. In an unusual setup, the journalist in this conversation (Alex) argues that we have less to worry about AI automating jobs than the popular narrative, and the VC (Wenger) makes the case that it will definitely happen and how we should adjust. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Wenger's five year experiment with UBI. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/ Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Rebecca Kaden is a Managing Partner @ Union Square Ventures, one of the leading early-stage firms of the last decade with investments in Twitter, Twilio, Coinbase and many more. Nicole Quinn is a General Partner @ Lightspeed where she has led investments or sits on the board of Calm, Cameo and LunchClub to name a few. Eurie Kim is a Managing Partner @ Forerunner Ventures, the leading early-stage consumer fund. Eurie has led investments and sits on the board of Oura, The Farmers Dog, Curology and more. In Today's Roundtable We Discuss: 1. Seed Rounds: Is it even possible for traditional seed funds to play in a world of multi-stage funds investing so aggressively at the seed stage? Is seed immune to the macro environment? Will seed pricing remain as high as ever? What advice does the team have for seed founders approaching a Series A? What do they need? 2. Series A: How is the Series A market looking today? Is there a crunch at the Series A? To what extent are valuations compressed at the Series A? What 3 core elements do companies at the A stage, looking for a Series B next, need to focus on? 3. Series B and Beyond: Is the real crunch at the Series B? Why are down rounds so much better than structured rounds for companies raising? Will we see a wave of M&A in the next 12 months? 4. Crypto, AI and Hot Takes: Why is now the best time to be investing in crypto? Why is investing in AI a lottery right now? What is the most controversial thing that each believes today?

Rebecca Kaden

Managing Partner

Union Square VenturesMaveron

Nicole Quinn

Partner

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Eurie Kim

Managing Partner

Forerunner Ventures

Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Coinbase, Twitter, Twilio, Etsy, and many more. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early-hosted data analytics company. In Today's Episode with Albert Wenger We Discuss: 1.) From Failed Startup Founder to Leading VC: How Albert transitioned from being a failed entrepreneur to being one of the most respected venture investors with USV today? What were the clear signs for Albert that he was not a good entrepreneur? Why does Albert believe this downturn is different compared to the dot-com bubble? Why was there more hope and promise coming out of the dot-com bubble? 2.) Income Inequality, The Rise of Depression & The Role of Politics: Why is income and wealth inequality more concerning than ever? Why does Albert believe universal basic income is the right solution? Why is mental health worse than ever? What can be done to improve this? Why are our politicians failing us? What should our politicians be doing? How does the rise of Trump show us what society is looking for in politicians? 3.) Climate Change: Misnomers, Developing Countries, Civil Disobedience: What are the single biggest misnomers people have when it comes to climate change? How can we shift spending on climate change solutions from 5% of GDP to 50%? Is that possible? Why do developing nations have an advantage when implementing climate change solutions over more developed economies? Why is civil disobedience the right course of action to ensure society is on a path to change our approach to climate change? 4.) Crypto and Central Banks: The Future of Finance: Why does Albert believe that over the past few years, for many, crypto was a good hedge against inflation? How damaging does Albert believe SBF and FTX will be to crypto in the long term? How does Albert evaluate the potential for governments to create a "central bank digital currency"? What would Albert like to see in a potential currency like this? How could stable coins be the solution to this? What is Albert fearful of with central bank digital currencies? Why does Albert believe now is the best time to be investing in crypto? 5.) The Future of Social Media: Twitter & TikTok: What does Albert believe is wrong with Twitter today? Why was the blue check mark such a mess? What does Albert believe Elon should do with Twitter from this point on? How should Elon deal with the debt providers he has? What happens to Twitter moving forward? Why is it so hard to kill? What is the future of TikTok? Will it be banned in the US? How concerned should the consumer be concerning their data being shared with the Chinese Government?

