Hey Everyone –

I’m Zach, one of the new analysts at USV. I’m excited to be a part of this team and eager to find and support entrepreneurs on their quests to innovate.

I started my career at BlackRock, where I worked with institutional clients to better allocate their defined contribution assets (retirement savings). Then, I was bitten by the startup bug and joined MyPizza—now Slice—as the first business hire. [Slice](https://slicelife.com/) provides independent pizzerias with technology and consumers with the ability to order from their local pizzerias. While working as a business analyst, the role took me from downtown meetings at pizza joints all the way to our Macedonia offices to work with the operations teams.

I then transitioned to product management, spending time on consumer-facing and operations products. My excitement for providing (often) non-technical pizzeria owners with a modern toolset to operate in the digital age aligns with [USV’s Thesis 3.0](/content/blog/usv-thesis-30/index.html). I’m looking forward to exploring consumer businesses that broaden toolsets and the back-end SaaS companies that enable them.

Outside of work, I like to think about how and why people make decisions, play chess, and experiment with weird food combinations that should be considered delicacies ( [Diet Coke](http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/diet-coke-relaunch) finally took my advice and mixed with orange juice). I used to believe I had a chance at being the next Patrick Ewing, but I’ve resigned to weekend open gyms for now.

I look forward to chatting with as many of you as I can and feel free to ping me for pizza recommendations while my taste buds are still fresh.

Please say hello [@zgoldstein1](https://twitter.com/zgoldstein1) (disclaimer: I’m new to the Twitter game, so any tips are appreciated and all mistakes are my own). Or, get in touch the old-fashioned way with an email to zach AT usv DOT com.