Andy Weissman

Weissman was born in New York City and holds a BA from Wesleyan University and a JD from Georgetown University.⁠[1]

Weissman entered the Internet industry in the mid-1990s. He recalled that on his second day after joining America Online (AOL) in the mid-1990s he was told to negotiate and document a relationship with AOL’s then-largest marketing partner, American Express, with only the old deal to refer to; he was still working at AOL in 1996.⁠[1][2][2][3]

In 1999, Weissman joined the venture capital firm Soundview Ventures/Dawntreader Ventures, where he spent more than six years.⁠[4]

Weissman was one of the founders and investors of Carmun, an academic community service. Aimed at college and graduate students, its goal was to make academic work easier: students could track and share reference lists and later use them for citations and bibliographies when writing papers. His partner was Jonathan Edson.⁠[5][5][6][6][7]

In 2007, Weissman co-founded betaworks with John Borthwick; the company both created and invested in social, real-time applications and services, and he managed its investment portfolio.⁠[4][1][4]

In April 2008, Weissman quoted Borthwick on his blog: betaworks had formally started building out its platform in the fall of 2007, and six months later it had four things it had built and fourteen seed investments; someone called it a “reverse incubator” because it shared core capabilities such as software, data, standards and analytics with entrepreneurs, rather than peripheral services such as legal, HR and office space.⁠[8][8][8]

In October 2011, Weissman joined the New York venture capital firm Union Square Ventures (USV). At the time, betaworks was shifting from building an investment portfolio toward becoming an operating company.⁠[9][4]

In August 2012, Weissman said that with its new $200 million fund USV could support portfolio companies over multiple rounds and multiple years, preferably without any time horizon for an exit; USV generally did not invest in ad tech or ad networks, but in the end services themselves that have large networks of users. He considered native advertising something new altogether, and display ads merely a magazine metaphor translated to the Internet.⁠[9][9][9][9][9]

In December 2014, Weissman said USV deliberately stays small in both team size and capital, and that its decisions rest on a thesis about the Internet; the partners travel together to San Francisco at least twice a year to meet portfolio companies and prospective ones. As an example, he said that after reading about Figure1, a company in the medical field, he found its founders on Twitter and contacted them directly, and a year later USV participated in its Series A.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The USV 2016 fund had $175 million in capital commitments and, as since the 2012 fund, five investing partners: Brad BurnhamBrad BurnhamBrad Burnham is an American venture capitalist who co-founded the New York venture capital firm Union Square Ventures (USV) with Fred Wilson in 2003, after working at AT&T and its venture capital arm and co-founding the ad technology company TACODA; he has long publicly advocated net neutrality and opposed the abuse of software patents. Since October 2026 he has moved to continuing support of USV and is no longer listed on its core investment team.Open the full entry, Fred WilsonFred WilsonFred Wilson is an American venture capitalist, co-founder and partner of the New York venture firm Union Square Ventures (USV), and earlier co-founder, with Jerry Colonna, of the internet investment firm Flatiron Partners. He has written the blog AVC since 2003, chaired Etsy’s board for many years, and is a director of Coinbase.Open the full entry, Albert WengerAlbert WengerAlbert Wenger is a New York venture capitalist and writer, a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV), former president of the bookmarking site del.icio.us, and author of The World After Capital, which discusses the scarcity of attention and basic income; he also co-founded community projects in Hudson, New York, including a basic income pilot. Since October 2026 he has moved to continuing support of USV and is no longer listed on its core investment team.Open the full entry, Weissman and John ButtrickJohn ButtrickJohn Buttrick is a New York venture capitalist who has been a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV) since 2010 and has invested in a number of fintech companies; earlier he was a mergers and acquisitions partner at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, and he chairs the board of the environmental group Environmental Advocates of New York. Since October 2026 he has moved to continuing support of USV and is no longer listed on its core investment team.Open the full entry. The fund’s key man provision was changed to focus on Wenger and Weissman, who took on an increased leadership role and led more investments in that fund cycle.⁠[10][10][10]

Weissman, together with Brad Burnham, Fred Wilson, John Buttrick and Albert Wenger, published a post on the USV website stating that this was the first presidential election during USV’s existence in which the firm endorsed a candidate, Hillary Clinton. The post argued that the benefits of technology and globalization had not been evenly distributed and that policy adjustments were needed so that society as a whole shares in them, and urged people to register and vote.⁠[11][11][11][11][11]

Weissman and David Tisch, as interviewers, launched the audio program The Riff: each episode is a 24-minute, unedited, single-take conversation with one person who knows a topic, about that one topic, recorded in person. The first episode discussed the future of television news, with CNN senior technology correspondent Laurie Segall as guest.⁠[12][12][12][12]

USV announced $900 million in new funds and a team reorganization: the core investment team consists of new members together with Fred Wilson, Rebecca KadenRebecca KadenRebecca Kaden is an American venture capitalist and a managing partner of the New York venture firm Union Square Ventures (USV). She joined the firm in 2017 and since 2026 has been one of its four active general partners.Open the full entry, Nick GrossmanNick GrossmanNick Grossman is an American venture capitalist and a general partner at the New York venture firm Union Square Ventures (USV), focusing on technologies such as crypto networks and AI agents that could reshape large markets. He began his career in urban planning and open-source civic technology and joined USV in 2012.Open the full entry and Nikhil Raman, while Weissman, Albert Wenger, John Buttrick and Brad Burnham continue supporting USV and its portfolio companies.⁠[13][13]

Weissman has long written on his personal blog about startups, media, education and investing. In January 2023, he wrote about using AI editing tools such as RunwayML and Descript to cut about an hour of congratulatory videos into a five-minute short film in five days for USV’s year-end event. He has also written posts for USV introducing portfolio companies such as Glif and Doctronic.⁠[5][14][14][14][15][15]

Personal website: https://www.aweissman.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[16]

X: Public account: https://x.com/aweissman (opens in a new window)⁠[17]

Union Square Ventures: Official website: https://www.usv.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]