Posts from May 2023

Back in 2014, USV got subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) over our web3 investing activities. We hired a law firm, answered the subpoena, and that ultimately landed me in public testimony in front of the DFS staff.

In my testimony, I explained to the DFS staff that the difference between the US and China is that the US respects the freedom to innovate:

I was reminded of that moment yesterday when, in our quarterly call with our Limited Partners at USV, we were asked if the regulatory pressure on web3 in the US would result in us cutting back our web3 investing.

To which I responded:

When they want to shut it down, I say double down

The most powerful technologies send waves of fear through the establishment.

When you see that fear in their eyes, invest in the cause of that fear.

This is the second post in a row where I am bringing back an old tradition.

This time it is Fun Friday, something I haven’t done in about five years. Like last week, the catalyst is our portfolio company Blackbird Labs, which I posted about a few months ago.

Blackbird is a platform for the restaurant industry to build loyalty/membership and related business models on.

Upside Pizza, which makes some of the best slices in NYC, launched the Upside Pizza Club this week using the Blackbird platform.

While a free slice every day for a year is nothing to sneeze at, I am most excited about the idea of the private concert series that Upside is running at its Nolita location over the next five weeks. Pizza, beer, and live music on a summer evening is my idea of a great time. I suspect it is yours too.

So if you live in NYC, you might want to join the Upside Pizza Club and get access to these concerts. And a free slice every day for the next year too.

You can join here for $199.

It has been a long time since I did a Funding Friday here at AVC. I used to do them every Friday. We have funded a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries here over the years. Here are a few examples.

L’Appartement 4F

Land To Sea

There is a new wrinkle in crowdfunding restaurants, bars, coffee shops, bakeries, etc courtesy of USV portfolio company Blackbird, which I recently wrote about.

Blackbird is a loyalty/membership platform for the hospitality industry and it allows operators to issue memberships in-store (at check-in or check-out) or elsewhere. Although Blackbird did not imagine its platform being used for crowdfunding, operators have started to use it that way.

A great example is gertrude’s, a new restaurant in Prospect Heights Brooklyn which hopes to open next month.

gertrude’s is offering anyone the opportunity to become a member in advance of opening and there are three levels of membership:

The benefits of each membership ladder on top of each other and get better and better.

If you live in NYC, particularly if you live in our near Prospect Heights, you can help gertrude’s pay for the cost of opening the store and get your money back in the form of dining opportunities and long-term membership benefits.

This strikes me as a fantastic way for restaurant operators to defray (or ideally fully fund) the cost of opening a new venue. They give up less equity and spend less on raising it and their customers become VIPs and regulars and enjoy the benefits of that. A true win/win.

If you want to help gertrude’s get open, go here and become a member.

There has been a lot of discussion about how AIs can make art and possibly replace artists, but I think the opposite is more likely to happen. Artists have been using AI to make art for a while now and the pace has picked up a lot in recent years.

I have always loved the work of Ian Cheng who makes computer-generated simulations that evolve using artificial intelligence. His works change infinitely. The first time I saw that, maybe ten years ago now, it made me rethink many ideas I had about art.

With the introduction of NFTs, artists can now make, release, and sell AI-generated art much more easily.

This week, our portfolio company Bright Moments has a big event in Tokyo, and one of the collections being shown features eleven top AI artists.

Though I could not make it to Tokyo this week, I was able to acquire a number of fantastic works in the collection.

My favorite is this piece by Claire Silver which is one of a series she calls paracosm.

Claire said this about the work:

This collection is a visualization of part of the artist’s paracosm. A text-to-image model was trained on some of their memories of that world and its inhabitants. 

I also quite like Helena Sarin‘s Kogei Kats. I picked up this one:

Helena’s website says that “Since 2021 her main creative energy is directed towards the #potteryGAN – making ceramics using her GAN/AI work as designed to 3D functional objects.” I really dig that.

I am very bullish on the creativity that AI will help artists bring to the world. It is a tool, like a paintbrush or a camera, or a kiln. And they will use that tool to make work that will bring great joy to our lives. They already are.