Fred Wilson

Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, paying for college in part by writing code in a research lab. He has recalled that he had no clear idea what he wanted to do when he graduated, and took a job at an engineering firm in New York, using his coding skills to help design a new class of Navy ships.⁠[1][2][2][2]

He later decided to get an MBA, writing in his applications that he wanted to work in venture capital, and went to the Wharton School of the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry, commuting between New York and Philadelphia for two years. He wrote letters to every Wharton alumnus in the venture business and received one reply, from Bliss McCrum, a partner at Euclid Partners, which led to a summer job at the firm in 1986, between his first and second years.⁠[2][2][2][3][3][1]

Wilson went on to work at Euclid Partners, a small New York venture firm, for ten years. He recalled that its funds were only $25 million and $40 million, that it invested in life sciences and information technology, and that he had no sector focus; his first venture investment, in a company called Software Developers Company, ran into trouble because of a complicated deal structure and the company’s operating problems, and after a restructuring and a change of management the firm recovered most or all of its money. He worked on the deal with Milton Pappas, one of Euclid’s two founders.⁠[3][3][3][4][4][4]

In 1994 and 1995 he persuaded Euclid to invest in a few early internet companies, and he has said this was when he found his calling.⁠[3][3]

In early 1996, Wilson left Euclid Partners and co-founded Flatiron Partners, a firm dedicated to internet investing, with Jerry Colonna, who had been doing internet deals at CMGI; Chase Capital Partners and SOFTBANK quickly pledged $150 million. He recalled that the money grew to $750 million within three years. Flatiron had notable successes in the early internet years and was seen as having put New York’s tech scene on the map.⁠[3][3][3][5]

After the bubble burst in 2000, Flatiron stopped making new investments that summer. In May 2001, after the economic slowdown and a string of internet failures, its sole backer, J.P. Morgan Partners, reined in the firm, moving it out of its Park Avenue South offices into J.P. Morgan Chase’s midtown offices, with all investments still requiring the backer’s consensus approval. By then Flatiron and its backer had invested about $550 million in 57 companies; investments such as GeoCities, Patagon.com, and Multex.com had paid off handsomely, but companies such as TheStreet.com and StarMedia dragged down returns, and companies including Kozmo.com and Scout Electromedia failed. Wilson said the fund’s annual returns had fallen from as much as 500% a few years earlier to about 100% to 150%.⁠[6][7][7][7][7][7][7]

Wilson later wrote that his path owed a great deal to luck: had the internet not come along, he would have kept investing opportunistically in information technology and generating mediocre returns at best, and he advised aspiring top-tier investors to spend at least ten years in an industry first. In 2012 he wrote that, twelve years after Flatiron stopped investing, he still sat on several boards from its portfolio and three of its funds remained active.⁠[3][3][6][6]

From June 2003, Wilson was a founder and partner of Union Square Ventures, which he co-founded with 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. In 2004 the two wrote in a memo to the limited partners of their inaugural fund that investing in early-stage companies that exploit the now-ubiquitous internet infrastructure and add value to broadly available core technologies would generate superior returns; USV went on to back companies including Twitter, Twilio, Etsy, MongoDB, and Coinbase in their early days.⁠[8][9][9][9]

In September of that year he began posting on his blog, AVC, nearly every weekday, describing it as a diary where he thinks things through “out loud.”⁠[10][10]

In 2007, Wilson joined the board of Etsy as one of its early investors, and from October 2014 he served as its lead independent director.⁠[8][8][8]

In January 2017, Wilson joined the board of the crypto asset exchange Coinbase and remained a director as of April 2026; Coinbase became publicly traded in April 2021.⁠[11]

On May 3, 2017, Chad Dickerson resigned as Etsy’s president, chief executive officer, and chair, and director Josh Silverman became president and chief executive officer; from that month Wilson served as Etsy’s non-executive chair until December 2025. Etsy has said he oversaw two leadership transitions at the company.⁠[12][11][11]

He wrote in 2022 that he was Etsy’s chairman and owned a lot of its stock; as of March 2026 he held about 500,000 shares of Etsy common stock.⁠[13][11]

After Etsy chief executive Josh Silverman stepped down at the end of 2025 and became executive chair, Wilson became Etsy’s lead independent director on January 1, 2026, and was nominated for re-election to a three-year term at the 2026 annual meeting.⁠[11][11][11]

After Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate brought the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act to the floor, Wilson wrote that he and his USV partners had been investing in crypto for fifteen years without clearly written rules, and that he had been sued and taken to the SEC for questioning; he said he had pushed for market structure legislation on his blog and in Congress for more than a decade, and that while the bill was far from perfect, he supported it with everything he had because the industry badly needed rules.⁠[14][15][15][15][15][15][15]

Wilson, together with 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, Michael MignanoMichael MignanoMichael Mignano is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, co-founder and CEO of the podcasting platform Anchor, which Spotify acquired in 2019. He was a partner at Lightspeed and since 2026 has been a general partner at the New York venture firm Union Square Ventures (USV).Open the full entry, and 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, announced that USV had raised $900 million in new funds to back startups building at the edge of large markets being transformed by technology: a $500 million core fund and a $400 million opportunity fund for later-stage deals and follow-on investments; the previous core fund had been $275 million. The four became the firm’s active general partners, while Andy WeissmanAndy WeissmanAndy Weissman is a New York venture capitalist who has been a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV) since 2011 and earlier co-founded the technology company and investment platform betaworks; when USV announced its new funds in October 2026, he moved to continuing support of the firm and its portfolio companies and is no longer listed on the core investment team.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, 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, and Brad Burnham moved to continue supporting USV and its portfolio companies.⁠[9][9][16][17][9][17][9]

Wilson said the larger funds would let USV lead rounds requiring checks of about $30 million.⁠[17]

Investor Kyle Harrison wrote that the fund expansions at USV and, earlier, Benchmark marked the end of venture capital’s “short kings,” arguing that USV had become yet another “capital agglomerator” that funds what is fundable and feeds the round-after-round cycle instead of focusing on building great businesses.⁠[16][16]

Wilson responded that he agreed with much of the analysis of industry trends but not with its conclusion, and that USV had not become a firm focused first and foremost on aggregating capital. He noted that Duolingo and Etsy, to which USV provided seed capital before joining follow-on rounds, are public companies valued at $7 billion to $8 billion, and that given USV’s ownership either one would return the entire new core fund; USV still wants to back companies that could be worth $100 billion or more, he said, but is not focused only on them.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16]

AVC focuses mainly on venture capital and technology, with 3,859 posts in its “VC & Technology” category, 196 posts in the “MBA Mondays” series explaining business and finance basics to entrepreneurs, 254 posts on crypto, and many posts on New York, politics, and music; the blog later moved to avc.xyz. At the start of each year he publishes predictions for the year ahead and looks back on the previous one.⁠[18][18][18][18][18][18][19][14][14]

As of October 2026, Wilson is chairman of the New York City Department of Education’s CS4All (Computer Science for All) capital campaign and co-chairman of the New York tech industry group Tech:NYC. He is married with three children and lives in New York City; he also keeps a Tumblr blog where he tries to post a quote, a song, and a picture every day.⁠[1][1][20]

Personal website: https://avc.xyz/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

X: Public account: https://x.com/fredwilson (opens in a new window)⁠[1][19]

Union Square Ventures: Official website: https://www.usv.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

Tumblr blog: https://fredwilson.vc/ (opens in a new window)⁠[20]