Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures speaks onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 at The Manhattan Center on April 30, 2013 in New York City.
Fred Wilson is the most prominent technology venture capitalist in New York City, and something of a mascot for the emergence of the Big Apple as a thriving tech ecosystem. Wilson’s firm, Union Square Ventures, specializes in investing in Web service companies, and owns stakes in several high-profile startups included Twitter, Foursquare, and Etsy, and recently scored a grand slam when its portfolio company Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo! for $1.1 billion.
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Union Square Ventures is estimated to have made nearly $200 million from its Tumblr investment. Wilson, 51, is also a prolific and widely-read blogger. He has a popular Twitter account where he opines on everything from technology investing to sports and music.