We are in the midst of a rapid and unprecedented shift to remote work. What does it mean for security when the airgap between work and life is gone? How prepared are organizations? And what should security professionals as well as individual workers be doing to protect themselves and their companies? In this podcast, a16z security expert Joel de la Garza breaks down the current risks and how to defend against them. But beyond just immediate security needs, he explains what bigger transformations...
Mar 27, 2020•22 min•Ep. 531
The spike in online ordering and food delivery—a trend that's particularly relevant now—is evidence of how tech is fundamentally changing how and what we eat. Is this the end of the traditional restaurant experience as we know it? In this conversation between Virtual Kitchen Co. CEO Ken Chong, Snackpass CEO Kevin Tan, a16z general parter Andrew Chen, and host Lauren Murrow, we discuss what's driving this transformation, the infusion of data into the restaurant industry, how take-out and delivery...
Mar 25, 2020•19 min•Ep. 530
Stay Updated: Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments i...
Mar 23, 2020•20 min•Ep. 529
We’re at a moment where we are now seeing medicine go virtual faster, and at a scale that it has never done before. In this conversation, a16z bio general partners Vijay Pande and Julie Yoo, who come from the worlds of bio, technology and care delivery, talk with Hanne Tidnam all about what exactly virtual care and “telemedicine” is... and what it isn’t; what it works well for, what doesn’t (yet), and where there’s potential; and finally, the current pain points (including regulation), and what ...
Mar 19, 2020•28 min•Ep. 528
A lot's going on in the world of healthcare right now, and one topic that's especially relevant is how diagnostic labs work. In this episode with Dave King, Executive Chairman of Lab Corp (one of the largest clinical lab networks in the world) and a16z's General Partner Jorge Conde and Hanne Tidnam, we cover the evolution of the modern lab over the past 50 years, especially as new technologies and new tests are added; how tests go from specialized to mainstream and widely available; and who pays...
Mar 17, 2020•35 min•Ep. 527
On February 21, Andreessen Horowitz kicked off its very first Crypto Startup School, with 45 students from around the U.S. and three countries gathering to learn how to build crypto projects. But just two weeks into the seven-week course, community spread of the novel coronavirus meant the school had to go remote — not just for the health and safety of everyone involved, but for others too, given the recommendations around social distancing and the importance of “flattening the curve”. Marketing...
Mar 14, 2020•13 min•Ep. 526
The last financial crisis prompted many consumers to reassess their banking expectations—none more so than millennials and Gen-Z-ers. While revealing one's financial information was once considered taboo, now consumers are more apt than ever to openly discuss money and debt on online platforms. It's a trend that's evident on both ends of the spectrum, whether that’s people divulging their crushing levels of debt on Twitter and Instagram (#debtfreejourney), bragging about their credit scores, or ...
Mar 12, 2020•24 min•Ep. 525
One of the recurring themes we talk about a lot on the a16z Podcast is how software changes organizations, and vice versa... More broadly: it’s really about how companies of all kinds innovate with the org structures and tools that they have. But we've come a long way from the question of " does IT matter " to answering the question of what org structures, processes, architectures, and roles DO matter when it comes to companies -- of all sizes -- innovating through software and more. So in this ...
Mar 06, 2020•45 min•Ep. 524
In 2014, in " Why There Will Never Be Another Red Hat ," Peter Levine argued that Red Hat’s open source business model of commercializing support and services was highly difficult to replicate. Instead, he predicted the future of open source companies would be open source-as-a-service. And today SaaS has emerged as the dominant business model. In this podcast, recorded as a hallway-style conversation as part of the a16z Innovation Summit last year, Peter chats with Red Hat CIO, Mike Kelly, about...
Feb 28, 2020•20 min•Ep. 523
This episode covers the following -- since our previous deep-dive on the novel coronavirus outbreak -- including: practical implications for the U.S. healthcare system given how it works today, and where we might go in the future — with a16z general partner Julie Yoo , given our vantage point in tech; and how the rt-PCR test works — with a16z bio partner Judy Savitskaya; …in conversation with Sonal Chokshi. Sources for updates at top: CDC's latest briefing February 26, 2020, transcript WHO situa...
Feb 27, 2020•22 min•Ep. 522
It's "Marketplaces Week" for us at a16z, thanks to our consumer team releasing a new index of the next industry-defining marketplaces, the Marketplace 100 . But what happens as such marketplaces and other platforms evolve over time, as do their users? This episode is a rerun of a popular conversation from a couple years ago -- featuring general partners Andrew Chen and Jeff Jordan (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) -- on what comes after user acquisition: retention. It's all about engagement. ...
Feb 20, 2020•33 min•Ep. 521
Susan shares how she learned to leverage the characteristics of her personality early in her career as assistant secretary of state [2:05] One of the important conversations Susan had with a mentor that changed the trajectory of her career [4:50] Her parent’s commitment to education, their personal backgrounds, and the legacies they created [8:10] The result of instilling self-belief into children and mastering “psychological jiu jitsu” [10:22] What the early lessons of family diplomacy taught h...
Feb 14, 2020•51 min•Ep. 520
with @OzAzamTmunity1, @JorgeCondeBio, and @omnivorousread CAR T therapy, the groundbreaking new medicines that uses engineered T-cells to attack cancer, has been so effective in childhood leukemias that we believe it may actually be a potential cure. But this isn't just one new medicine, it's an entirely new therapeutic tool—and a total paradigm shift from most traditional medicines we've seen before. Tmunity CEO Usman "Oz" Azam was previously the head of Cell and Gene Therapies at Novartis, in ...
