Matthew Mandel

I’m an investor at Union Square Ventures in NYC. I write about the things I’m most excited about like technology, philosophy, business, and culture. If you’re interested in following my writing, you can subscribe below:

  • AI and Art Demo Night

    I recently published a post on the USV blog about AI and art. I’ve been reflecting on how intimately connected technology and art are. The art we make is mediated by the tools at our disposal, and the visions technologists pursue are often downstream of the stories artists tell. Since I published the blog, Open…

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  • Habits

    Duolingo let me know today that I’ve done a Hebrew lesson everyday for the last three weeks. That’s not the most impressive feat. The lessons take less than five minutes, and I still haven’t made it a month. But I was surprised at the consistency I achieved on this brand new behavior. I had a pretty…

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  • AI Aesthetics

    (Crossposted from the USV blog) The word “technology” comes from the Greek word techne, which refers to an art or skill or practice. Plato writes a lot about the concept, often making reference to artists such as flute players as canonical examples of those engaged in a techne. Though today we are inclined to contrast…

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  • USV AI Roundtable #1: AI and Search

    We’re kicking off a new lunch series at USV. We’re going to host monthly roundtables on topics in AI with investors, operators, and researchers in the NYC community. Our first roundtable will be on January 31st on AI and Search. Search engines have been the portal to the internet for the last 30 years. They…

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  • Making Energy Programmable

    (crossposted from the USV blog) We’ve previously written about the storage gap. The proliferation of solar has led to an abundance of energy when the sun is out and a dearth of energy when it’s not. Batteries help address this gap by storing excess energy in times of plenty and discharging stored energy as needed.…

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