Startup

Pinterest’s Q1 report was a reminder of the first rule of going public: You have to beat buy-side expectations in your first reported quarter as a public company. Pinterest failed to do that. To be clear, companies should never manage…

Zoom is off to a fast start trading as a public company, up 83% since its IPO two weeks ago. One reason is the company’s efficiency in gaining new customers. Slack, which will start trading in the next few weeks,…

Frontier tech has the potential to profoundly impact humanity for better and for worse. That potential is not lost on us. In order to address the downside risks, we published an ethical code for investing: Invest in high-integrity founders making products…

As we exit the information age and enter the automation age, concern has (justifiably) arisen around the topic of disruption in the labor market. What human jobs will be replaced? We consider that question from the standpoint of labor specialization.…

Happy belated Thanksgiving. One of our four closely held values is what we call intentional generosity. We believe that giving with a purpose is a powerful tool for good. It’s baked into the venture capital model and baked into our…

We’re investing in Streem as a play on augmented reality transforming human interaction. Streem focuses on the future of collaboration, diagnosis, and data capture between consumers, professionals, and manufacturers. Streem offers a subscription-based smartphone app that allows consumers and pros to communicate in…

As a former stock analyst turned VC, I still spend time thinking about public company investment opportunities. To that end, I recently read Seth Klarman’s Margin of Safety, a hard to find, but very insightful book about value investing. The…

We’re investing in Skupos as a play on our vision of the future of retail. Skupos’ real-time inventory data fundamentally changes the game for convenience stores (c-stores), distributors, and brands. Automated retail and same day delivery are the future of commerce, and…

We’re investing in Bumblebee Spaces as a play on AI and robotics helping to solve the problem of escalating housing costs. The company has a modular ceiling system to address storage needs. Bumblebee users can store a desk, bed, closet,…

Our conference room has a small library. In it are 19 books (so far) that are important to us in some way, be it a gift, a guide, a reminder, or a fundamental truth. We also have a small shoe…

We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re excited to report our early progress towards building a leading investment platform pioneering frontier technology. In late December, we closed on Loup Ventures Fund I, a $25 million multi-stage venture capital…

We met with a prospective LP recently to talk about investing in a specific company. This LP had a successful business career in a traditional industry where operating profits are the bar, so he had a hard time getting his…