Fred Wilson has been a venture capitalist since 1987, working his way up from associate to General Partner at Euclid Partners before co-founding Flatiron Partners in 1996. After Flatiron closed following the dot-com crash, he co-founded Union Square Ventures in 2003 with Brad Burnham, built around a deliberately small-fund philosophy Wilson has stuck to for two decades. USV's early, thesis-driven bets on network-effect businesses - Twitter four months after launch, a then-unproven Etsy, and Coinbase years before crypto went mainstream - have made it one of the most consistently prescient firms in venture capital. Wilson is also known for AVC.com, his long-running blog on venture capital and startups, active continuously since 2003.
Education
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.B.A., The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Previous Experience
Associate to General Partner, Euclid Partners (1987–1996)
Co-Founder, Flatiron Partners (1996–2001) - with Jerry Colonna