The Biography Of Union Square Ventures – with Fred Wilson
When Fred Wilson looked at the previous venture capital firm that he co-founded, he said, “we screwed up a bunch of things.” This is the story of how he took the lessons from that experience and launched Union Square Ventures, whose portfolio of notable tech companies includes Twitter, Zynga, FourSquare, and Etsy.
In this program:
– You’ll hear how he researched the thesis that Union Square was built on.f
– You’ll see why he “dumbed down” his ideas when he raised money.
– You’ll learn how he found his partners.
– You’ll see how he finds the companies he backs.
– And more.
Fred Wilson is the Managing Partner of two venture capital firms, Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures. He’s based in New York and writes a popular blog, AVC.com. When he’s not working, on his blog’s about page he says, “I also love music, art, yoga, biking, skiing, and golf. That’s a lot of interests for a guy who works 70 hours a week and loves his family. But I manage to make it work.”
Andrew: Before we get started, I should tell you that this is an audio-only interview because as you’ll hear in my voice during the beginning of this interview, I was having some trouble with the video. It wasn’t just coming through. So, we gave up on it, we continue the conversation, and that’s the way I’m going to present it, it’s an audio-only interview since audio, I think, is what came out well, not video.
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