Fred Wilson & Brad Burnham (Union Square Ventures)

In this special episode of the Slow Hunch, I sat down with Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, founding partners of USV. 

Since founding USV in 2003, Fred and Brad have backed companies like Twitter, Etsy, Cloudflare, and Coinbase while developing an investment thesis focused on enabling new forms of value creation through open access to networks, capital, and knowledge. 

Fred and Brad bring decades of investment experience, having seen multiple tech cycles from the early internet to mobile, cloud, crypto, and now AI. What makes their partnership unique is how they've maintained their intellectual curiosity and drive to understand emerging technologies and business models, after 20+ years of working together. 

I've been lucky enough to have a front-row seat to their approach, and it was really special to have this conversation over multiple mugs of tea in my living room in New York City. 

In many ways, USV has been their collective slow hunch - an exploration of how emerging tech intersects with the world and how to be part of it.

Hope you enjoy this conversation! 

Chapters: 

• 00:00:00 Cold open
• 00:10:40 How USV was formed
• 00:17:16 Fred and Brad on their investment philosophy
• 00:24:01 Overcoming early challenges
• 00:27:43 The emergence of web2
• 00:30:59 The initial promise of social media
• 00:34:04 Investing in Twitter
• 00:39:11 The early days of Bitcoin
• 00:45:55 The risk of market consolidation in AI 
• 00:49:39 Fred and Brad reflect on their mistakes
• 00:57:18 The Impact of AI
• 01:07:23 The future of technology
• 01:09:50 What keeps them going after 30+ years

What is The Slow Hunch?

The Slow Hunch explores how big ideas form over long periods of time. Big innovations are often characterised as single “eureka” moments, when in fact they're often the culmination of many smaller ideas coalescing over a long period of time. On this podcast, USV's Nick Grossman explores how those ideas took shape, and the nonlinear paths of the people behind them.