Eric Friedman has been an early stage investor and operator for the past 10 years. Beginning at USV, investing in Foursquare, then joining them 6 years, he has built up operational expertise working for exceptional founders. Building out the Expa early stage accelerator provided a canvas to invest across 12 companies, and help scale internal studio companies. For the past few years Eric has been a fractional COO and executive coach, and most recently a Venture Partner at Company.co (Grand Central Tech) in NYC. Given the pandemic and the commercial real estate shift, he is looking for what is next. The right opportunity with a company at an inflection point that needs a strong operator, or deploying capital to great founders is the goal. In the interim he is coaching great founders and helping them become better leaders.
I was writing about and trying out many early stage company apps and services and submitted by blog to Union Square Ventures who were looking for someone who was net native, my writing and worldview got me the interview/job and forever changed my perception of how to find great people.
I look for teams that are coachable because I like to work closely with anyone I invest in. This style is not for everyone and plenty of teams have steadfast ideas. Founders that have a history working together and really understand each other.
Coachable, Tactical, Visionary, talent magnets
Know that we give first.
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My goal to be the best advisor in the world. I am far away, but this is achieved through great investing and advising the best founders. Since I have such a personal life goal, I tend to want to work with founders that have a long term view and have found their true north in what they are building.
The diversity of talent and people I get to speak with everyday - they share their ideas and what they want to build, and have the canvas of NYC to prove out their goals. I have never been more bullish on NYC.
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