20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion

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Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2016

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brad Burnham is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Union Square Ventures. I feel Brad is far better described by his partner Fred Wilson, than I ever could so this is Fred's words on Brad. "Brad and I founded USV together in 2003. We had both been in the venture business for more than a decade, had made a fair bit of money, but were still hungry to prove ourselves. Brad is the strategist and the most principled investor in our firm. It was Brad's idea to write a treatise on venture capital and the internet before we set off to raise our first fund and that exercise we did together continues to be our guiding light. Brad is the person behind phrases like "the application layer of the technology stack" and "large networks of engaged users" that I use all the time. He gives me most of my good stuff which I often get credit for."

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Brad made his way into VC? How did he come to co-found USV with Fred in 2003?

2.) How did Brad approach team building with USV? What does he look for in his partners?

3.) Brad has previously stated his belief that 'history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme. How does this affect Brad's view toward market cycles, the way tech is adopted and ultimately replaced?

4.) What does Brad make of the extension of the private market? Are we entering a period of consolidation? What makes Brad believe this?

5.) Looking back at the history of USV, what have been the inflection points in both the stature of the firm and then Brad's learnings as a VC?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Brad’s Fave Book: The Irrational Optimist

Brad’s Most Recent Investment: OB1

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Brad on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the 20-minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Stebbings on Snapchat,
0:05.0	and today we return to our feature of the one and only Union Square Ventures.
0:09.6	And following from our episode with Albert Venger on Monday, I'm so thrilled to welcome Brad
0:14.1	Burnham, and I was thinking, how can I introduce this incredible figure of our industry and
0:18.8	really do him justice? And then I saw Brad's partner,
0:21.8	Fred Wilson, write about him. And so this intro is from the perspective of Fred, and very
0:26.4	aptly covers the amazing abilities of Brad. Brad and I founded USV together in the summer of 2003.
0:33.3	We'd both been in the venture game for more than a decade. We'd made a fair bit of money, but we're hungry to prove ourselves.
0:39.3	Brad is the strategist and the most principled investor in our firm.
0:43.3	It was Brad's idea to write a treatise on venture capital and the internet
0:47.3	before we set off to raise our first fund,
0:49.3	and that exercise we did together continues to be our guiding light.
0:53.3	Brad is the person behind phrases like
0:55.4	the application layer of the technology stack and large networks of engaged users that I use all the time.
1:02.3	He gives me most of my good stuff, which I often get credited for. I told you that intro is
1:07.0	much better than I would have ever been able to do. I also want to say a huge thank you to
1:10.6	Kieran O'Leary at Blue Yard in Berlin for making the intro to Brad without which the interview would
1:15.1	never have been able to take place. So a huge thank you again to Kieran for that. And with regards to
1:19.5	doing something better than I can in another area, another area that's not my strong suit is design,
1:24.4	which is why I was so thrilled when I was recommended Design Crowd,
1:28.2	the online marketplace for designers from around the world to help entrepreneurs, small businesses
1:33.6	and agencies with their logo, business card, site design, or even t-shirts and print designs.
	...

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