This podcast is an excerpt. Follow the a16z Club to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full. In this episode: The abandoned M&A with Visa [3:47] Communicating to employees around the M&A [8:29] Plaid's near death experiences in the early days [12:41] The fintech trends that made Plaid possible [17:29] What is a bank now? [26:54] Fintech and new revenue models [29:20] Plaid's role in the creator economy [35:21] What is a neobank? [37:30]...
Jun 18, 2021•40 min•Ep. 76
In what ways is digital health for complex care under or overrated? [4:04] Are digital health solutions better suited to tackling clinical or non-clinical needs for complex care? [17:32] The challenge of the physician's inbox [27:55] Have we meaningfully moved the needle on complex digital care? If so, where? [32:08] Should we focus on applying basic tech to easy optimization and automation problems or advanced tech to more complex problems? [41:48] It's Time to Heal, Mondays at 5pm PT on Clubho...
Jun 17, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 75
Decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, are one of the hottest topics in crypto and tech right now. But what exactly are they? Why do they matter? And what new modes of governance, ownership, and creation do they make possible?
Jun 15, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 74
mRNA research before COVID and how "mRNA is code" [3:21] The early days of COVID: designing a vaccine in 48 hours [5:44] The software behind the vaccine: getting mRNA researchers out of Excel and into a drug design studio [9:11] The first draft of the vaccine was the final draft [11:10] How the government sped up vaccine development for COVID [12:18] What other new vaccines will come from mRNA? [15:34] How far are we from these mRNA vaccines? What do we need for them to be widely available? [25:...
Jun 11, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 73
Fab 5 Freddy on New York in the 70s, Warhol, Blondie, Basquiat, and Yo! MTV Raps [1:40] Contrarian strategy and challenging assumptions [5:12] Boring AI and solving meaningful problems [8:42] Drop-in audio copycats [14:39] How is copying software different from remixing hip hop? [21:07] Do you want a CEO as an inventor or an operator? [24:12] Recruiting sales development reps [30:34] Being a boss and having a personal life [36:56] How do you tell the story of letting someone go? [42:47] Best pra...
May 28, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 72
The six functions in an enterprise marketing org [2:54] Why product marketing is the killer function [6:52] How do you hire a world class product marketer? [11:16] Is community or developer evangelists its own function or part of product marketing? [17:46] How does community tie into the marketing funnel? [22:56] Is community top of funnel, an accelerant for the whole funnel, or something else entirely? [29:39] If the product you're selling becomes someone's job, then your community marketing is...
May 24, 2021•59 min•Ep. 71
What did Substack think about the NYTimes article " Why We’re Freaking Out About Substack " [1:01] What is Substack? [4:40] The issues with social media content models and how Substack is different [5:54] What about the echo chamber? [8:54] Turning cultural principles (e.g., freedom of the press) into actual culture [12:00] Will Substack replace traditional media? [14:01] Would Donald Trump be welcome on Substack? [20:35] Why do they pay writers advances? And why is that controversial? [23:33] T...
May 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 70
eBay to today, a brief history of collectibles and tech [1:03] Are collectibles about sentiment or investment? [5:13] How do you bring the excitement of a collection to digital goods? [13:34] Is the future of all collectibles digital? [20:20] The role of blockchain and NFTs [26:39] Are collectible marketplaces different from other marketplaces? [32:19] Importance of live video [38:28] Celebrity interest in NFTs: will it last? [40:46] Are collectibles a bubble? [43:13] Listen live to the a16z sho...
May 20, 2021•54 min•Ep. 69
For videos of the NFT Virtual Summit, visit a16z.com . Session 1: The Future of the Digital Ownership Economy with Dan Boneh (Stanford University) and Chris Dixon (a16z) What is an NFT? [3:01] Why are NFTs so big right now? [7:04] The most exciting programmable ownership structures [11:36] NFTs and composability: what can you do with NFTs? [15:16] How would quantum impact the immutability of the blockchain ledger? [18:40] How important is decentralized permanent storage for NFTs... and when will...
