Top all-time · #13
Fred Wilson
Personal blog · avc.comstartupseconomics
Fred Wilson writes AVC, a personal blog at avc.com about startups and economics. Since 2008, 1,094 different Hacker News readers have linked it 2,774 times, most often “The Treadpad”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 8 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Fred Wilson's blog as a source on startup equity, VC returns and Bitcoin as a payment system, and one commenter calls it some of the best startup insight.
- Recommended for · 8 comments
- Called 'some of the best startup insights', 'unlocked a key insight', 'good commentary', 'really quite interesting'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Musings of a VC in NYC
Most-linked posts?
- The Treadpad10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2008-09-22
- Airbnb10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2011-03-16
- AVC.com blackout page7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2011-05-27
- /2013/02/venture-capital-returns/7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2014-03-27
- Fred Wilson on WSJ article7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2009-09-30
- What Is Going to Happen in 20167 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2016-01-01
- What A CEO Does6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-08-30
- Venture Capital Returns6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-02-21
- AVC.com is Down6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2014-07-09
- Store of Value vs. Payment System5 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2017-08-31
What Hacker News says?
Making a profit is absolutely not a goal of Tesla's right now. If they were trying to and missing that would be a cause for alarm, but clearly they're not trying to do that at all. http://avc.com/2015/06/profits-vs-growth/
Comment linking /2015/06/profits-vs-growth/
on “Master Plan, Part Deux”Submitted Enough Is Enough as a story · 1032 points
HN discussion> we have a deflationary currency we trade for goods and services. You do not, not really. Merchant adoption is microscopic. Even prominent Bitcoin fans admit it's terrible as a payment system. E.g., Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures: https://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/ Or look at Overstock, one of the few large retailers that accepts it. Something like 0.1% of their business is done using i…
Comment linking /2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/
on “Ethereum will use around 99.95% less energy post merge”Submitted Bring Back the SE as a story · 604 points
HN discussionThe proper way to do this for a non public company is to settle the stock for RSU based on the vesting schedule AND an exit (IPO/acquisition). This way you don't technically own the stock and have to pay taxes until there's liquidity. I believe this is how a lot of the bigger unicorns are issuing RSUs now. http://avc.com/2010/11/employee-equity-restricted-stock-and-...
Comment linking /2010/11/employee-equity-restricted-stock-and-rsus/
on “What I Wish I'd Known About Equity Before Joining a Unicorn”Submitted Don’t Tax Options and RSUs Upon Vesting as a story · 553 points
HN discussionIn the grand scheme of life, if you have 2-3 kids on a typical age distribution, the years in which at least one needs to be taken care of the majority of the time is 10-15 years. You'll likely have 2-4x as much time where you're both lucid and not responsible for childcare. Incidentally, that ~decade will likely be the most precious of your life; don't miss it. [1] 1. https://avc.com/2010/06/being-present/
Comment linking /2010/06/being-present/
on “The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill”Submitted Yahoo Crosses The Line as a story · 525 points
HN discussionNice essay. IMHO the contents are (1) Common, good advice. (2) Good data from Sam's excellent experience. (3) Some not so good advice and attitudes. Scope: The essay seems aimed mostly at current Silicon Valley (SV) style , mostly consumer, information technology startups. Okay, but that's not all of business or even all of startups. Yes, YC is pursuing much more, e.g., some shoe company in Pakistan, still, the essa…
Comment linking /a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital-returns.html
on “Startup Playbook”Submitted Who Are My Investors? as a story · 500 points
HN discussionMost VCs delegate diligence to 22 year olds that don't really try the site or startup of the startup they invest in. This should not be surprising. VCs deliver risk-adjusted returns way below the S&P 500Most http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital-returns.html http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/institutional-limited-partn... And VC's subtract value from the startups they invest in. http://techcrunch.com/2013/0…
