Evolution, Not Revolution: The Fred Wilson Interview

New York City venture capitalist Fred Wilson helps innovators start and build technology companies. As the managing partner of two venture capital firms, Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures, Wilson has helped launch popular internet sites such as A VC, Twitter, Tumblr, Meetup, del.icio.us and FeedBurner. His ability to predict the ever-growing potential of the Internet has changed the way we all live, work and socialize. Wilson has built successful technology companies by appreciating and documenting the way technology has changed his life over the past 15 years. When he visited the Big Think studios, Wilson described the two or three new gadgets that pop up every year and become, overnight, crucial aspects of his daily life–making him a more effective businesman, and a more accessible family man. As for the future of technology, Wilson says stay tuned. This is only the beginning.

This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.

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Comments (9)

by David J. / November 11, 2008

Really interesting that he is on the site. I’d like to know, as somebody about to buy a new laptop, why should I buy Dell rather than MAC? I’ve heard MAC’s have many tech problems, but what’s your perspective? I was leaning that way.
by John / November 11, 2008

I’d like to know Fred Wilson’s opinion on how the downturn in the broader economy will impact the rate of innovation in the tech sector–there’s lots of theoretical correlation between tech innovation and economic growth but I’ve never seen evidence of a concrete relationship.
by Mary / November 11, 2008

I find that sites like twitter and tumblr always seem sort of superfluous when they first come out — who wants to read updates about my life every 25 minutes, etc? But they catch on and become immensely popular, almost requisite for in-the-know media sources. How do people like Wilson know what’s going to become “necessary?”
by Gladys R.D. / November 11, 2008

re: John’s comment — in a way, I feel like the economic downturn may lead to even more innovation in the tech sector. After all, what are all those out of work ibankers going to do with themselves, right?
by sadie c. / November 11, 2008

I want to hear about some of the gadgets he’s using!
by techsux / November 11, 2008

i feel like the idea that technology allows him to become a more accessible family man is crap…lets be honest, technology allows us to cram even more activity (on the whole, work related) into smaller and smaller increments of time…and that in turn makes us less and less focused on what we’re doing at any one moment. work life is now able to bleed into ALL life. that doesn’t seem like a great development to me.
by Phil / November 12, 2008

programmers are rock stars
by VCM / November 12, 2008

Though there decrease use of telephones as a means of communication, I don’t believe that it will ever be eradicated as a means in which to conduct business.
by Anderson Allen / November 17, 2008

The thing with the most popular technology products around today is that most of them have taken an under-utilised/under-appreciated segment of daily life, and made them accessible in a new way that becomes almost instantly indispensable, i.e: BlackBerry and the ability to maintain constant communication with the workplace via voice and e-mail.