May 19, 2021•2 hr 1 min•Ep. 68
What inspired Eric and Sam to start Dyno [4:09] How does the use of ML impact Dyno's GTM [10:40] The current challenges of gene therapy [21:43] Why Dyno wants to be a horizontal platform for gene therapy [30:56] How does Dyno think about competition [44:23] After party and audience Q&A [52:01] It's Time to Heal, Mondays at 5pm PT on Clubhouse. Join the a16z bio team — Jorge Conde, Vineeta Argawala, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande — plus special guests every week as they explore all the ways that biol...
May 18, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 67
Note: the recording of this episode starts a minute or two into the show. Ali recommends: The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz [0:18] Ben recommends: High Output Management by Andy Grove [4:36] Marc recommends: Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success by Art Kleiner [10:48] Best read for enterprise sales: Power Base Selling by Jim Holden, et al [13:06] Microsoft, Google, government contracts, and politicized workplaces [16:28] Marc recommends: The Ty...
May 14, 2021•59 min•Ep. 66
How Ben took over Take Two [1:42] How digital distribution and publishing changed gaming [8:36] What is a next generation publisher? [13:51] Can publishers add value as tastemakers? [17:36] How do you make sure studios ship on time? And in the era of persistent game worlds, does it matter? [22:01] Lessons learned from Take Two [27:27] Taking the long view of the creative process — "Every overnight success was ten years in the making." [30:53] Is there a successful game that surprised Ben? [37:08...
May 14, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 65
Robert's foundational experiences growing up [3:03] His introduction to computers, how he got an internship at Bell Labs, and what he learned there [6:38] Why he studied chemical engineering [13:15] Working at Kraft and engineering macaroni and cheese [15:08] Why he moved to investing [18:12] How he realized that it made sense to do buyouts in enterprise software [23:19] Creating a common playbook for running enterprise software companies [30:45] How does he think about retaining vs replacing fo...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 64
What happened at Basecamp and could it have gone differently? [3:51] When did Basecamp turn into a 4B? [7:45] Why were buyouts a good policy for Basecamp and Coinbase? [10:26] Why not have a more moderate policy? [11:56] What makes something "political"? [14:45] What about when political issues have a personal impact on employees? [19:18] What happened at Peloton and why they apologized [22:53] When should you issue an apology? [26:12] How do you rebuild trust after you apologize? [28:32] Audien...
May 13, 2021•58 min•Ep. 63
What are red teams and blue teams? [2:03] How Cedric cracked Mac Gatekeeper [6:55] Apple's response [15:22] Cedric's craziest hack [19:24] Red team advice for the blue team [22:02] Audience Q&A [26:31] 🔐Breach of the Week 🔐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 Clubhouse every Thursday 5-5:30pm....
May 11, 2021•50 min•Ep. 62
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Julie Yoo, Vijay Pande, and Jorge Conde talk to guest Shantanu Nundy, the Chief Medical Officer of Accolade. The conversation covers Dr. Nundy's new book, " Care After Covid: What the Pandemic Revealed Is Broken in Healthcare and How to Reinvent It ", the next steps in the evolution of hospitals, interoperability (or lack thereof), and more....
May 11, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 61
Why does it feel like there's a database for everything? [4:46] What is the actual use case and market for streaming? [9:34] How real is real time? [20:12] Can you do everything in SQL? [25:08] Is the future SQL extensions or does SQL become embedded in data frames? [40:19] Is database consolidation coming? How many different systems will we have? (SPOILER: 3... maybe) [49:41] a16z Infra is the Clubhouse Show where the a16z enterprise team and guests discuss the foundational technology and produ...
May 07, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 60
What is AI? [2:27] AI is statistics, not consciousness [7:05] Why then so much talk about the singularity? [12:12] AI breakthroughs and FAANGs [17:21] Building the AI toolchain [26:07] AI applications in bio and medicine [30:19] Ali's favorite AI use cases [34:35] What will AI do to jobs? [39:27] AI in 10 years [46:09] Snowflake, Databricks, data Lake, data warehouse, and how it all fits together [48:16] Boss Talk is the Clubhouse show where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi, the Founde...
