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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
Entrepreneur @abebooks (sold to AMZ) turned investor @versiononevc. Backing mission-driven founders who are early in new areas. Curious + optimistic. ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ/acc
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ
Joined January 2008
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    "Some founders are visible before their companies make sense to everyone else. Some markets are real before they are consensus. And sometimes, the best partner for an underdog is another one." Grateful to @evansammccann for this profile of @VersionOneVC
    New on The Hard Part: The Underdog for Underdogs A long-form profile on Boris Wertz (@bwertz), Angela Tran (@angelatytran), and Version One Ventures (@VersionOneVC). I spent the last couple of months reporting this, speaking with founders, co-investors, LPs, and people close
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    โ€œThe greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.โ€ - RIP Stephen Hawking
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    Career advice I would give my younger self: - pick a nascent industry w/ huge growth potential over next decades (tech in 2000-20, crypto now) - figure out your superpower (entrepreneur vs operator vs investor) - work for yourself, not someone else
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    Canada is quickly becoming one of the best destinations for global tech talent: ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Startup Visa (fast-tracking foreign tech entrepreneurs to permanent residency so they can build their co's in Canada) ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Global Skills Strategy (2 weeks processing guarantee for work permits)
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    The most successful founders are learning machines.
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    Anyone critical of NFT's should just watch how they have take over the conversation in high schools. For our two older kids (grade 7 & 9) and their friends, NFT's seem to be everywhere these days: creating, experimenting, buying, selling.
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    Whenever you listen to successful people talk abt how they got here, they often recount at least one instance in which somebody took a huge bet on them early in their career. Be that person that takes bets on others - no better way to have a huge impact on somebody else's life!
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    So interesting to watch how running a VC fund on the side has become a business model for athletes, influencers, writers, coaches, entrepreneurs... Wouldn't be surprised if we saw thousands of those "nano funds" soon. The creator economy is also becoming an investor economy.
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    State of VC right now: * Extreme competition btw VC firms for any deal w/ solid traction and/or experienced founders * Sharp increase of pre-emptive deals * Increased focus of VC firms on finding companies outside of SV >> probably the best market to raise capital since '99!
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    Moats in the age of AI: speed!
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    โค๏ธ that @UniswapProtocol story! "All students who, as part of a class project, participated in listing and swapping a token on Uniswap received 400 UNI. [...] valued at roughly 12,000 liras, which accounts for nearly half the yearly education fee [...]." cointelegraph.com/news/meet-turkโ€ฆ
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    What are the best examples of someone having a successful "second act" in their career? (as in: world class in first career and then replicated that in a completely different field)
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    Shopify is now ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ's most valuable company w/ a market cap of over $120b. A mere 14 years after @tobi launched the website. A mere 5 years after the company IPO'ed. Congrats, team @shopify - what an incredible ๐Ÿš€ you have built!
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    The government of Canada has unfortunately completely lost their plot on innovation & entrepreneurship: - trying to pick winners (eg superclusters) - proposing very rigid AI regulation - dramatic increase of # of public sector employees - increasing capital gain rate