Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures - TWiST #161

Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures on TWiST #161

East coast super VC, blogger and adviser Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures sat down to talk to Jason in his NYC office and had heaps of valuable advice for entrepreneurs young and old alike. Fred talked about the ups and downs in his lengthy career, explained why he wants founders to get to know him early on and explained why VCs still have something to offer, even in the golden age of angel investing.

0:00-1:00 Welcome to TWiST from NYC in the Union Square Ventures' offices.
1:00-2:00 Thank you to iStockphoto for sponsoring the show.
2:00-6:30 Demonstration of how easy it is to purchase high-quality photos within iStockphoto.
6:30-8:00 Welcome to Fred Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures.
8:30-9:30 How much of being a VC is being a therapist to the entrepreneurs?
9:30-10:30 You've worked with Mark Pincus, what was that like?
10:30-11:45 You invested in all four of Mark's companies, yes?
11:45-14:00 When Mark came to you for the fourth time with Zynga, what did you say?
14:00-15:15 The same sort of situation happened with Twitter, didn't it?
15:15-16:30 If a VC flies out to see you--the entrepreneur--you know there's serious intent.
17:45-19:15 So speed is the big difference between web 1.0 and now?
19:15-20:15 Have you ever spoken for your companies too much on your blog?
20:45-22:30 How much of your success this time around has been because of the blog?
22:30-23:30 Did you enable too much transparency and lose some of your power?
23:30-24:30 If money's not an issue, why go to a VC?
24:30-25:00 Are there funds that are now following Union Square Ventures?
25:00-26:00 Thank you to MailChimp for sponsoring the show.
26:00-29:30 Demonstration of how you can segment your lists to target your emails using MailChimp.
30:00-32:15 How do you reconcile this, the new golden era of Internet companies, with the scars you have from past fund failures?
32:15-33:00 When do founders start thinking, "I should start a new company?"
33:00-35:15 Let's talk about entrepreneurs. What are you looking to see in the eyes of an entrepreneur?
35:15-37:00 So you're looking for a persuasiveness that is so strong, people can't help but follow that person?
37:00-38:15 Do you find that this new generation of founders has an entitlement issue, thinking that they're owed success?
38:15-39:15 Does that make that person impossible to manage?
39:15-42:15 Are you on the secondary markets? What's your take on that?
42:15-43:45 Fred: Are Mahalo shares being traded?
43:45-45:30 Are limited partners stoked about the secondary market?
45:30-46:15 Why does a venture firm put money into a single established company and not into several startups?
46:15-48:30 What does an opportunity fund mean?
49:00-50:40 What's your advice for a young entrepreneur who wants your money?
50:40-51:15 Fred, it's been great to watch you rise over the years. Thank you so much.
51:15-51:45 Thank you again to our sponsors. We appreciate all of your support!

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FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Fred: @fredwilson
Union Square Ventures: @usv

Special thanks to the members of the TWiST List Producer Program!

Executive Producers
Louis-Eric Simard, Benjamin Gifford, Jacek Artymiak, Octavian Mihai, Will Paoletto, Geoffrey Clapp, Eien Hyett, Jeff Hoffer, Kyle Lonzo, Austin Miller, Rashaun Sourles, Robb Kunz, Greg Berry, Sean Lynch, Mary Ann Halford, Jim Joyce, Morgan Howard, Margaret Johns, Kyle M. Brown, Paul Cole, Nick Duncan, Magnus Ingvarsson, Amir Ayalon, Carlos Zaidenweber, Avery Keitt, Joshua Shipsey

Producers
Eli Coler, Ted Inoue, Radek Rybicki, Hunter Owens, Christian Owens, Ben Altieri, Casey Wach, Cam Collins, Ildar Khakimov, Matti Hallanoro, Rodrigo Dauster, Rodrigo Fuentes, Anthony Ortenzi, Daniel de la Cruz, Michael Hofmann, John Meneses, Mike Sunyich

