If by good you mean profitable beyond belief for the managers of the venture capital fund, then Union Square is the epitome of what a venture firm should endeavor to emulate. However, if, by chance, you’re on the other side of the ledger, a mere plebeian public investor looking to make enough money to buy a beach’d house, you were royally fucked following Fred and his band of arch-capitalists during 2015.
Before you pass judgement on Fred, just know that he “turned a few million dollars into $1.5 billion” long Twitter, from the beginning. It’s hard to fault someone for having the foresight to invest in an early concept like that, then criticize him when management drops the ball in the public markets. Nevertheless, the facts are the fact. There are 4 publicly traded companies on the USV books, as far as I know.
Here they are with their year to date returns.
TWTR: -36%
LC: -54%
ZNGA +1.8%
ETSY -70%
He made a mint selling ZNGA above $12, and also fleeced Yahoo several times, selling them Tumblr and Flurry to them at absurd prices. His investors couldn’t ask for a better steward for their investable dollars.
Everyone else: beware.
