On this episode of Boss Talk: How do the best product marketers see and explain a trend? How much is the best marketing truth vs. spin? Does the marketing function create the strategy or execute on it? What are the core skills and competencies of a great product marketer — and how do you find, or train, product marketers? Should you create a category, or try to capture an existing category? What is the minimum viable audience ? What's the role of open source in getting a minimum viable audience?...
Apr 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 46
From first discovering the bitcoin white paper through the crypto winters to taking the company public... Coinbase founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam tell their story, with Good Time Show hosts Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan, plus early investors, employees, and board members — Garry Tan, Marc Andreessen, Dan Romero, Balaji Srinivasan, and Katie Haun.
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 45
Zynga cofounder and SVP of Product Justin Waldron discusses his early iteration process, reimagining the game industry's business model, and important game metrics with a16z partner Jonathan Lai, Stillfront SVP Andrew Green, Presence Capital managing partner Amitt Mahajan, and Indie MEGABOOTH founder Kelly Wallick on Games Club.
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 44
In January, device maker Ubiquiti disclosed a breach and urged customers to change passwords. Then in late March, a whisteblower alleged that Ubiquiti had massively downplayed the severity and extent of the breach to preserve the stock price. So, how bad was the breach? What do we, and don't we, know? What does this tell us about best practices for disclosures in the aftermath of a breach? And what is the role of whistleblowers? 🔐Breach of the Week 🔐looks at who got hacked, how it happened, an...
Apr 15, 2021•24 min•Ep. 43
In this occasional Clubhouse series, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talk with Steve Stoute, the founder and CEO of UnitedMasters and a former executive at Interscope and Sony Music, about the changing music business, the role of technology, how Steve started UnitedMasters, and more. Special guests MC Hammer and Fab 5 Freddy also joined.
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 42
Every year, Edelman publishes a trust barometer . This year, trust in most of our social institutions — and especially in media — was down. Margit asks Richard Edelman (CEO of Edelman), Emily Chang (Executive Producer at Bloomberg), and Helena Maus (CEO of Archetype) how real is the crisis of trust in media and beyond; what’s behind it; how does it relate to the perceived friction between tech and the media… and what will it take to (re)build trust. "4B with Margit" is a Clubhouse show for raw a...
Apr 13, 2021•59 min•Ep. 41
When Ben and Marc started a16z, CAA and its founder Michael Ovitz served as inspiration for how to break into an industry dominated by a few large incumbents. In 1975, a few large talent agencies dominated the entertainment industry. To break into the industry, Michael and CAA came up with a new playbook — rather than a single agent representing an actor or actress, he turned the entire agency into a network. In this special edition of Boss Talk, Michael joins Ben, Marc, and Ali to talk about ho...
Apr 09, 2021•58 min•Ep. 40
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala and Vijay Pande talk to guest Ben Oakes, cofounder, President and CEO of Scribe Therapeutics. The conversation covers the the power of engineering gene editors, the transition from academia to a startup, and how to select the first indication to target with a novel bio platform.
Apr 08, 2021•44 min•Ep. 39
What is the future of open source in the age of SaaS? Has it become more, or less, relevant with the rise of cloud-based services? What is the connection between open source and open standards? And what does this mean for startups building SaaS apps today? Those questions and more with Nick Schrock (Elementl, GraphQL), Christian Kleinerman (Snowflake), Andrew Shafer (RedHat), and a16z general partners Martin Casado and Peter Levine. a16z Infra is the Clubhouse Show where the a16z enterprise team...
Apr 06, 2021•59 min•Ep. 38
The CEOs of GOAT, StyleSeat, Cameo, Faire, Whatnot, and Neighbor join a16z partners Andrew Chen, Connie Chan, D'Arcy Coolican, Jeff Jordan, Katie Baynes, and Anne Lee Skates to talk about the cold start problem, 2020 metrics, growth, and the tricky business of scaling a marketplace company. See more marketplace analysis, including a ranking of the 100 largest marketplace startups & private companies, in the Marketplace 100 .