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Talking this week's big week for AI, with Parker Thompson (@pt) plus@miguelisolano&@mignano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parker Thompson

Partner

AngelListAntler

Miguel Solano

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

In the 38th episode Founder of Anchor Mike Mignano joins to talk about how he and Logan met, the origins of Anchor, selling to Spotify, what he sees as the future of podcasting, and Web3’s role in the creator economy. Plus Logan talks about his most recent Twitter backlash over being reasonably skeptical. (0:00) Intro (1:02) Tennessee vs Alabama (5:58) Ghostwriter backlash (10:15) Introducing Mike Mignano (11:57) How Mike and Logan met (14:09) Mike’s programming background (17:37) Advice for kids (21:37) Left Accenture for a startup (27:42) Beginning of Anchor (39:44) Selling to Spotify (46:03) RSS as an open protocol (53:11) The future of podcasting (59:42) Clubhouse (1:04:15) Apps capturing a moment (1:06:41) Recommendation media (1:19:39) Web3 creator economy and monetization (1:28:36) Wrap up   Show Notes: Dead Cat Podcast - VC Ghostwriters (w/ Logan Bartlett)   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars   About the Show A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise. Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

First up, J+M discuss founder ambition and tools vs. platforms on VC Sunday School. (3:06) Then, USV's Albert Wenger joins to break down his firm's $162M climate fund, his book "The World After Capital", and more! (24:16) (0:00) J+M intro today's topics! (3:06) Evaluating founder ambition, tools vs. platforms (11:14) OpenPhone - Get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist (12:48) How investors evaluate tools vs. platforms, and when/if something is "too hard" (19:50) J+M tee up today's TWiCS guest (22:50) SnackMagic - Get 10% cashback up to $1000 until October 15th with code HOLIDAY, and see more at snackmagic.com/twist (24:16) Molly welcomes USV Managing Partner Albert Wenger to discuss USV's $162M climate fund and the climate crisis investment opportunity (33:26) Coda - The All-in-one doc for teams, get a $1,000 credit at https://coda.io/twist (34:57) Albert discusses his book "The World After Capital", and the human attention problem FOLLOW Albert: https://twitter.com/albertwenger FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood Subscribe to our YouTube to watch all full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Mike Mignano is a Partner @ Lightspeed, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snap, Affirm, Epic Games, Mulesoft and more. As for Mike, prior to venture, he was Head of Talk for Spotify where he led the podcast, live, and video businesses for the world's leading audio streaming platform. Michael came to Spotify through their acquisition of Anchor, a company he co-founded and is credited for democratizing podcasting globally. Mike has also been a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including Cameo, Pipe, Sandbox VR and Stir. In Today's Episode with Mike Mignano We Discuss: 1.) Exclusive News: What exclusive news does Mike have to share today? What would Mike most like to change about the way founders experience the product of venture capital? How can VCs be better? What is Mike most nervous about in the new role? 2.) The World of Social is Changing Forever: Why does Mike believe there has never been a better time for the next social media giant to be born? Why are the largest social giants leaving behind the social graph? What is recommendation media? Why is it a better business model? How does the shift from social graph to recommendation media change the way large social giants operate and interact today? 3.) Startups: Risers, Fallers and Is There Room For Another Giant? What does Mike believe Clubhouse did well? What was their undoing? Does Mike believe BeReal is defensible? What features make it both sticky and defensible? Will TikTok be a $2 trillion dollar company? Will Meta catch TikTok or have they gone too far ahead? Will OpenSea be able to sustain and make the market for NFTs, despite crypto crashing? Should startups be concerned about large social giants "copying" their features? What does true defensibility look like in consumer social today? 4.) Angel Investing: Hits, Misses and Lessons: From writing over 50 angel checks, what are the single biggest lessons Mike has learned? What has been his biggest hit? How did that change the way he thinks about investing? What has been his biggest miss? In what way did that change how he invests? What advice does Mike give to all angel investors looking to invest today?

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Today's show is a CLASSIC TWiST founder interview. Anchor Co-Founder Mike Mignano joins to tell Anchor's founding story (1:40), break down what it's like getting acquired by Spotify (15:32), and talk about how RSS standards might be stunting innovation in the podcasting space. (33:17) 0:00 Jason intros today's guest: Anchor Co-Founder Mike Mignano 1:40 Mike explains why he started Anchor, the original inspiration and first versions, finding PMF, building the nuts and bolts of a great podcast publishing experience 14:23 Helpware - Go to https://helpware.com/TWIST to get $1000 off your first invoice 15:32 Why Anchor sold to Spotify, the Series B term sheet they were considering at the time of acquisition, getting courted by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Anchor's first check story 24:44 LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://linkedin.com/twist 25:58 Why Apple hasn't innovated in podcasting, paid podcasts vs. advertising 31:59 Babbel - Save up to 60% off your language learning subscription at https://babbel.com/twist 33:17 Why Mike wrote his recent article: “The Standards Innovation Paradox”, evolving standards to increase innovation, the Substack example Read Mike's article: https://mignano.medium.com/the-standards-innovation-paradox-e14cab521391

