Union Square Ventures

Union Square Ventures is a small, collegial partnership based in New York City. We are generalist investors, working across many sectors and technologies, but with a consistent point of view on how to approach transformative opportunities. USV invests at the edge of large markets being transformed by technological and societal pressures. This guiding investment thesis has emerged over 20 years of investing in and supporting companies and protocols that invent new forms of opportunity and solve important problems in new ways. We look for: ▪ The “edge” of large markets is often the best place to introduce new ideas and approaches. Startups at the edge may start out looking complementary or even unserious, but have the potential to take on incumbents in surprising new ways. ▪ Technological and societal pressures can upset existing market structures, creating openings for new companies and networks to meet the market in new ways. ▪ New technologies enable behaviors that weren’t previously possible. They also enable new business models, often ones that incumbents are structurally unable to pursue. In hindsight, these new behaviors and new business models are obvious, but they require more effort to identify in real-time as they emerge. ▪ Networks are formations of interconnected people, devices, data, assets, or other stakeholders that get more useful as they grow larger. We often ask ourselves, “is this a tool, or can it become a network”?