Thesis Driven Investors
Fund: Union Square Ventures
Posted by webservice2 on 2007-07-20
With only two partners, Union Square is nimbler than a lot of venture firms. The combined venture experience of the two partners - Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson - is extensive. They're unusual in being what they term 'thesis-driven' - i.e. they know in advance what kinds of start-ups they want to invest in. So, they often identify market opportunities in advance - normally web services businesses - rather than just responding opportunistically to deal flow. In our case, we took an investment from Union Square some time after they approached us saying 'we've spent the last six months looking for a business like yours'. That was pretty unusual in our experience of talking to venture firms. USV is focused on investing early in a start-up's life and supporting their investee companies from that early stage. I'd definitely recommend them.
PRIVATE: Members Only