Policies to Encourage Startup Innovation
We have commented a number of times in a number of ways on this blog about how technology startups can no longer afford to ignore politics. When the tech startup world was focused on core infrastructure like chips and routers, and touched a small portion of the population, we thrived in comfortable isolation from the rest of the world. Now, the most interesting innovations are happening at the applications layer and technology has jumped from a small early adopter market to the mainstream. Everything is suddenly impacted by public policy and we no longer have a choice about engaging in...
ContinueGetting Started
Hi, I'm Gary Chou and I'm thrilled to join the team as the General Manager of the Union Square Ventures Network. I'll be supporting the companies in the USV portfolio and helping to facilitate discussions and opportunities. Aside from that, I'll also be part of the investment team. I couldn't be more excited. Personally, there's the simple fact that I'm moving from San Francisco to New York City. Professionally, instead of building software and designing web apps as I've previously done at places such as Trilogy, Tribe.net and Cisco, I'll be focusing on other relevant functions and learning to look...
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We are big believers in the power of Internet marketplaces to bring efficiencies and new opportunities to people and businesses. And the market where this has the most potential of all is the labor market. So we are excited to announce our latest investment - Work Market. Work Market is exactly what it sounds like, a marketplace for employers and workers to connect to get work done. Work Market is the latest startup founded by serial entrepreneur Jeff Leventhal. Jeff has been working in this sector for the better part of twenty years and Work Market is his fourth startup....
ContinueWeb Services as Governments
This spring Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, made controversial announcements. Apple announced the terms of service for the iPhone OS 4, that restricted how applications developers could use analytics data. Facebook launched Facebook Credits, and a completely different privacy policy. And Twitter "filled holes" in its service with its own Blackberry and iPhone applications and announced plans for its own URL shortener. It was a very busy couple of weeks in April, and I was not sure what to make of it all. Was Apples clamping down on analytics providers in the iPhone App store a clumsy control move or a...
ContinueA new member of the USV team
Like many of you, I began reading the Union Square Ventures blog because of Albert, Brad, and Fred's open discussions of the disruptions caused by new technology. I've since learned a tremendous amount both from reading the posts and comments and from watching the posts become investment theses and then actual investments. True to form, when USV was looking to hire an analyst and a general manager, they advertised with a blog post. As someone who admires USV and spent much of the last few years thinking about and working on emerging mobile services, I was excited to apply. One...
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