Apr 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 37
This week on Boss Talk: Why aren't there more academic CEOs? Should early stage companies hire junior or senior engineers? What are the common mistakes high growth companies make, especially when expanding into new markets? Plus: balancing pay equity with retainment, CEO legal risk and protection, and growing through acquisition. Boss Talk is the Clubhouse show where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi, the Founder/CEO of Databricks, discuss CEO stuff, leadership stuff, management stuff.....
Apr 01, 2021•59 min•Ep. 36
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande talk to guest Jay Bradner, President of the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR). The conversation covers the challenges of translating basic research into a clinical application, the state of innovation in therapeutics, and the transition from drug hunting to drug farming.
Apr 01, 2021•45 min•Ep. 35
a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talk tech trends, company building, and more live on Clubhouse every Monday, 7pm PT. In this conversation: What does return to work look like for a16z portfolio companies (including exclusive survey data) How the re-distribution of the workforce might affect rural America The potential for social networks to replace networking in cities Generalists vs specialists in a startup How to think about celebrity investors and executives (like Prince Harry...
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 34
What do Ben Horowitz and former President Obama have in common? They both had their twitter accounts taken over to send cryptocurrency spam. With our office now our home, all security has become personal. This week on Breach of the Week, Ben explains how his Twitter got hacked, and Geoff and Joel break down the personal threat landscape, the security measures that best protect you, and where the security industry needs to evolve to better protect individuals. 🔐Breach of the Week 🔐looks at who ...
Mar 31, 2021•30 min•Ep. 33
Supercell CEO and co-founder Ilkka Paananen discusses collaborative decision-making on game teams, learning from failure, product design, building company culture, and more with a16z partner Jonathan Lai, Stillfront SVP Andrew Green, Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak, and Indie MEGABOOTH founder Kelly Wallick on Games Club.
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 32
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande, along with a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen, talk to guest Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andme. The conversation covers the shifting trends and perceptions at the intersection of bio and tech, the power of patient data and importance of giving people access to their own health data, and advice to founders on when to lead and when to listen.
Mar 30, 2021•37 min•Ep. 31
OpenSea founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah join Katie Haun as well as Marc Andreessen and Chris Lyons to talk about the emergence of NFTs, what it means for crypto marketplaces, and how the creator economy will continue to evolve.
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 30
Speaking coach extraordinaire Matt Abrahams, cofounder of Bold Echo LLC and Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business; Zūm CEO Ritu Narayan; and Mixpanel CEO Amir Movafaghi talk with Margit about how to master the art of public speaking, communicating in a virtual world, tailoring and testing the message with different audiences, and more. "4B with Margit" is a Clubhouse show for raw and unfiltered advice from comms and marketing experts who have seen it all, as well as insider stories fr...
Mar 26, 2021•40 min•Ep. 29
Ben and Ali are joined by guest Shaka Senghor, who after 20 years in prison, became an author and activist for prison reform, an entrepreneur, and most recently, head of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Tripactions. Shaka shares what prison taught him about building trust in a team, as well as what he sees as the path — and the obstacles— to meaningful diversity in the workplace. Boss Talk is the Clubhouse show where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi, the Founder/CEO of Databri...
Mar 25, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 28
a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talk tech trends, company building, and more live on Clubhouse every Monday, 7pm PT. In this conversation: How can VCs be both investors and marketing/growth engines for companies they invest in? How has a16z approached this and curating talent on Clubhouse? Are SPACs the new IPO? What would you say to a founder who pitched you a plan to grow as fast as they can with the goal of selling to a SPAC in 3-5 years? If a startup is profitably bootstrapp...