Comment linking /a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital-returns.html
on “Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?”Submitted How This Ends as a story · 479 points
HN discussionExactly. Here's VC and prominent cryptocurrency enthusiast Fred Wilson saying exactly that: https://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/ While I agree with him that Bitcoin is a terrible currency, I think the "store of value" thing is nonsense as well. Stores of value need to have relatively stable value. Bitcoin is hugely volatile. That's great for speculation, but nobody with any sense would use it as…
Comment linking /2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/
on “Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index”Submitted What Will Happen in the 2020s as a story · 462 points
HN discussionGambling has way more transactions. LIBOR options have more transactions. Any actively traded stock has more transactions. None of those things are currency. Even prominent Bitcoin advocates agree it's not effective as a currency: http://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/
Comment linking /2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/
on “Bitcoin Gold Hit by Double Spend Attack, Exchanges Lose Millions”Submitted Chris Poole as a story · 441 points
HN discussionSome good ones: http://avc.com/ http://paulgraham.com/ http://www.moserware.com/ https://believermag.com/ https://blogmaverick.com/ https://fs.blog/ https://juliagalef.com/ https://marginalrevolution.com/ https://nav.al/ https://sive.rs/ https://torrentfreak.com/author/ernesto/ https://vitalik.ca/ https://waitbutwhy.com/ https://www.lrb.co.uk/ https://www.metafilter.com/ https://xkcd.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Panic Attacks as a story · 338 points
HN discussionNot sure if you mean "individuals" compared to companies or organizations, or actually just solo bloggers, so I'll include a few that have more than one individual author but are "personal". https://marginalrevolution.com/ - on economics but so much else https://avc.com/ - Fred has some of the best startup insights https://abovethecrowd.com/ - Gurley doesn't blog much but when he does it's great
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted The end of the level playing field as a story · 336 points
HN discussionI wrote a post with my predictions here https://medium.com/swlh/9-predictions-for-2020-2029-555312fc... TLDR 1. Federated Learning will unlock value from previously inaccessible sensitive data. 2. Deepfakes will impact democracy and bring about a need for publisher certified content. 3. Nationalism will rise around the world, the internet will splinter. 4. eSports will take a huge chunk of attention and advertising…
Comment linking /2020/01/what-will-happen-in-the-2020s/
on “Ask HN: A New Decade. Any Predictions?”Submitted Minimum Viable Personality as a story · 322 points
HN discussion> Wrong. Sure, we can say that there has been some benefit to the middle class in the West through reduced price on some of the goods but certainly not on big bill items such as housing and education. It's great that I can buy a cheap jacket and keep some of my income, it sucks that my housing expanses went from 1/5 to 1/2 of my income (as an example). Overall an American worker who lost his well paying manufacturin…
Comment linking /2016/08/elephant-chart/
on “The Real Class War”Submitted Twilio's Seed Pitch as a story · 319 points
HN discussionSome good commentary by Fred Wilson about 409a's... http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/11/employee-equity-the-option-s...
Comment linking /a_vc/2010/11/employee-equity-the-option-strike-price.html
on “An Engineer’s guide to Stock Options”Submitted How this Ends as a story · 311 points
HN discussionNote that there are a few alternatives to this. Fred Wilson, from Union Square Ventures (who pg wrote about it here[1]), gave a 1 hour class on the subject[2]. He covered tax and mechanisms to avoid taking unecessary invetment gains tax. Another great post on this subject (which may be a bit dated nowadays) was this one[3]. Hacker News startup lawyer had also some great comments on its corresponding HN thread[4]. No…
Comment linking /a_vc/2012/04/mba-mondays-live-employee-equity-archive-and-feedback.html
on “An Engineer’s guide to Stock Options”Submitted Make America Hate Again as a story · 310 points
HN discussionAnd this: http://avc.com/2014/11/messing-with-a-competitors-fundraisin... Not only unethical, but quite possibly a tortious interference with contract. Uber is turning out to be even worse than the worst taxi companies.
Comment linking /2014/11/messing-with-a-competitors-fundraising/
on “Help the Gnome Foundation Defend the Gnome Trademark Against Groupon”Submitted MayDay PAC as a story · 310 points
HN discussion
