Notebook Lawyer
When USV commits to investing in a startup, we negotiate a term sheet and then hand over the details to our lawyers. The startup hires a lawyer, and we hire a lawyer. The startup's lawyer prepares the closing documents, and our lawyer reviews them. In addition, our lawyer conducts "legal due diligence," which primarily involves reviewing existing contracts, stock issuances, the charter, and other relevant legal documents. This process is expensive and made worse because the startup typically ...
Notebook Lawyer
When USV commits to investing in a startup, we negotiate a term sheet and then hand over the details to our lawyers. The startup hires a lawyer, and we hire a lawyer. The startup's lawyer prepares the closing documents, and our lawyer reviews them. In addition, our lawyer conducts "legal due diligence," which primarily involves reviewing existing contracts, stock issuances, the charter, and other relevant legal documents. This process is expensive and made worse because the startup typically ...
What Will Happen In 2026
Here are ten things I think will happen in 2026: 1/ Gemini passes ChatGPT in terms of DAUs, MAUs, and tokens consumed in the first half of 2026, making Google the king of AI. 2/ The Democrats take control of the House in the Nov 2026 elections, bringing to an end Trump's complete control of the US government. 3/ Smartglasses finally reach product market fit in 2026, but it won't be Meta that delivers the winning approach. 4/ A majority of venture capital deals close without lawyers on either ...
What Will Happen In 2026
Here are ten things I think will happen in 2026: 1/ Gemini passes ChatGPT in terms of DAUs, MAUs, and tokens consumed in the first half of 2026, making Google the king of AI. 2/ The Democrats take control of the House in the Nov 2026 elections, bringing to an end Trump's complete control of the US government. 3/ Smartglasses finally reach product market fit in 2026, but it won't be Meta that delivers the winning approach. 4/ A majority of venture capital deals close without lawyers on either ...
What Happened In 2025
I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending (What Happened) and one looking forward to the year ahead (What Will Happen). This is the first of these two posts. The second one will run tomorrow. Here's a top ten list of things that happened this year that really matter. 1/ The end of globalization. The Trump Tariffs represent a fundamental change in trade policy, and if they remain the approach of future White Houses, it will mark a return...
What Happened In 2025
I like to bookend the New Year holiday with two posts, one looking back at the year that is ending (What Happened) and one looking forward to the year ahead (What Will Happen). This is the first of these two posts. The second one will run tomorrow. Here's a top ten list of things that happened this year that really matter. 1/ The end of globalization. The Trump Tariffs represent a fundamental change in trade policy, and if they remain the approach of future White Houses, it will mark a return...
The End Of Interchange
In 2013 and 2014, USV made a number of payments-related investments and we went deep on both consumer and business-to-business payments infrastructure. By the latter part of that decade, we had come to believe that the credit card system, and the interchange fees that make up much of the cost of the credit card system, is eventually going to go away. Since then, we have had an active investment thesis that we called The End Of Interchange. We use Notion AI to maintain a thesis description bas...
The End Of Interchange
In 2013 and 2014, USV made a number of payments-related investments and we went deep on both consumer and business-to-business payments infrastructure. By the latter part of that decade, we had come to believe that the credit card system, and the interchange fees that make up much of the cost of the credit card system, is eventually going to go away. Since then, we have had an active investment thesis that we called The End Of Interchange. We use Notion AI to maintain a thesis description bas...
My Year End Playlist
Every year I put together a playlist at the end of the year with some of the new music I found and got into. A bunch of these songs are under the radar which is my favorite kind of music. So I hope you find something new that you like in here.Dance Away by fredwilsonListen to Dance Away, a playlist curated by fredwilson on desktop and mobile.https://soundcloud.com
My Year End Playlist
Every year I put together a playlist at the end of the year with some of the new music I found and got into. A bunch of these songs are under the radar which is my favorite kind of music. So I hope you find something new that you like in here.Dance Away by fredwilsonListen to Dance Away, a playlist curated by fredwilson on desktop and mobile.https://soundcloud.com
Sleep
I got an Oura ring a couple of years ago and have been working on improving my sleep and sleep habits ever since. For much of my adult life, I have been a poor sleeper. I have always been able to fall asleep quickly, but I have been plagued by two sleep issues. The first is waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. The second is waking up early, like 4:30/5am, and being wide awake. So I’ve been working on those two things. I still wake up in the middle of t...
