USV’s New $900M Fund: Fred Wilson, Rebecca Kaden & Mike Mignano

USV spent 20 years keeping its funds small on purpose. Its new $900M raise is the largest fund cycle in the firm’s history. I sat down with USV General Partners Fred Wilson, Rebecca Kaden and Michael Mignano at the firm’s New York office to unpack why one of venture capital’s most disciplined early-stage firms is getting bigger now, and what they think the next era of AI will look like. Together with General Partner Nick Grossman, they’re leading USV into its next chapter. USV was early to Twitter, Coinbase, Stripe, MongoDB, Twilio, Etsy, Duolingo and Abridge. More than 20 years after Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham laid out the firm’s original internet thesis, Fred believes AI today looks a lot like the internet in 2003. The infrastructure is here, but many of the defining applications have yet to be built. We get into why AI is making products cheaper to build but breakout companies potentially more expensive to create, why ARR can hide weak retention, the growing importance of founder storytelling, personal AI agents, the “Rebel Alliance” around open AI infrastructure, and why energy may be one of the cleanest bets on AI. At the center of USV’s new thesis is “obliterate, don’t automate.” Instead of making existing industries incrementally more efficient, AI could completely restructure them. Fred’s version is simple. Don’t hire a lawyer, use an AI lawyer. Don’t hire an accountant, use an AI accountant. Don’t hire a doctor, use an AI doctor. Fred Wilson: https://x.com/fredwilson Rebecca Kaden: https://x.com/rebeccakaden Michael Mignano: https://x.com/mignano Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/usvs-new-%24900m-fund-fred-wilson-rebecca-kaden-mike-mignano/id1738124704?i=1000793876086 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3G9yfowZQu3Wgl7edUMmPz?si=k8tD5WTyRJq5VVZaE-ZtgA 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒 • Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery • Zone—develops next-generation data center campuses, partnering with AI companies, site developers and technology leaders to bring compute online faster and at scale. Visit: https://zonefrontier.com • Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery • VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com • Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery • Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! https://www.sourcery.vc Disclosure Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Fred, Rebecca & Michael, GPs at USV (01:12) USV's biggest fund ever: $900M (02:13) Inside USV's New York office (07:19) An AI agent that runs your portfolio (12:38) Agents won't watch Netflix for you (14:00) USV's new strategy for the AI era (16:54) The real cost of building in AI (21:03) The fight over monetizing Twitter (23:54) Why Amazon is shutting out agents (31:02) Why smaller funds pick better (33:40) What Series A looks like now (40:17) Is ARR a fake metric? (46:00) 20 years of USV's biggest wins (51:10) Why great founders still fail (57:46) Will Anthropic compete with its customers? (59:54) Why Coinbase moved off Claude (1:01:44) An AI doctor that writes prescriptions (1:04:09) Your AI lawyer is the worst it'll ever be (1:08:29) Who protects you from your own AI agent? (1:11:58) Fred Wilson's been hacked 4 times (1:13:31) Coinbase: A security company in disguise (1:16:28) Betting on markets that don't exist yet (1:21:16) From first-time founder to Suno