May 07, 2021•59 min•Ep. 59
In this episode: Melody McCloskey - CEO of StyleSeat, a booking platform that connects stylists and beauty professionals with clients. Since its founding in 2011, StyleSeat has powered 150 million beauty appointments and generated over $6.5 billion in revenue for beauty professionals. The company has created a loyal community of the country’s leading hair, makeup and nail stylists. Camille Ricketts - Head of Marketing at Notion, a popular workspace collaboration and productivity tool that has de...
May 06, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 58
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Julie Yoo and Jorge Conde, managing partner Scott Kupor, and market development partner Venkat Mocherla talk to guest Florian Otto, cofounder and CEO of Cedar. The conversation covers how to improve two of the trickiest aspect of healthcare: price transparency and patient engagement.
May 05, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 57
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 5-6pm on Clubhouse.
May 04, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 56
Inside sales, field sales, product-led, channel sales, marketing, post-sales… a16z GTM is our clubhouse show for enterprise founders and builders about what it takes to go to market and the evolving strategies and lessons learned from enterprise companies past and present. Every other Thursday 4-5pm with David Ulevitch. For our upcoming schedule of Clubhouse conversations, visit a16z.com/clubhouse.
Apr 30, 2021•58 min•Ep. 55
a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz answer questions on tech trends, company building, and more live on Clubhouse Mondays at 7pm PT. In this conversation: Which institution will last longer Harvard or the US? [00:58] How do you craft a good culture in a high pressure environment? [13:45] When will we have AGI? [31:15] Are network effects today so strong that big tech incumbents (e.g., Google, Facebook, Amazon) can deliver better products than startups? [44:06] What actually is the i...
Apr 29, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 54
In this episode: Jim Messina - CEO, The Messina Group; formerly Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff; known as the "fixer" and "the most powerful person in Washington you've never heard of" Adrian Durbin - currently at Greenbrier; former Director of Policy Comms at Lyft Risa Heller - CEO of Risa Heller Communications; former Director of Comms for Senator Charles Schumer "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 i...
Apr 28, 2021•53 min•Ep. 53
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Julie Yoo, and Jorge Conde talk to guests Sean Duffy, cofounder and CEO of Omada Health, Karan Singh, cofounder and COO of Ginger, and Chris Hogg, a serial entrepreneur in the digital health space. The conversation covers go-to-market strategies, financing and aligning incentives, the struggles of interoperability (or lack thereof), and what it is like to build today versus in the early years.
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 52
In this episode: Jamie Byrne, Senior Director of Creator Partnerships, YouTube Shishir Mehrotra, former Director of Product Management, YouTube; former VP of Product, Engineering, UX, YouTube; current Founder & CEO, Coda Shiva Rajaraman, former Director, Product Management (etc.); current VP Shops and Business, Facebook Lauren Riihimimaki (aka LaurDIY), Canadian YouTuber
Apr 27, 2021•58 min•Ep. 51
a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz answer questions on tech trends, company building, and more live on Clubhouse Mondays at 7pm PT. In this conversation: NFTs and tokenization — how will they impact the arts, media, music and investing strategies? The potential for DeFi Using shocking new rules to create culture Structuring options to attract talent Spending time in the markets vs. timing the market Operation Warp Speed — will it accelerate how novel medical treatments come to mark...
Apr 23, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 50
a16z Infra is the Clubhouse Show where the a16z enterprise team and guests discuss 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. Like what you hear? Tune in for our next show on Thursday, April 29, 4-5pm.
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 49
On this episode of the a16z Bio Clubhouse Show, a16z general partners Vineeta Agarwala, Julie Yoo, and Jorge Conde talk to guest Connie Chen, Chief Medical Officer at Lyra health. The conversation covers what makes digital health different from traditional healthcare delivery, how to build a sustainable business model while maintaining high standards for care, and advice for founders of digital health startups.
Apr 21, 2021•37 min•Ep. 48
Anduril founders and team members Joe Chen, Matt Grimm, Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, and Trae Stevens in conversation with Big Ideas show on Clubhouse co-host Katherine Boyle (along with Antonio Garcia-Martinez, Erik Torenberg, and Marc Andreessen).
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 47
