Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson
Fred Wilsonis an American businessman, venture capitalist and blogger. Wilson is the co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm with investments in Web 2.0 companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga, Kickstarter, and 10gen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth20 August 1961
CountryUnited States of America
education reason wonderful
He's a wonderful person if for no other reason than the education piece.
invested knows mining
We haven't invested in the Mining Company, but I want to be friends with Scott because he knows a lot of people.
approaches curing efficient maybe medical preventing scientific
We need new medical approaches to preventing and/or curing disease. We need new scientific approaches to generating, storing, and being more efficient with energy. Maybe we need more space exploration. Maybe we need more undersea exploration.
might
We can't get out, so we might as well have fun.
morning blogging add
I generally blog between 5:30 A.M. and 7 A.M. I will from time to time add something during the day, but for the most part blogging is an early morning activity for me.
marketing company products
Marketing is for companies who have sucky products.
educational want-something quality
Customers are a great way to finance a business for many reasons. First, customer financing is typically non dilutive. They want something from you other than equity in your business. Customers also help you fit your product to the market. And customers will help debug and improve the quality of the product.
way scales performing
If you have a native monetization system where the atomic unit of content is the ad unit, that scales down all the way to a small screen experience. That's why Twitter is performing so well on mobile.
years careers long
My venture investing career has three phases, all roughly 6-8 years long. The first, at Euclid, was software to Internet. The second, at Flatiron, was Internet to bubble. And the third, at USV, has been web 2 to mobile. I have always used a new firm to denote a new investment phase for me. Throw away the old. Start with the new.
thinking entrepreneurship good-things
There are so many startups out there raising money. I don't think this is a bad thing. It's a good thing. Entrepreneurship is in vogue. Innovators are innovating. Makers are making.
strong years long
Venture capitalists are professional money managers. We are provided capital to invest as long as we can return it to our investors with a strong return in a reasonable amount of time. A strong return is three times cash on cash. A reasonable amount of time is ten years max.
space needs disease
We need new medical approaches to preventing and/or curing disease. We need new scientific approaches to generating, storing, and being more efficient with energy. Maybe we need more space exploration. Maybe we need more undersea exploration.
business trying problem
Don't try to solve the entire problem on day one.
upset millionaire
It's upsetting to me that you have to be a millionaire to invest in your friend's start-up.