Roblox cofounder and CEO David Baszucki and a16z's Jonathan Lai discuss the ways AI is changing games and virtual worlds, as well as how we create them. [1:00] Generative AI in games [4:56] Fully personalized playthroughs [7:50] Roblox's generative model [11:28] Future of interfaces [13:25] impact on creators [16:36] NPCs as copilots [18:49] VR & spatial computing This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features som...
Sep 27, 2023•24 min•Ep. 108
Ali Ghodsi, CEO and cofounder of Databricks, and Ben Horowitz, cofounder of a16z, explain the data wars happening inside and outside enterprises and how they could impact the evolution of LLMs. [0:59] Why is it so hard for enterprises to adopt AI? [3:29] Data wars [4:49] Big vs. small LLMs [8:35] Finetuning [14:14] Open source AI [18:13] Benchmarks [19:51] Why Ali isn't afraid of AI This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The ...
Sep 27, 2023•25 min•Ep. 112
Will AI take all the design jobs? Dylan Field, founder and CEO of Figma, looks at the relationship between designers, developers, and AI, in conversation with a16z's David George. [0:58] Will AI replace designers? [4:13] Human vs. AI creativity [8:38] Applying AI to design [11:35] Startups vs. incumbents This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussin...
Sep 27, 2023•18 min•Ep. 109
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, in conversation with a16z's Bob Swan, explains how AI copilots are keeping developers longer in a flow state and why AI copilots more broadly could be the start of an industrial revolution for knowledge work. [0:59] Microsoft's approach to AI [6:15] The next Industrial Revolution [10:47] Developer productivity & flow state [15:46] Reprogramming the American Dream [20:08] Advice to builders This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a...
Sep 27, 2023•24 min•Ep. 111
Cofounder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei unpacks how far can scaling laws take us and how can AI be used to improve AI, in conversation with a16z's Anjney Midha. [0:59] Dario's background [2:45] GPT-2's emergent capabilities [5:16] Scaling laws [8:55] Why are there so many physicists in AI? [11:58] Constitutional AI [18:29] Anthropic's Roadmap This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impa...
Sep 27, 2023•21 min•Ep. 110
Daphne Koller is the founder and CEO of insitro, a company using AI and machine learning to engineer drug discovery. In this conversation with a16z's Vijay Pande, she discusses how an LLM for cells could revolutionize drug discovery and how to bridge the technological and cultural divide between building with atoms and building with bits. [0:59] Why life sciences? [3:42] AI in the life sciences [7:20] LLM for cells [11:55] Engineering disease and drug discovery [13:51] Bits vs. atoms [17:55] The...
Sep 27, 2023•22 min•Ep. 113
Noam Shazeer, Character.ai CEO and cofounder, talks to a16z's Sarah Wang about the dawn of universally accessible intelligence, the compute it will take to power it, and his pursuit of AGI's first use... [0:59] Real Noam vs. AI Noam [6:14] Next unlocks [8:11] First use case for AGI [11:06] Building a full-stack LLM [13:33] Noam calculates global compute capacity [15:24] Universally accessible intelligence This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event...
Sep 27, 2023•19 min•Ep. 114
As CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati oversaw the development and release of GPT-4 and ChatGPT. Here she tells Martin Casado the story behind the release of ChatGPT—and what it tells us about the future of AI and human-machine interactions. [0:59] Mira's background [4:55] Math, physics, and AI [7:31] Natural language interfaces [10:51] OpenAI Roadmap [17:47] Scaling Laws [20:48] One model to rule them all? [23:34] The next 5-10 years This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August...
Sep 27, 2023•26 min•Ep. 107
a16z Cofounder and General Partner Marc Andreessen and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel are interviewed by a16z General Partner Sriram Krishnan at the “Time to Build: LA” event during LA Week. The trio chat about the future of content distribution, the bull case for VR over AR, the end of corporate brands, and why there is (or isn’t) ever anything good to watch on TV.
