•
Flexing the platform for good
Talks about Social Impact, tech sector reactions to political environment and diverse employee and user bases
NG
Nick Grossman
General Partner at Union Square Ventures
United States
Overview
Nick Grossman is a General Partner at Union Square Ventures, specializing in investing in early-stage companies in sectors like security, Web3/Crypto, and data services. With a background in web development, civic engagement, and entrepreneurship, Nick has successfully invested in companies like Ostrom and Odyssey, showcasing his strategic partnerships and product development expertise.
Having worked at prominent organizations like MIT Media Lab and Code for America, Nick has leveraged his skills in open innovation and urban planning to co-found Streetsblog and lead projects at Project for Public Spaces, demonstrating a strong track record in civic tech and urban design.
Work Experience
General Partner
2019 - Current
Investing in early stage opportunities across USV's thesis areas, including web2, web3, climate, and AI.
Special Projects
2012 - 2018
Focus = web3/crypto, trust & safety, data/privacy, security, legal/regulatory/policy.
Union Square Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage, growth-capital, late-stage, and startup financing.
Visiting Scholar
2011 - 2013
Studied tech policy while at the MIT Media Lab's Center for Civic Media. My work during this time was supported by the Ford Foundation and Union Square Ventures.
Managing Director, Civic Commons
2011 - 2011
Advised cities on open source / open data / open standards strategy, and supported the Open311 web standard.
A national network of "civic hackers" innovating government & community.
Director, OpenPlans Labs
2006 - 2011
OpenPlans was an incubator for startups at the intersection of cities and data. Our ~50 person team of designers, developers and business leaders created things such as: * MTA Bus Time: NYC's real-time bus data platform and API (http://bustime.mta.info) * Open311: open web standard for reporting urban issues, deployed in ~50 cities worldwide (http://www.open311.org) * OpenTripPlanner: open source multi-modal routing engine; world's largest open source software project for public transit (http://opentripplanner.com) * OpenPlans Transportation: enterprise open source business serving transportation market (now Conveyal: http://conveyal.com) * Civic Works: app development studio focused on urban mapping (now at http://openplans.org) * TransportationCamp: unconference series in SF, NYC, DC, Montreal, Atlanta and more cities (http://transportationcamp.org) * NY Transit Data: successful campaign to convince NYC Transit to open up its data (http://nytransitdata.org) * Streetsblog: blog covering transportation policy, now in 8 cities, with 400 member blog network worldwide (http://streetsblog.org) * Streetfilms: film company covering urban transportation issues (http://www.streetfilms.org) * GothamSchools: blog covering education in NYC (now ChalkBeat: http://chalkbeat.org) Clients, partners & funders included: City of NY, City of SF, District of Columbia, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NY), Portland TriMet, IBM, The Boston Globe, Rockefeller Foundation, Knight Foundation, Omidyar Network, MacArthur Foundation.
Co-Founder
2006 - 2011
Launched Streetsblog.org as NYC's hub for transportation policy news, discussion and advocacy. Grew Streetsblog to include outposts in SF, LA and DC, a 400-member blog network, and a film company, Streetfilms. Streetsblog and Streetfilms helped catalyze NYC's movement to reform its transportation policies to make the city more walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly -- resulting in the construction of 250 miles of new bike lanes, the redesign of dozens of NYC's plazas, major reform of the city's parking policies, and the launch of the city's bike-sharing program, CitiBike.
Web Developer
2001 - 2007
Built websites and web applications as an independent developer and designer. Clients included NYC-area small businesses, nonprofits and startups.
Project Manager
2002 - 2006
Studied patterns of activity in public spaces and made recommendations for improvements. Projects included: Times Square (NYC); Washington Square Park (NYC); Jamaica Transit Station Area (NYC); Littleton, NH; Lincoln, NE; Newark, NJ.
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization.
Ballboy
2000 - 2003
Yes, I was basically an adult when I did this. But it was awesome.
Laborer / Apprentice Carpenter
2001 - 2002
Learned to build houses and shovel gravel.
Ski Instructor
1994 - 1997
Taught toddlers to snowplow and pre-teens to carve.
Education
BA
1997 - 2001
Investments
Latest Articles
•
Cycles
Talks about Technology, Politics and Steve Bannon
•
Experience ↔ Design ↔ Policy
Talks about Design, Policy and User Experience
•
How DNA Editing Could Change Life on Earth Michael Specter, www.newyorker.com
Talks about Genetics, gene editing and biological weapons