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Four investors talk about the decentralized web, explain how the crypto industry is improving upon Web 2, and discuss what can be done to increase diversity and financial inclusion within Web 3. Featuring Rik Willard, founder of Agentic Group, Thomas France, co-founder of Cygni Capital, Dylan Hixon, president of Arden Road Investments, and Nick Grossman,general partner at Union Square Ventures . Show highlights:   how funding rounds for decentralized protocols differ from investing in traditional companies what VC investors can do to 1) participate in the protocols they invest in, and 2) not take advantage of whale holdings in governance voting how Web 3 has the potential to displace the “plantation economy” the difference between crypto idealism (i.e., banking the unbanked) versus what has actually played out (i.e., Salvadorans being mandated to accept BTC) what area of blockchain is delivering on the promise of financial inclusion how to bring diversity to the blockchain + crypto industry what can be done to solve the gender imbalance in crypto how investors are navigating the murky waters of US regulations regarding crypto projects how institutions fit into the Web 3 landscape what I think about the state of sexism within the crypto industry   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 Nodle: https://bit.ly/3AXGydJ   Episode Links   Original Link: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8884996/video/614236078   Rik Willard Twitter: https://twitter.com/rik_willard?lang=en Agentic Group: https://www.agenticgroup.com/   Nick Grossman Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickgrossman?lang=en Website: https://www.nickgrossman.xyz/ Union Square Ventures: https://twitter.com/usv   Dylan Hixon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-hixon-1887803 Arden Road Investments: https://www.ardenrd.com/   Thomas France Twitter: https://twitter.com/totofrance?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasfrance/   Topics mentioned Fereshteh Forough on Unchained https://unchainedpodcast.com/crypto-actually-fixes-this-how-code-to-inspire-uses-crypto-in-afghanistan/ Discussing crypto’s gender disparity on Unchained https://unchainedpodcast.com/cryptos-gender-disparity-what-can-be-done-about-it-4-women-weigh-in/ she256 https://she256.org/ El Salvador and BTC https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/09/24/why-el-salvador-is-botching-its-bitcoin-experiment/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rik Willard

Founder

AGAgentic Group

Thomas France

Co-founder

CCCygni Capital

Dylan Hixon

President

AIArden Road Investments

Nick Grossman

General Partner

Union Square Ventures

My guest today is Rebecca Kaden, a partner at famed venture firm union square ventures. USV is known for thesis-driven investing, which is the topic of our conversation. Rebecca walks us through the evolution of USV’s thesis into its third generation, and from there we explore many of the most interesting and exciting areas of business, technology, and learning. Please enjoy our conversation For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Show Notes 1:11 – (First Question) – An overview of Union Square Ventures Thesis 3.0 7:49 – Core changes that can help any community 9:59 – Ways to fix the broken education system 13:41 – Gap between job preparedness and the education system 14:44 – Companies creating education systems to prepare people for careers in their field 18:49 – Most unique technological solution for people to educate themselves 22:00 – Ways to improve access to capital 26:49 – The distribution problem in capital markets 28:19 – How does she assess an early-stage company and its team’s ability to assess their ability to maximize distribution 30:56 – Digital marketing and why it could be broken 34:22 – Examples of masterful marketing 36:07 – How they are focused on improving wellbeing, their first focus on healthcare 39:35 – Wellbeing on their focus on community             41:29– The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging 45:30 – Her thoughts on mentorship 48:23 – What she has learned in her time at USV 51:50 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Rebecca Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Rebecca Kaden

Managing Partner

Union Square VenturesMaveron

Union Square Ventures is one of the most prominent east coast VC firms and is also one of the most notable mainstream investors in the bitcoin market. On this episode of The Scoop USV partner Nick Grossman joined us to discuss the firm's approach to investing in the market -- he was recently promoted to partner to lead blockchain investments after 5 years with the firm. We spoke about Libra association which USV is a member of, we examined USV's portfolio and talked about the future of venture capital and the future of capital formation. I hope you enjoy the episode

