Fred Wilson, cofounder of NYC’s Union Square Ventures at Wharton: ‘It’s good to be a contrarian’

Fred Wilson spoke at Wharton last week. Photo courtesy of Chadwick Prichard.

By Chadwick Prichard

It’s good to be a contrarian — not just in the business world, but in life, according to Fred Wilson, cofounder of New York City-based Union Square Ventures.

Wilson, whose firm has invested in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare, spoke at Wharton last week to a crowd of more than 100 attendees, said Chadwick Prichard, who organized the event as part of the Alpha Kappa Psi Aspire to Excellence Speaker Series.

Below, Prichard recaps three things he learned at Wilson’s event.

Photo courtesy of Chadwick Prichard.

• It’s good to be a contrarian, not only as an entrepreneur, but for life, in general. You have to stand by your convictions and refuse to go with the flow if your intuition says otherwise. Do what you believe in.
• Product comes first. You don’t have to know how to make money right off the bat. You don’t need a business plan. You shouldn’t even have a business plan in the earlier stages. Build a product that solves a problem, and can scale, and you are set.
• Your network is important, and in school, it’s important not to necessarily spend time with people studying the same things as you. It gives you a different and valuable perspective, and will be useful years after school.