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Timeline of Union Square Ventures' investments

rdl 14y ago
Is that a comprehensive list, or just selected good investments in retrospect?
- jedc 14y ago
  Pretty sure it's comprehensive...
  - caseysoftware 14y ago
    It's missing at least few things. It has our A round listed, but not the B or C which USV did also - http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twilio http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twilio
    - brianwatson 14y ago
      I'm one of the USV dudes who made it. It's comprehensive, but we're only listing the initial investment in each company. We like to follow-on with each investment, but I couldn't think of a good way to visualize that on a timeline. Any ideas?
- nerfhammer 14y ago
  Certain failed investments I'm familiar with are not present in the timeline.
  - brianwatson 14y ago
    Which ones? (I'm one of the dudes who made it.) Everything that's on the USV "Investments page" should be on the timeline. http://www.usv.com/investments/ http://www.usv.com/investments/ There are a few cases in which companies pivoted, so we just listed the new thing (i.e. Hashable to YieldMo)
xoail 14y ago
I could recognize 80% of the companies in their portfolio. I guess that makes them pretty good at spotting good companies for investments. Comparing from the fact that generally when I see a VC firms' portfolio I could hardly recognize 50% of the companies. This could also mean they are taking less risks than usual.
- rdl 14y ago
  I think that metric works a lot better for seed investors vs. series B/C. There's a trick a lot of the newer or mediocre investors do -- put tiny amounts into popular late-stage financings of known winners, just so the investor can claim "we were an investor in all these great companies." Picking a great company at seed stage is harder. If you could have a seed-only portfolio where in 5 years someone knows even 50% of the companies (positively; not talking about investing in adelphia, etc.), you're doing amazingly well. Based on yclist, I'd say YC, one of the better seed-stage investors, is probably around 10-15% by that metric, assuming none of the YC companies not on yc list are "known".
PhrosTT 14y ago
Seed shares of Tumblr... I'd like some please.
- tannerc 14y ago
  You and about 13.4 million other people (http://mashable.com/2011/08/31/tumblr-record-uniques/ http://mashable.com/2011/08/31/tumblr-record-uniques/)

rdl 14y ago

Is that a comprehensive list, or just selected good investments in retrospect?

jedc 14y ago
Pretty sure it's comprehensive...
- caseysoftware 14y ago
  It's missing at least few things. It has our A round listed, but not the B or C which USV did also - http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twilio http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twilio
  - brianwatson 14y ago
    I'm one of the USV dudes who made it. It's comprehensive, but we're only listing the initial investment in each company. We like to follow-on with each investment, but I couldn't think of a good way to visualize that on a timeline. Any ideas?
nerfhammer 14y ago
Certain failed investments I'm familiar with are not present in the timeline.
- brianwatson 14y ago
  Which ones? (I'm one of the dudes who made it.) Everything that's on the USV "Investments page" should be on the timeline. http://www.usv.com/investments/ http://www.usv.com/investments/ There are a few cases in which companies pivoted, so we just listed the new thing (i.e. Hashable to YieldMo)

xoail 14y ago

I could recognize 80% of the companies in their portfolio. I guess that makes them pretty good at spotting good companies for investments. Comparing from the fact that generally when I see a VC firms' portfolio I could hardly recognize 50% of the companies. This could also mean they are taking less risks than usual.

rdl 14y ago
I think that metric works a lot better for seed investors vs. series B/C. There's a trick a lot of the newer or mediocre investors do -- put tiny amounts into popular late-stage financings of known winners, just so the investor can claim "we were an investor in all these great companies." Picking a great company at seed stage is harder. If you could have a seed-only portfolio where in 5 years someone knows even 50% of the companies (positively; not talking about investing in adelphia, etc.), you're doing amazingly well. Based on yclist, I'd say YC, one of the better seed-stage investors, is probably around 10-15% by that metric, assuming none of the YC companies not on yc list are "known".

PhrosTT 14y ago

Seed shares of Tumblr... I'd like some please.

tannerc 14y ago
You and about 13.4 million other people (http://mashable.com/2011/08/31/tumblr-record-uniques/ http://mashable.com/2011/08/31/tumblr-record-uniques/)