Fred Wilson (financier)

Fred Wilson (born August 20, 1961) is a New York-based venture capitalist (active since 1987) and a prominent blogger. Through his well-known blog and his investment in some of New York's notable start-up companies over the past decade, he is recognizedViews needing attribution|date=June 2007 as a leading voice of the venture capital finance community in the nation's largest city.

Wilson is the co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a smaller ($125 million in capital under management), newly formed, New York City based venture capital firm with investments in Web 2.0 companies such as Covestor, del.icio.us, Etsy, FeedBurner, Indeed.com, Tacoda, Oddcast, and Disqus.

In 1996, Wilson co-founded Flatiron Partners with his partner Jerry Colonna. Flatiron, named after the Flatiron District, became a successful, primarily follow-on investment fund in the New York City area, with investments in notable Dot-com bubble successes and failures including Alacra, comScore Networks, Yoyodyne, Geocities, Kozmo.com, New York Times Digital, PlanetOut, Return Path, Scout electromedia, Standard Media International, Starmedia, and VitaminShoppe.com [cite news |first=Debra |last=Lau |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Flatiron Partners Called Back Home |url=http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/17/0517flatiron.html |work=Forbes |publisher= |date=2001-05-17 |accessdate=2008-03-04 ] . The firm's 1996 fund capitalized at $150 million with two investors: SOFTBANK Technology Ventures and Chase Capital Partners, the private-equity arm of Chase Manhattan Corp. The firm later raised another fund capitalized at $500 million with Chase Capital Partners as the sole active LP. [cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/15.990/attach/Flatiron%20Overview%20-%20MIT%202001.ppt |title=Flatiron Partners: Presentation to MIT |accessdate=2008-03-04 |last=Greene |first=Bob |coauthors= |date=Spring 2001 |format= PPT |work= |publisher=] In 2001, Wilson and Colonna essentially shut down Flatiron (although they still manage what remains of its portfolio). Wilson offered a blunt assessment in July 2005 in "Business 2.0", "Yeah, boy, we really screwed up a bunch of things."cite news |first=John |last=Heilemann |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Start Spreading the News |url=http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/07/01/8265499/ |work=Business 2.0 |publisher=CNN Money |date=2005-07-01 |accessdate=2008-03-04 ]

Prior to Flatiron, he was at Euclid Partners. Wilson has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is married with three children and lives in New York City.

Wilson is also an active philanthropist and community advocate having worked on initiatives including the redevelopment of Union Square and Madison Square in New York City. Currently, Fred is contributing his efforts, energy and expertise to the [http://www.pier40partnership.org Pier 40 Partnership] .

References

External links

* [http://venturesource.com/query/expertCompany.cfm?fromUrl=TRUE&pid=P013130 VentureSource: listing of Frederick Wilson's, Flatiron Partners, and Union Square Ventures investments since 1987 (subscription required)]
* [http://web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/2435 Web 2.0 Conference Speaker Biography]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/technology/22venture.html?ex=1379908800&en=83d7c21ee6f7a480&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink "A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms"] , "New York Times" September 21, 2008, a short profile of Union Square Ventures and Fred Wilson.
* [http://www.unionsquareventures.com Union Square Ventures]
* [http://www.flatironpartners.com Flatiron Partners]
* [http://www.avc.com A VC Blog]