How to Pitch Union Square Ventures

The Short Version

Union Square Ventures thinks in public: it publishes its theses, so you can study what it is looking for before you pitch. Its 2011 thesis was networks, businesses that grow more valuable as more people use them, and it produced Twitter, Etsy, Tumblr, Duolingo and Coinbase. USV revisits its thesis roughly every ten years. It now calls itself a generalist investor at the earliest stages of company building, with 2026 theses on AI, physical and edge data, trust and security, and energy. A network effect still helps a pitch; it is no longer the gate.

What Union Square Ventures Actually Looks For

Founded: 2004 by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham

Funds: $900M announced in October 2026, a $500M core fund and a $400M opportunity fund. USV does not publish total assets under management.

Stage: Seed and Series A from the core fund; later rounds from the opportunity fund

Check sizes: $1M to $30M

Sectors: AI, robotics, energy, consumer, money (fintech and crypto) and biotech

From the Network Thesis to 2026

USV's 2011 thesis was networks: companies where usage by one participant makes the network more valuable for everyone. Twitter, Etsy, Tumblr, Duolingo and Coinbase came out of it; Stripe was a later growth investment. In October 2026 USV published its next set of theses: AI that obliterates markets rather than automating them, data at the edge (robotics, manufacturing and other physical data), a "Rebel Alliance" of products built on trust, security and aligned incentives, and energy.

What this means for your pitch: show where your company sits in one of those theses, in USV's own words, and be ready to explain why it gets stronger as it grows. A network effect is still a good answer. It is no longer the only one.

A Small Partnership That Moves Quickly

USV describes itself as a small, tight, cohesive partnership that operates quickly. Expect serious intellectual engagement with your idea, and expect the partners to have read what you have published.

Bigger Funds, the Same Number of Bets

The core fund grew from $275M to $500M in 2026 so USV can lead the seed and Series A rounds it wants to lead. It says it will make roughly the same number of investments as in previous funds, so each one carries more weight.

What USV Has Been Backing

Recent investments, by theme:

• Robotics and physical AI: Machenta (seed, October 2026) and Tutor Intelligence (Series A, December 2025)
• Tools for AI agents: Paradev (seed, October 2026) and Cofounder (seed, December 2025)
• Consumer AI: Board (Series A, June 2026)
• Money and markets: Pascal, a prediction-market startup (Series A, July 2026), plus token investments in crypto protocols

What USV says it is not looking for: it publishes no exclusion list. Fred Wilson says the firm wants companies that could be worth $100 billion or more, but adds that it is "not focused on that and only that."

What to Show at Seed

USV publishes no benchmarks, and it invests early enough that revenue is not required. Three things worth showing anyway:

• Evidence it gets better as it grows: organic referrals, users recruiting other users, data or capability that compounds
• Founder-market fit: Deep understanding of why this problem exists and why you're the right person to solve it
• Thesis alignment: engage with USV's published writing at usv.com/writing; the firm says it believes in thinking in public

How to Structure Your Application

Read USV's writing before you pitch. The firm's theses are at usv.com/writing, and Fred Wilson has blogged at avc.xyz since moving off avc.com in May 2024. Referencing their published thinking, especially where you agree or disagree, shows genuine engagement.

Lead with why your company gets stronger over time, not the feature list. For a network business, describe how the 100th user makes the product better for the 1st. For an AI or robotics business, describe the data or capability that compounds.

Be specific about where you are. Zero to one, density in one city, liquidity in one vertical, a first paying customer for a robot: say exactly which milestone you have hit and which one the round buys.

Engage with the risks honestly. Expect questions on the cold-start problem, on what happens if a larger platform copies you, and on whether your position survives disintermediation. Have real answers.

A second track: Pitch Protocol

Warm paths into a fund like USV take time. Pitch Protocol is not a route into USV; it is a second track you can run alongside your outreach. Applying is free, your own AI agent submits one application in about ten minutes with no web form, and the funds in our network whose thesis matches reach out to you directly. Apply to the First 100 Founders Cohort →