Associate Producers
Brad Pineau, Kat Ganesan, Nicholas Christian, Mau Frontier, Kyle Braatz, Serena Ehrlich, Nathan Hangen, Lauri Hahne, JD, Trudy Baidoo, Ian Gerstel, Julian Hearn, Alex Lotoczko, James Kennedy, Benoit Curdy, Asher Nevins, Mike Kaltschnee, Paul Higgins, Patrick Altman, William Doom, David Lee, Jake Kerber, Sarp Coskun, Giuseppe Taibi, Tyrone Rubin, Keno Vigil, Paul Peters, Jamal Waring

Supporters
Ryan Hoover, Michael Cranston, Josiah Thomas, Jo√£o Fernandes, Petrus Theron, Michael Wild, Adrian Grant, Dale Emmons, Kieran McGrady, Tim de Jardine, Alejandro Vasquez, C. Dain Miller, Joshua Opatz, Milan Babuskov, Chris Rowe, Nelson Melo, James Dawson, Toddy Mladenov, Daniel Torres, Chris Macke, Piotr Zuralski, Armand Konan, Brian Vogel, Paul D, Jennifer Sun, Zach Fogelson, David Kolb, George Gecewicz

Category:

• News
• Science & Tech

Starring:

• Jason Calacanis
• Tyler Crowley
• Lon Harris

Directed by:

• Matt Raub
• Branden Lymer

Produced by:

• Kirin Kalia
• Carolyn Bedgood

Tags:

• twi
• this week in
• network
• new
• media
• web
• tv
• entertainment
• shows
• this week in startups
• Jason Calacanis
• startups
• twist
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• fred wilson
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• union square ventures
• investing
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• angel
• entrepreneur
• founder
• secondary market

[performancewiz]

your videos has very low volume level, you need to fix it and make it standardize. tell to the person who is recording these videos, compare your video to rihanna's "rude boy" music video and you will release what standard means

[sidsmut22]

So you like this week in startups.

Why does the this week in brand have 25 shows doing multiple shows a week on each channel?

That's a lot of shows!!

This so called independant media gets less independant the more you look at it,this week in coke next week what?

Who is behind this whole brand ....

Might as well watch FOX!!!!!!

No way can this be trusted to be impartial, the more we watch the more this get like an ad for your companies!

You just blinked and the whole world saw it!!

[elimisteve]

@performancewiz Also, in this case, Jason's voice is too loud and Fred's is too quiet.

[ildarius]

can you guys please do something about the sound, almost all of the out of the studio interviews have poor sound quality. The one that wasn't so bad was with the creator of kickstarter, but the others are pretty poor quality in terms of audio

[centralparker]

Love the show but please, it's time to do something about the audio quality. Second week in a row the audio sucked. Try listening to this podcast in a moving car, it's painful.

[sidsmut22]

That was the death of the so called independant media bullshit that you spout right there!!

Independant media brought to you in the voice of COKE.

I nearly threw the fuck up?

All that cokes making you look awful on cam in more ways than one.

[sidsmut22]

Costs?

It takes no money to make a video..Do we look as stupid as you think we are?

Shaeful SELL!!

Unfortunatly it felt like 80's tv and I won't watch bullshit TV !!!!

We like the content shitty without the bullshit plugs...Why do we want rubbish quality with SELL?

I was thinking you were plugging Wilson's companies for him as a deal for doing the interview,until I saw the killer at the table!!!!!

FUCKING SUPER DUPER UNCOOL MEGA FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[efilib01]

sponsorships are essential and i don't mind them but please don't do product placement man.. I really doubt the coke happened to be placed perfectly at a position to be seen clearly by the viewer, after every single time Jason took a sip.

[xklsv]

Jason, u have gr8 ideas. But,...u suck in front of the camera. Get a lady to do the job.

[mixedge]

Please make the audio better. This seems to be a constant problem. Title music is always twice as loud as program. These NYC interviews are really bad. Not sure the guests are even mic'd up.

Please Jason, the shows are awesome, but this really gets in the way of the content.