As the $VIX closed at all-time record highs and the Nasdaq suffered its worst day ever, I thought the calming voice and investing style of Fred Wilson would be the right person to share a little ‘Panic With Friends’. Here is his bio.

Fred has been through many investment cycles as a Venture Capitalist and is a founder of Union Square Ventures in New York.

He is the definition of a long term thinker and investor. He has been blogging about family, life and venture investing for 17 years.

In this panic, he and his wife Joanne have so many personal local New York investments (like restaurants), that are caught up in the Tsunami of the Corona Virus. Like everyone, they will not go unscathed.

Also, like everyone, Fred has missed the ‘next big thing’ despite having an incredible track record as an investor and he talks about his ‘too soon’ move away from social media after leading the Twitter first round investment.

Fred does not lose any sleep over his investments or panics, though he does point out this time is different because it is his first pandemic. This is true. We just do not know a lot of things right now.

Some of Fred’s more famous investments include The Street.com (yes he backed Jim Cramer), Geocities, Etsy (he is currently Chairman), Twitter, Zynga and Coinbase. Fred and Joanne backed my last company Wallstrip and they are also LP’s in my three Social Leverage funds.

Currently, Union Square is benefitting from their investments in ‘Telehealth’ and ‘Online Education’.

Like all great investors – and comedians – he sometimes finds inspiration from random meetings and in the case Bitcoin and indirectly Coinbase…bumping into a founder he had once backed on the streets of New York.

The panic will continue today, but I hope you enjoy this wide ranging conversation and it helps you think a bit straighter.

You can listen to the conversation right here. You can also listen on Spotify or Apple podcasts y searching my name or Lindzanity.