Nick Grossman

General Partner

Union Square Ventures

My guest this week is Albert Wenger, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and the author of the book World After Capital. Albert studied economics at Harvard and earned a PhD in information from technology, but if you’d asked me to guess before looking those up, I’d have guessed that he studied philosophy because of how widely he has thought about the world and the impact of technology. Our conversation is about how technology is changing the world from an Industrial Age to a knowledge age. We explore how cryptocurrencies, low cost computing, and regulation will impact our future and why the transition may require delicate care. I loved this conversation because of my obsession with the concept of scarcity. We explore what has been scarce through time and what may be scarce in the future. Albert is one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve come across and was a pleasure to speak with. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Links Referenced World After Capital Show Notes 2:16 – (First Question) –  Defining what it means to be human             2:58 – World After Capital 3:56 – Trans-humans vs neo-humans 4:37 – The concept of Qualia 5:25 – Albert’s investment philosophy= 8:27 – How Albert began his exploration into cryptocurrencies 12:59 – Most exciting things blockchains could enable 14:27 – How does Albert view blockchain technology from the view of an venture capital investor 17:00 -  Why Albert thinks that the dominate cryptocurrency of our time may not exist just yet and what he is looking for in protocols that will become the leader in the space 20:16 – What are the central functions that will be important in cryptocurrencies 21:22 -   The state of regulation in the cryptocurrency space 27:37 – What has Albert most excited for the future of blockchain 29:10 – The idea of universal basic income 32:26 – How do you solve the problem of giving money value in a world of universal basic income 35:00 – How scarcity has changed over time 39:01 – Role of financial capital in the last 200 years of civilization 42:39 – Are we as a society only capable of solving problems once they become an immediate threat 44:15 – Explaining the idea of attention as a scarce resource 47:56 – The two key drivers of change; zero marginal cost distribution and universality of computational power 53:13 -  What should we as investors and inventors be focusing on as the new objective function 57:24 – Scariest aspect of this transition into the knowledge age 59:45 – Three basic freedoms we all seek; informational, economic, psychological 1:02:13 – Fermi’s paradox and the scarcity of attention 1:02:56 – How Albert thinks about his own day and wellbeing given all of this information 1:05:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Albert Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Rebecca Kaden is a General Partner @ Union Square Ventures, one of the most successful funds of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Twitter, Twilio, Zynga, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Lending Club and many more. As for Rebecca, prior to USV, Sarah was a General Partner @ Maveron, a consumer-only seed and series A fund where she invested in the likes of Allbirds, Dia & Co, Periscope, Earnest and Eargo just to name a few. Before Maveron, Rebecca took the route of many great VCs and was a journalist, working as Special Projects Editor @ Narrative Magazine. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rebecca made her way into the world of VC from journalism? How her journey with Maveron led to her becoming a General Partner with the prestigious USV? 2.) Having mastered the craft of VC in the world of consumer, how does Rebecca respond to Peter Fenton and Jeremy Levine's statement, "we are in a consumer downturn"? How does Rebecca think about the lack of free and open distribution today? How can startups compete with incumbents for cost-efficient customer acquisition? 3.) How does Rebecca evaluate the role of Amazon today? How does Rebecca look to get comfortable that Amazon is not moving into the space of a portfolio company? Does Rebecca agree, "if you are not a top 3 priority", you have a couple of years on them? How can startups learn from the execution advantage shown by Amazon over the last decade? 4.) With several recent consumer acquisitions under $200m, does Rebecca still believe that venture returns can be made at scale in consumer? How does Rebecca analyse how to think about multiple on revenue when evaluating consumer companies? Why Does Rebecca believe we are in a moment of fragmentation, not consolidation? 5.) How does Rebecca compare the partnerships of US and Maveron having been a GP now at both firms? What are the similarities? What are the differences? What does Rebecca believe are the core advantages of small partnerships and controlled fund sizes? How does the addition of the thesis-driven investing style effect Rebecca's thinking? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Rebecca's Fave Book: Pale Fire Rebecca's Most Recent Investment: Modern Fertility As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rebecca on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Rebecca Kaden

