Do You Have the Right CEO to Run Your Business Until the End?

I was all wrong about the Los Angeles startup community

I am proudly an LA native. Yet when I started my career in technology I chose to live in San Francisco, New York, Boston & even Seattle over Los Angeles. I had characterized my hometown as an “entertainment town” and I had chosen not…

Founders from MIT With a Plan to Change How We Grow and Eat Food

In our industry we always talk about funding big ideas or funding things with more meaning. It’s something Yves Sisteron & I have been talking about for years at Upfront Ventures. Today we’re proud to talk more about…

Choose your words wisely, they’ll define your business

Don’t overlook the importance of language. How you talk, what you name your company and features, and what you choose as internal shorthand is critically important to everything from your brand, to your culture, to the future of your…

The Artist Formerly Known as Ecommerce

I feel like investors and entrepreneurs are doing themselves a disservice by bucketing all types of companies that sell stuff online into the same 15-year-old catch-all category of “ecommerce.” As a VC, I am trying to challenge myself to a higher level of…

Upfront backs Parachute in bringing luxury bedding to the masses

We spend more time in our beds than nearly any other space in life. And we now know that quality of sleep is one of the single most important elements of living a healthy life. And yet, for most consumers, bedding and…

Prediction: 3D Printing is exiting the “Trough of Disillusionment”

3D Printing had a moment in the consciousness of consumers and venture investors alike across the early part of the decade. But the attention and excitement heaped on this category seems to have waned within the…

ThredUP is convincing apparel shoppers to think second-hand first; gets an $81M endorsement from Goldman Sachs

There’s a fundamental shift taking place in the way consumers relate to second-hand goods. In the past, people have purchased “used cars,”…

2 trillion reasons why advanced manufacturing gets me excited as a venture investor

This post is the second in a series on the topic of 3D Printing (aka, additive manufacturing). We will continue to explore this area, including topics like the respective roles of…