Oct 27, 2022•37 min•Ep. 106
In this episode of a16z Live, David Banks, a former Riot Games executive who's now the co-founder and CEO of Elodie Games, and Timmu Tõke, the co-founder and CEO of Ready Player Me, a leading platform for cross game avatars, join a16z General Partner and games investor Jon Lai for a conversation about where they think the metaverse is going, and the future of building games
Oct 24, 2022•19 min•Ep. 105
In this episode of a16z Live, Grant LaFontaine, the co-founder and CEO of the livestream shopping platform Whatnot, talks with a16z General Partner Connie Chan about building the company, his experience as the site's first person to go live, and why he prefers Los Angeles over San Francisco. What follows is a slightly edited version of that conversation.
Oct 24, 2022•17 min•Ep. 104
In this episode of a16z Live, Chris Power, the Founder and CEO of the precision parts manufacturing company, Hadrian, talks with a16z American Dynamism Partner Oliver Hsu, about why he decided to build his factories in LA, why software engineers shouldn't be afraid of manufacturing company jobs, and how a single mom and pop machinist shop can affect the national supply chain. What follows is a slightly edited version of that conversation.
Oct 24, 2022•13 min•Ep. 103
To celebrate the L.A. community and the city's growth, a16z recently hosted, "Time to Build Los Angeles," an event where we invited L.A.-based investors, founders, and operators from across a diverse range of industries to talk about company building in L.A. In the first in our series of interviews, we invited Andrew Chen from a16z, Minnie Ingersoll from TenOneTen, and Turner Novak from Banana Capital to talk about why L.A. is at an inflection point, misperceptions about the region, and what mak...
Oct 24, 2022•30 min•Ep. 102
In this episode of a16z Live, we are joined by Titan Invest co-founder and co-CEO Clayton Gardner; a16z General Partner Anish Acharya; and a16z growth partner, Alex Immerman. The trio starts their conversation by diving into the difference between active and passive investment management and where Titan fits into that matrix. Building upon that foundation, they discuss how the fintech market is changing, why historically the best fund managers have not taken retail money, and whether that's chan...
Oct 20, 2022•38 min•Ep. 101
Ben Horowitz discusses the leadership styles of Intel’s Andy Grove and Apple’s Bill Campbell, how Okta won its market with culture, and how to look for and hire the talent you don’t have in an interview with David Weiden, founding partner at Khosla Ventures, at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit. Read a transcript of the conversation here. 0:40: The management legacy of Intel’s Andy Grove 4:26: Why everyone remembers Bill Campbell 7:35: How culture gave Okta the competitive edge 12:15: Finding the t...
Aug 19, 2022•22 min•Ep. 100
The API economy and a Cambrian explosion of apps are transforming best-in-class tech from monolithic tools to a stack of 20 applications that work together. Amid this unbundling, partnerships have become a critical part of early go-to-market strategy that can lead to higher quality pipeline and accelerated sales. In this fireside chat, recorded at the 2022 Crossbeam Supernode conference, a16z General Partner Sarah Wang and Bob Moore, Cofounder and CEO of Crossbeam, discuss how partnerships have ...
Jun 29, 2022•20 min•Ep. 99
a16z General Partner David Haber chats with his former colleague Stephanie Cohen, Goldman Sachs' Global Co-Head of Consumer and Wealth Management, about her journey from being an investment banker to running a global division, how Goldman Sachs stays relevant to different client audiences, and how fintech entrepreneurs can think about partnering with the financial services giant.
Jun 23, 2022•24 min•Ep. 98
As the deputy director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Nitin Natarajan spends most of his days worrying about everything from risk identification and mitigation, to educating young people and small businesses on their potential to be victims. In this fireside chat with Joel de la Garza, a16z operating partner for security, the two men discuss what keeps the CISA official up at night, his view of the situation in Ukraine and Russia, and how being tech savvy doesn’...
Jun 10, 2022•30 min•Ep. 97
Katherine Boyle, General Partner at a16z is joined by Hadrian founder and CEO Chris Power, Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring, and a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen to discuss the opportunity to automate and upskill in the precision parts industry and shore up U.S. manufacturing with new technology.
Apr 09, 2022•55 min•Ep. 96
An excerpt from a Clubhouse conversation, where Marc interviews Ken Griffin, CEO and founder of Citadel, on GameStop one year later and why the stock price hasn't crashed, as well as about his winning bid for the Constitution in the auction against ConstitutionDAO.