Managing Partner

Union Square VenturesMaveron

with Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) and Chris Dixon (@cdixon) There's all sorts of interesting tech trends happening right now, including AI, VR/AR, self-driving cars and drones (as well as interesting stuff happening in verticals like healthcare and finance) -- and there's a lot also happening in seemingly more "mature" tech revolutions, such as mobile and cloud. But where are we now, really, with these shifts... and how does that inform how we think about the next couple decades? And does a framework like Carlota Perez's -- as outlined in Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages and summarized by venture capitalist and longtime internet investor Fred Wilson (of Union Square Ventures) -- fully apply when it comes to software? Because, argues Chris Dixon (general partner on a16z crypto), software "has so much more plasticity, ability to adapt, ability to evolve" that unlike hardware, "the core itself will also dramatically change... not just the apps around it". The total economic value that will be unlocked with the software revolution, observes Wilson, should be orders of magnitude bigger than what we saw with manufacturing for sure. But just how much internet innovation is actually powering true disruption (i.e., is more than just a sustaining innovation, to use Clayton Christensen's terminology)? How do new business models change everything? Dixon and Wilson consider all this and more in this hallway-style episode of the a16z Podcast, where we recorded the two having a think-aloud conversation about everything from the history of the internet and startups, the evolution of capital and infrastructure, to the advent of crypto. How do they they both define "decentralized", what do they think of dApps, and where do NFTs and "crypto goods" come in?? One thing's for sure: It's the most interesting time they've both ever seen in over 30 years of internet work, life, and play. Please note that the a16z crypto fund is a separate legal entity managed by CNK Capital Management, L.L.C. (“CNK”), a registered investor advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission. a16z crypto is legally independent and operationally separate from the Andreessen Horowitz family of fund and AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“AHCM”).  In any case, the content provided here is for informational purposes only, and does NOT constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase any investment solution or a recommendation to buy or sell a security; nor it is to be taken as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. In fact, none of the information in this or other content on a16zcrypto.com should be relied on in any manner as advice. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax and other related matters concerning any investment. Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fred Wilson

Partner

Union Square Ventures

My guest this week is Albert Wenger, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and the author of the book World After Capital. Albert studied economics at Harvard and earned a PhD in information from technology, but if you’d asked me to guess before looking those up, I’d have guessed that he studied philosophy because of how widely he has thought about the world and the impact of technology. Our conversation is about how technology is changing the world from an Industrial Age to a knowledge age. We explore how cryptocurrencies, low cost computing, and regulation will impact our future and why the transition may require delicate care. I loved this conversation because of my obsession with the concept of scarcity. We explore what has been scarce through time and what may be scarce in the future. Albert is one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve come across and was a pleasure to speak with. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Links Referenced World After Capital Show Notes 2:16 – (First Question) –  Defining what it means to be human             2:58 – World After Capital 3:56 – Trans-humans vs neo-humans 4:37 – The concept of Qualia 5:25 – Albert’s investment philosophy= 8:27 – How Albert began his exploration into cryptocurrencies 12:59 – Most exciting things blockchains could enable 14:27 – How does Albert view blockchain technology from the view of an venture capital investor 17:00 -  Why Albert thinks that the dominate cryptocurrency of our time may not exist just yet and what he is looking for in protocols that will become the leader in the space 20:16 – What are the central functions that will be important in cryptocurrencies 21:22 -   The state of regulation in the cryptocurrency space 27:37 – What has Albert most excited for the future of blockchain 29:10 – The idea of universal basic income 32:26 – How do you solve the problem of giving money value in a world of universal basic income 35:00 – How scarcity has changed over time 39:01 – Role of financial capital in the last 200 years of civilization 42:39 – Are we as a society only capable of solving problems once they become an immediate threat 44:15 – Explaining the idea of attention as a scarce resource 47:56 – The two key drivers of change; zero marginal cost distribution and universality of computational power 53:13 -  What should we as investors and inventors be focusing on as the new objective function 57:24 – Scariest aspect of this transition into the knowledge age 59:45 – Three basic freedoms we all seek; informational, economic, psychological 1:02:13 – Fermi’s paradox and the scarcity of attention 1:02:56 – How Albert thinks about his own day and wellbeing given all of this information 1:05:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Albert Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Andy Weissman is a Partner @ Union Square Ventures, one of the world's leading VC firms with investments in Twitter, Twilio, Zynga, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Lending Club and many more. At USV, Andy sits on the boards of YouNow, ScienceExchange, Figure 1 and previous guest, CircleUp. Prior to joining USV, in 2007 he co-founded betaworks, which both created and invested in social, real-time applications and services. You can also check out Andy's fantastic blog here. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Andy made his way into the world of startups and investing, came to found Betaworks and then made the move to USV? 2.) Andy has previously said the business "is more about luck than skill and process rather than foresight". Why does Andy place so much emphasis on process? How has Andy seen his process evolve over the years? How does the process of an individual balance with the process of the firm? 3.) Why does USV not agree with voting as a method of investment decision making? How do Andy and USV approach reserve allocation? What model and simulators do they use to determine which companies receive follow on funding? 4.) Why does Andy believe that recycling cash from early exits is good for everyone? How has Andy found that LPs respond to this? What is the balance? What is the right amount for recycling, 110%, 120% or 130%? 5.) How does Andy view price sensitivity? To what extent does Andy agree with Peter Fenton that "valuation is a mental trap"? Has there been a time when Andy has lost a deal due to price? How has that changed his psyche and approach to the topic? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Andy's Fave Book: On The Road by Jack Kerouac Andy's Fave Blog: Phish.net, Continuations, Radio Free Mobile Andy's Most Recent Investment: Flip As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Andy on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. If you are an early stage startup, the right infrastructure and support systems are critical, that is where First Republic is so good. First Republic's resources network and expertise allow entrepreneurs to customise a solid foundation for their business. Why First Republic, well you get to leverage their incredible network of VC firms to prepare you for future fundraising events, you get to count on a single point of contact that will be there for you and your employees, you get access to exclusive events and networking opportunities. Their clients include the likes of Instacart, eShares and Wish just to name a few. Check it out by heading over to innovation.firstrepublic.com Segment allows you to collect data from every platform (mobile, web, server, cloud apps) and load it into Segment. Segment then sends the customer data to your tools and destinations where it can be used most effectively, destinations include email, analytics, warehouses, helpdesks and more. With over 200 sources and destinations on the Segment platform that can empower your team, Segment really is the last integration you will ever do and that is why the world's best companies use segment to drive growth and revenue including Atlassian, New Relic and Crate & Barrel. Simply head over to segment.com to find out more.

