Fred Wilson

Co-founder & Partner · Union Square Ventures

Check $500K–$15M

SEED

SERIES A

Crypto

Consumer

SaaS

Marketplaces

Investment thesis

Networks, communities, and the next platform shift. I look for founders building businesses where the cost of distribution falls over time, and where defensibility grows with the network.

Communication style

Direct, New York, low patience for vanity metrics. Asks 'is this metric getting better or worse?'

Red flags

•Paid acquisition dependency
•TAM story that doesn't actually exist yet
•Founder not paying attention to unit economics

Signature questions

1.Is your cost of distribution going up or down over time?
2.Show me your cohort. Are older cohorts more or less valuable than newer ones?
3.What's the bottom-up build of your TAM?
4.Why is now the right moment for this platform shift?

Selected portfolio

Twitter

Etsy

MongoDB

Coinbase

Tumblr

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