AVC

Coinbase launched the first in a series of payroll offerings:Proud of the team for continuing to roll out new product innovations at a rapid pace. Our US customers can now deposit a portion of their paycheck into @Coinbase as crypto or USD. Another great way to keep growing your participation in the cryptoeconomy. https://t.co/vy81VhxvGn — Surojit (@surojit) January 31, 2022If your employer offers direct deposit, you can deposit some or all of your paycheck in your Coinbase account and immedi...

Two years ago this weekend, the Gotham Gal and I were in Park City at the annual Sundance Film Festival with another couple we have been great friends with for thirty years. On Monday morning we came down to breakfast and our friends announced they were flying back to NYC a few days early. Our friend Phil has been trading the financial markets for as long as we’ve known him and he knew, about a month before most of us, that something big was going to happen and he wanted to get prepared for i...

Last month our portfolio company Kickstarter announced the creation of a protocol organization that will develop a web3 protocol for the crowdfunding of creative projects. They are now assembling a protocol team and are talking to candidates to lead that effort. The protocol lead role is an exciting one that combines product leadership, smart contract development, team management, and a lot more. I believe Kickstarter is at the forefront of a wave of companies that have been built on web2 tec...

My friend Alex Iskold ran the 1K project during the pandemic to help families that were struggling with lost jobs/income, etc. I blogged about it here and AVC readers were generous with their support. Alex came to the US from Ukraine many years ago, but he has many friends and family members there. So naturally, he has relaunched the 1K project focused on the suffering that is happening in Ukraine. I supported a family and hopefully, some of you can join me in doing that. And those of you who...

A friend sent me this Kickstarter project which is about a public art project highlighting three languages that are at risk of extinction. I backed it and I think you might want to as well. You can do so here. The project ends this weekend so if you want to back it, do so now.

Feb 25, 2022 I love using robotics to teach kids to code. A K12 teacher told me many years ago, “when the robot doesn’t do what you told it to do, you know your code is wrong and you need to fix it.” Robotics brings code to life for kids and that’s a great thing. So when I saw this Kickstarter project, Codrone, I backed it immediately. So did 120 other people and so this project is going to come to life. If you want to back it too, you can do so here.

Early in my career, I was taught that any team member was replaceable and that as long as you had sufficient time to find a suitable replacement, you would be fine. I have operated on that basis since then, imparted that wisdom to the founders and teams that I work with, and have always advocated for that approach to management. But I have learned that on any team there are always a few members who are extremely difficult to replace. While most team members are “fungible”, there are always a ...

Electrified cars were greater than 10% of the US market in 2021 and EVs were about 5%. EV sales are growing at nearly 100% YOY and could reach 25% of the US market in a few years. This is good news for the effort to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. But there are still challenges for the EV market. Range anxiety and charge times are among the top reasons that consumers avoid EVs.https://electrek.co/2019/08/20/survey-consumers-avoid-evs-myths-range-price-charging/ The Gotham Gal and I hav...

Two years ago this weekend, the Gotham Gal and I were in Park City at the annual Sundance Film Festival with another couple we have been great friends with for thirty years. On Monday morning we came down to breakfast and our friends announced they were flying back to NYC a few days early. Our friend Phil has been trading the financial markets for as long as we’ve known him and he knew, about a month before most of us, that something big was going to happen and he wanted to get prepared for i...

Six years ago this month Julie Samuels got together with a group of technology leaders in NYC and we decided to form an industry group for the growing tech sector in NYC. I agreed to co-chair the organization and have been in the chair role since then. We called it Tech:NYC and I first wrote about it here at AVC in March of 2016. Last year, after more than five years at the helm, Julie decided it was time to pass the baton to a new leader and she and I and a group of board members spent the f...

I wrote about pacing a few years ago. I am a fan of a steady pace, not too fast, not too slow. Sometimes the opportunity set forces you to go faster. As I wrote then:I don’t think a VC firm should manage to a pacing number. It should manage to the opportunity set that it sees.In the last two years, the VC business has been operating at a blistering pace, the fastest I’ve witnessed in my 35 years in the business (including the 99/00 era). Whether that is because of the opportunity set or the c...

I wrote a fair bit last year about the disconnect between how companies were being valued and the fundamentals of those businesses. It seemed to me that many companies, from the founders, to the leadership teams, and the rank and file employees got more focused on raising capital and valuations than the basics of a business (people, product, customers, revenues, profits, etc). That is starting to shift. I can feel it. With the public markets bringing high flyers back to reality, you can now b...