Andy Weissman

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Brad Burnham is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Union Square Ventures. I feel Brad is far better described by his partner Fred Wilson, than I ever could so this is Fred's words on Brad. "Brad and I founded USV together in 2003. We had both been in the venture business for more than a decade, had made a fair bit of money, but were still hungry to prove ourselves. Brad is the strategist and the most principled investor in our firm. It was Brad's idea to write a treatise on venture capital and the internet before we set off to raise our first fund and that exercise we did together continues to be our guiding light. Brad is the person behind phrases like "the application layer of the technology stack" and "large networks of engaged users" that I use all the time. He gives me most of my good stuff which I often get credit for." In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Brad made his way into VC? How did he come to co-found USV with Fred in 2003? 2.) How did Brad approach team building with USV? What does he look for in his partners? 3.) Brad has previously stated his belief that 'history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme. How does this affect Brad's view toward market cycles, the way tech is adopted and ultimately replaced? 4.) What does Brad make of the extension of the private market? Are we entering a period of consolidation? What makes Brad believe this? 5.) Looking back at the history of USV, what have been the inflection points in both the stature of the firm and then Brad's learnings as a VC? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Brad's Fave Book: The Irrational Optimist Brad's Most Recent Investment: OB1 As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Brad on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

Brad Burnham

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Union Square Ventures

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the world's leading VC firms with investments in Twitter, Twilio, Zynga, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Lending Club and many more. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert also writes a fantastic blog at Continuations.com and did a brilliant Ted X Talk here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Albert made his way into the wonderful world of VC? 2.) Albert breaks down the differences between the instalment and the deployment phases of technology? At what stage USV choose to invest and why? 3.) How much of a role does valuation play in Albert's investment decision making process? At what level does speculation become irrational exuberance? 4.) Why does Albert want to limit network effects that are provided to winning companies? What does Albert think makes a contestable market? What are the characteristics? 5.) Why is Albert such a protagonist for the basic income guarantee? What are the challenges? How will this affect human's relationship to automation? What will mankind do with this increased abundance of time? 6.) Why does Albert believe that every individual has the right to be presented by a personal bot? What are the prominent use cases? How does it invert the power relationships between networks and their participants? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Albert's Fave Book: Beginning of Infinity Albert's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Azeem Azhar: The Exponential View Albert's Most Recent Investment: Clue: Period and Ovulation Tracker As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Albert on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Mike Mignano is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Anchor, the app that allows you to share and engage with your network via audio, essentially radio for the people. Prior to founding Anchor, Mike was Head of Product @ Aviary, prior to it's acquisition by Adobe. Anchor was one of the hottest products at SXSW this year and has received funding from our good friends at Homebrew, SV Angel, Betaworks, Eniac Ventures, Scott Belsky and many more. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Mike come to found one of the hottest new audio startups, Anchor? 2.) Why have we seen such a renaissance of podcast listening? Will this continue in the long term future and if so, what will drive the long term future growth? 3.) How did Mike use the beta testing phase to learn and iterate on customer behaviour? Following this, how did he implement this feedback to create a community that could be harnessed on launch? 4.) When examining alongside Sarah Tavel's hierarchy of engagement, how does Mike address retention and the creation of virtuous loops within Anchor? 