Sleep
I got an Oura ring a couple of years ago and have been working on improving my sleep and sleep habits ever since. For much of my adult life, I have been a poor sleeper. I have always been able to fall asleep quickly, but I have been plagued by two sleep issues. The first is waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. The second is waking up early, like 4:30/5am, and being wide awake. So I’ve been working on those two things. I still wake up in the middle of t...
Open Office Hours at NYC Tech Week
NYC Tech Week is next week. It will be a week filled with events for the tech sector to engage and connect with each other. A particularly great part of tech week is VC Open Office Hours. There are over 100 VC investors signed up to participate next week. Here is how it works: 1/ you select four investors (out of more than 100) that you want to meet 2/ you get up to four twenty minute meetings 3/ you discuss your idea with the investor in hopes of getting them interested enough to take anothe...
Open Office Hours at NYC Tech Week
NYC Tech Week is next week. It will be a week filled with events for the tech sector to engage and connect with each other. A particularly great part of tech week is VC Open Office Hours. There are over 100 VC investors signed up to participate next week. Here is how it works: 1/ you select four investors (out of more than 100) that you want to meet 2/ you get up to four twenty minute meetings 3/ you discuss your idea with the investor in hopes of getting them interested enough to take anothe...
The Heist
On Saturday, September 9th, the Gotham Gal and I arrived at JFK airport after an eight-hour flight from Paris. While waiting for our luggage, I got pushed a notification in my web3 wallet that there was an NFT drop underway that I could participate in. So I clicked on the link, signed the transaction, and nothing happened (or so I thought). So I tried again. Again nothing happened. Frustrated, I turned my attention to the luggage, retrieved it, got in a car, and headed home. On the way home, ...
The Heist
On Saturday, September 9th, the Gotham Gal and I arrived at JFK airport after an eight-hour flight from Paris. While waiting for our luggage, I got pushed a notification in my web3 wallet that there was an NFT drop underway that I could participate in. So I clicked on the link, signed the transaction, and nothing happened (or so I thought). So I tried again. Again nothing happened. Frustrated, I turned my attention to the luggage, retrieved it, got in a car, and headed home. On the way home, ...
CEO 360s
I’ve written about this topic before. It is an important topic and I want to raise it again. Boards often discuss CEO performance without really knowing how things work inside the company. And CEOs often have very little visibility to how they are doing and what the board thinks about their performance. When you work for one person, your boss, it is typical that you will have regular catchups and at least an annual review of your performance (ideally more frequent). But when you work for a gr...
CEO 360s
I’ve written about this topic before. It is an important topic and I want to raise it again. Boards often discuss CEO performance without really knowing how things work inside the company. And CEOs often have very little visibility to how they are doing and what the board thinks about their performance. When you work for one person, your boss, it is typical that you will have regular catchups and at least an annual review of your performance (ideally more frequent). But when you work for a gr...
Subscribing To AVC
For many years, there were three ways to subscribe to AVC: 1/ Email – Get new posts delivered to your inbox 2/ RSS – Get new posts delivered to your RSS reader 3/ X – Follow AVC on X X revoked the API access that I was using to autopost three or four months ago. I have not been active on that service for almost a year now and have no interest in dealing with it. So if you are one of the 25.5k followers on X and want to keep getting alerted when I post, I suggest you go with option 1 or option...
Subscribing To AVC
For many years, there were three ways to subscribe to AVC: 1/ Email – Get new posts delivered to your inbox 2/ RSS – Get new posts delivered to your RSS reader 3/ X – Follow AVC on X X revoked the API access that I was using to autopost three or four months ago. I have not been active on that service for almost a year now and have no interest in dealing with it. So if you are one of the 25.5k followers on X and want to keep getting alerted when I post, I suggest you go with option 1 or option...