Mar 24, 2021•55 min•Ep. 27
🔐Welcome to Breach of the Week 🔐– the show that looks at who got hacked, how it happened, and what it means for the industry. 🎙With hosts Joel de la Garza (a16z Security Operating Partner) and Geoff Belknap (CISO LinkedIn) 👉 On the first episode: the Verkada hack and the Cloudflare response with Joe Sullivan (CSO Cloudflare) $16 SMS hacks , how is it possible and what does it mean for SMS? distracted guard allows intruder into Andrews Air Force Base Capcom had a breach and made everyone retu...
Mar 23, 2021•29 min•Ep. 26
Welcome to a16z Infra , the Clubhouse Show where the a16z enterprise team discusses the foundational technology and products that underpin all of tech. We dig deep into data, AI/ML, security, developer tools, compute, network, storage, hardware, and anything else found below the surface of modern stacks. On our first show, a16z general partners Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, and David Ulevitch talk about their journeys as infrastructure founders-turned-investors; what exactly infrastructure is; ho...
Mar 20, 2021•58 min•Ep. 25
Amanda Atkins, who leads Internal Communications & Culture at Slack, and Shannon Schiltz, who heads up HR & People Practices at a16z, talk internal comms with Margit. They break down the basics — When do you need an internal comms function? Where should it report? Is it actually different from external comms — and share advice for the toughest parts of the job, including how to handle layoffs, divisive political issues, negative employee reviews on Glassdoor, and leaks. 4B with Margit is a Clubh...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 24
King.com cofounder Riccardo Zacconi (developer of Candy Crush Saga) and Glu/Playfish cofounder Kristian Segerstrale (now the CEO of Super Evil Megacorp) discuss trends in the games industry, failing fast, and building enduring startups with a16z partner Jonathan Lai, Indie MEGABOOTH founder Kelly Wallick, and Stillfront SVP Andrew Green on Games Club.
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 23
In this occasional Clubhouse series, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talk with Greg Reyes, the former CEO of Brocade Communications who was recently pardoned after being convicted of and serving time for the fraudulent backdating of corporate stock options. Greg talks about his career before his conviction, his case and the SEC, his time in prison and what life was like after, the presidential pardon process, his advice for leaders today, and more. Catch Ben and Marc's Clubhous...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 22
Pricing has huge implications for market size. How do you know if the price isn't right? And when a customer says something is too expensive, what are they really telling you? Also on Boss Talk #6: creating a new category, how Ali learned to handle racism, and when to bet on your next product. Boss Talk is the Clubhouse show where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi, the Founder/CEO of Databricks, discuss CEO stuff, leadership stuff, management stuff... boss stuff. Live every Tuesday 5-6p...
Mar 18, 2021•58 min•Ep. 21
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show "It's Time to Heal", a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande talk to guests Peyton Greenside and Mark DePristo of BigHat Biosciences. The conversation covers the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug development and specifically in biologics and protein therapeutics.
Mar 18, 2021•51 min•Ep. 20
Topics covered this week include: How to tell if a startup has entered "purgatory", where they're getting by each year but no longer has a chance to be a multi-billion dollar company Common mistakes founders make when pitching VCs When do the biggest disagreements happen over possible investments What happens when an idea is great, but one of the founders is toxic Is there anyone now like Silicon Valley coaching legend, Coach Bill Campbell? What kinds of large companies are easiest to compete wi...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 19
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show "It's Time to Heal", a16z general partners Julie Yoo, Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, and Vijay Pande, along with market development partner Venkat Mocherla, talk to guest Dr. Stephen Klasko, the president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health about transforming the US healthcare system.
Mar 13, 2021•48 min•Ep. 18
What are the different types of failure? Which can (and can’t) we come back from? And what does it take to turn failure into a comeback story? The second episode of “4B with Margit” explores failure and comebacks with Suneel Gupta, once a poster child for failure, featured in the New York Times and on the keynote stage of FailCon, whose new book Backable is a study in turning failure into success. Also joining the conversation is Eugene Soltes, Harvard Business School professor and author of Why...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 17