5.) How does Mike fundamentally attempt to menthes Anchor? At what level of growth can the cash taps be turned on? How can Anchor be made to be revenue generating for both the platform and content creators? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Mike's Fave Blog: The Skimm Mike's Fave Book: Cat's Cradle Sarah Tavel's Hierarchy of Engagement Jakob Nielsen UX Designer As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Mike on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Rebecca Kaden is a Partner at Maveron where she identifies emerging consumer-focused entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Southern California, and New York. Rebecca also plays a leading role in Maveron's seed program, where they partner with emerging consumer companies at their earliest stages. She’s a Board Observer at August, Common, Darby Smart, Dolls Kill, Eargo, Earnest and General Assembly. Her outstanding achievements have been recognised by Forbes who included Rebecca is their annual '30 Under 30'. As always we would like thank the awesome team at Mattermark for providing us with all the data and analysis for the show today, check out Mattermark search here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rebecca made her way into the wonderful world of VC? 2.) Maveron have shown their belief in the consumerisation of IOT. What are Rebecca's thoughts on the space, how it is progressing, barriers that are preventing mass adoption? 3.) What is your take on the integration of messaging and chat with IOT? Whis there a recent broader market positivity towards chat interfaces at the moment? 4.) Maveron have also shown their likeability towards hardware investments so why is this? Why do Maveron not feel the broader VC market concerns of shipping, logistics? Are we seeing a shift in investing patterns in hardware? 5.) How do Rebecca approach the common problem with consumer startups transtioning from an early adopter market to a mass market product? What does Rebecca feel is the tipping point? What is necessary to make the transition from SF hipster client to everyone? 6.) What are the benefits are of having a narrow investing thesis (only consumer)? How has Rebecca found it? Is it challenging when finding companies you would like to invest in but are outside the mandate? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Rebecca's Fave Book: Pale Fire, Vladamir Nobokov Rebecca's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Sarah Tavel, Brad Feld, Wait But Why Rebecca's Most Recent Investment: Booster Fuels As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Rebecca on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? A hundred? A thousand? The answer is too many. But here’s the thing—even though I knew I wanted to do something about it, I didn’t know how. It’s called SaneBox. SaneBox sorts through your email and moves all of the trivial stuff into a different folder so the only messages in your inbox are the ones you actually want to see. Visit sanebox.com/20VC today and they’ll throw in an extra $20 credit on top of the two-week free trial.

Rebecca Kaden

Managing Partner

Union Square VenturesMaveron

Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger talks with Peter Kafka about being an investor at a time of bubble anxiety and political debate about the trade-off between privacy and security. He argues that tech companies and the government should work together, and also discusses the growing class of mission-driven "benefit corporations." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Albert Wenger

Partner

Union Square Ventures

Quote of the Day: 'Keep an open mind from an early age'. Jonathan Libov, 20VC Jonathan Libov joined the investment team at Union Square Ventures in September of 2014. Jonathan hails from New York but has lived for the last few years in Tel Aviv, where he most recently worked as a Product Manager at Appsfire. He's a graduate of Vassar College with a degree in Cognitive Science and began his career in neuroscience research. He designs and codes, with Fifty among his side projects. In Today's Show You Will Learn: How Jonathan made his move from product guy to VC at USV? What is the key determinant for USV's success? How Fred Wilson and USV use blogging to market USV as 'smart money'? Is SMS dead? What is and will it be used for in the future? What sectors are ripe for disruption? How can technology and sport be integrated? Apple Music: Success or failure? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Favourite Book: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions OB1: Making Trade free for everyone, everywhere

Jonathan Libov

Investment Team

Union Square Ventures