Dec 03, 2021•20 min•Ep. 95
What are you doing with real world data? [1:39] How valuable is real world data? [7:24] How and where do we need shared data infrastructure? [16:37] Can real world data be used for clinical decision support? [20:40] Are diagnostic companies becoming the data aggregator layer? [26:52] What will define the core competency of academic medical centers (AMCs)? [30:35] How could drug manufacturers use real world data? [33:58] For more on the digital health, visit a16z.com/digital-health-builders . And...
Nov 14, 2021•39 min•Ep. 94
Who is your "B" and who is your "C"? [2:02] Why did they choose B2C2B? [6:36] How did they craft their enterprise story? [11:42] Does going B2C2B increase CAC (customer acquisition costs)? [16:56] Three things to build an enterprise story around [22:26] How did their choice of B2C2B impact investor conversations? [34:23] What mix of consumer vs. healthcare talent did they need? [40:42] For more on the new digital health go-to-market, visit a16z.com/digital-health-builders . And for more great a1...
Oct 29, 2021•54 min•Ep. 93
This is an excerpt from the a16z Clubhouse show One on One with A and Z, where a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz answer questions on tech trends, company building, and more. To catch full live episodes of the show, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse.
Oct 18, 2021•19 min•Ep. 92
Indra didn't plan her career -- and that was a good thing [2:15] The personal tradeoffs of professional success [4:24] Deciding between a job at GE and PepsiCo [7:27] Rising up the ranks of PepsiCo [12:13] Transitioning PepsiCo to healthier foods... and doing well by doing good [16:34] Management hack: writing letters to parents [19:04] "Performance with Purpose" -- what is it and why does it matter? [22:15] Work-life balance requires tradeoffs [23:24] Meeting Steve Jobs and learning the power o...
Oct 06, 2021•38 min•Ep. 91
This is an excerpt from the a16z Clubhouse show One on One with A and Z, where a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz answer questions on tech trends, company building, and more. To catch full live episodes of the show, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse.
Sep 28, 2021•14 min•Ep. 90
The early days of Zimrides [2:08] Driving early virality [7:56] Competing with Uber [15:47] Why they took political stances [27:03] Managing through the pandemic [38:09] The future focus for Lyft -- autonomous vehicles and the end of car ownership [42:50] Follow the a16z Club to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full.
Sep 08, 2021•52 min•Ep. 89
An overview of diabetes Type 1 and Type 2 [2:58] Thinking beyond Type 1 and Type 2 [6:58] New treatment options: stem cells, continuous glucose monitoring [14:19] What's the timeline on stem cell therapies? [17:15] Therapies for controlling, rather than curing, diabetes [23:52] The current technology challenges to treating diabetes [29:52] The challenges in education and access [35:41] This is an excerpt from the a16z Bio show on Clubhouse, where we explore all the ways that biology is technolog...
Sep 03, 2021•52 min•Ep. 88
Founding story of Nautilus [1:43] Why was the Nautilus approach to proteomics a breakthrough? [6:12] Why a startup instead of academic research? [9:57] How to pick a good cofounder (it's not that different from choosing a spouse) [15:32] Advice for academic founders: how to work with VCs [21:14] The tipping points of scale & the challenges of finding good talent [25:17] Is proteomics really a gamechanger? [30:49] How is Nautilus bringing it to market? [34:17] What Nautilus can learn from Illumin...
Aug 31, 2021•44 min•Ep. 87
This is an excerpt from the a16z Clubhouse show One on One with A and Z, where a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz answer questions on tech trends, company building, and more live . To catch full episodes of the show, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse.
Aug 25, 2021•19 min•Ep. 86
The MSCI origin story [1:07] How does an index get constructed? [6:51] How do you keep an index accurate? [11:42] MSCI business model... how do they get paid? [16:27] MSCI, competition, and why not an open source index? [23:14] ESG and investment objectives [27:00] ESG disclosure frameworks and the role of government in ESG [32:50] Defining ESG [34:44] MSCI, crypto, and other asset classes [42:55] Why an index business instead of principal investing? [51:09] Follow the a16z Club to join conversa...
Aug 23, 2021•57 min•Ep. 85
