It’s no secret that warming temperatures, wildfires and flash floods are increasingly affecting lives across the United States. With the U.S. government now planning to ramp up fossil fuel use, the risks of these events
It’s one thing to invent something cool within controlled laboratory environments. It’s entirely another to scale that new baby for sale. The tension between innovation and commercialization is something we regularly wrestle with at Abstrax.
The Ford Pinto. New Coke. Google Glass. History is littered with products whose fatal flaw— whether failures of safety, privacy, performance, or plain old desirability—repelled consumers and inflicted reputational damage to the companies bringing them
Credit: Apex Today, Apex announced their Series B funding round, led by XYZ Ventures and CRV, with participation from Upfront. And if you spend much time in LA, you’ll quickly realize that we’re in a
Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasn’t always like this
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. From 2019 to May 2022, the market was down considerably with public
Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our
Nearly six years ago, I was thrilled to invest in Andrew Farah and the team at Density when they had a vision for building anonymous tracking of how people use office buildings, rentals and other
The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm — even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed.
Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in
On Funding — The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio, which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage
On Funding — Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think about everyday, including: How to
Jennifer Lawrence welcomed her second child earlier this year. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Jennifer Lawrence has opened up about how motherhood influenced her work as an actor. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, the actor, 34,
The author is 34 and her friend is 84. Courtesy of the author My friend, Toni, is 50 years older than me. She’s 84 and I’m 34. We share laughs, makeup tips, and heart-to-heart conversations.
The times have widely shaped what motherhood looks like, from scientific developments to labor reforms. FPG/Getty Images Motherhood in the US has changed over the past century. From baby formula to women entering the workforce,
Wes Anderson at the 78th Cannes Film Festival this week. Jacopo Raule/GC Images/Getty Images Wes Anderson said his system of paying the cast of “The Royal Tenenbaums” caused “friction” with Gene Hackman. He told the
I ranked five of Burger King’s most popular cheeseburgers, and the chain’s signature burger was the most impressive. Erin McDowell/Business Insider I tried five cheeseburgers from Burger King, including the Whopper and the Bacon King.
After years of searching, I found the perfect cheap product for everyday makeup looks. Lacey Brown After years of searching for the perfect makeup product, I fell in love with the ELF brow-lift gel. The
Elton John called the UK government ‘absolute losers’ for failing to safeguard artists from AI. CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images Elton John attacked UK plans to let Big Tech train AI on creative work