Feb 07, 2020•29 min•Ep. 519
When we think about rebellious behavior in the context of organizations and companies, we tend to think of rebels as trouble-makers, rabble-rousers; in other words, people who make decisions and processes more difficult because they may not follow the established rules or norms. But rebel behavior can also be incredibly positive and constructive—in keeping us from stagnation, encouraging growth and learning, increasing curiosity and creativity. In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Harvard Busine...
Feb 04, 2020•33 min•Ep. 518
This episode of 16 Minutes on the news from a16z is all about the recent coronavirus outbreak -- or rather, a new type of coronavirus called 2019-nCoV for 2019 novel coronavirus. Since it's an ongoing and fast-developing news cycle, we take a quick snapshot for where we are, what we know, and what we don't know, and discuss the vantage point of where tech comes in. Topics covered include: definition of a virus, categories of coronaviruses origins and spread how this stacks up so far against SARS...
Jan 30, 2020•20 min•Ep. 517
The idea of " 1000 true fans " -- first proposed by Kevin Kelly in 2008 and later updated for Tools of Titans -- argued that to be a successful creator, you don’t need millions of customers or clients, but need only thousands of true fans. Such a true, diehard fan "will buy anything you produce", and as such, creators can make a living from them as long as they: (1) create enough each year to earn profit from each fan, plus it's easier and better to give existing fans more; (2) have a direct rel...
Jan 27, 2020•16 min•Ep. 516
We've been financing good writing with bad advertising -- and "attention monsters" (to quote Craig Mod) for way too long. So what happens when the technology for creators finally falls into place? We're finally starting to see shift in power away from publications as the sole gatekeepers of talent, towards individual writers. Especially when the best possible predictor of the value of a piece of writing is, well, the writer . The publication's brand is no longer the guarantee of quality, or the ...
Jan 27, 2020•40 min•Ep. 515
How can we evolve the web for a better future? Has the web become a mature platform — or are we still in the early days of knowing what it can do and what role it might have in our lives? Just as “social/local/mobile” once did, what are the new trends — like crypto and blockchain networks and commerce everywhere — that might converge into new products and experiences? Chris Dixon (general partner at a16z and co-lead of the a16z crypto fund) discusses all things internet with Jonah Peretti (found...
Jan 19, 2020•41 min•Ep. 514
AI can do a lot of specific tasks as well as, or even better than, humans can — for example, it can more accurately classify images, more efficiently process mail, and more logically manipulate a Go board. While we have made a lot of advances in task-specific AI, how far are we from artificial general intelligence (AGI), that is AI that matches general human intelligence and capabilities? In this podcast, a16z operating partner Frank Chen interviews Stuart Russell, the Founder of the Center for ...
Jan 16, 2020•26 min•Ep. 513
The federal agency known as the FDA, or the Food and Drug Administration, was born over 100 years ago—at the turn of the industrial revolution, in a time of enormous upheaval and change, and rapidly emerging technology. The same could be said to be just as true today. From CRISPR to synthetic biology to using artificial intelligence in medicine, our healthcare system is undergoing massive amounts of innovation and change. Covering everything from gene-editing your dog to tracking the next foodbo...
Jan 14, 2020•45 min•Ep. 512
How does the world’s largest producer of medicines in terms of volume balance the science and the business of innovation? How does an enterprise at such vast scale make decisions about what to build vs. buy, especially given the fast pace of science today? How does it balance attitudes between “not invented here” and “not invented yet”? Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, sat down with a16z bio general partners Jorge Conde and Vijay Pande, and editor in chief Sonal Chokshi, during the JP Morgan Hea...
Jan 11, 2020•59 min•Ep. 511
This is a turn of the decade (and January-themed) look backward/ look forward into personal genomics, given recent and past retrospective and prospective pieces in the media on the promise, and perils, of the ability to sequence one's DNA: What did it, and does it, mean for personalized medicine, criminal investigations, privacy, and more? General partner Jorge Conde , who has a long history in the space, covers everything from where genealogy databases and large datasets come in to fetal testin...
Jan 06, 2020•20 min•Ep. 510
Many skeptics thought the internet would never reach mass adoption, but today it’s shaping global culture, is integral to our lives -- and it's just the beginning. In this conversation from our 2019 innovation summit, Kevin Kelly (Founding Executive Editor, WIRED magazine) and Marc Andreessen sit down to discuss the evolution of technology, key trends, and why they're the most optimistic people in the room. *** The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“...
Jan 02, 2020•45 min•Ep. 509
When innovation and capital go global, so do restrictions on trade, foreign investment, and more. Over the past couple years, U.S. policymakers have expanded the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) through the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) of 2018 which was recently updated through proposed reforms this September 2019 . So what does this all mean for tech founders taking investments from, or doing joint ventures with, foreign entities -- o...
Dec 23, 2019•46 min•Ep. 508
A bold proposal: You go to college for free, then pay back the school after graduation—but only if you get a job in your field of study and make a high enough salary to afford it. It's called an income share agreement, and Austen Allred, the CEO and cofounder of Lambda School , thinks it's the future of education. Student debt currently stands at more than 1.5 trillion dollars, which makes it the second-highest consumer debt category behind mortgage debt. The crisis has saddled much of a generat...
Dec 19, 2019•28 min•Ep. 507
Hollywood and Silicon Valley seem so different, but are more alike than we think. What challenges do tech startup founders and other creative founders -- like showrunners and executive producers -- similarly face? Both have to deeply understand and respect their audiences; learn how to scale themselves beyond one person; and even figure out how and when to use data... or follow their intuitions. In the end, it’s all about creating a story (product!) that sticks. In this conversation with Andrees...
Dec 17, 2019•35 min•Ep. 506
As part of a new series where we will share select a16z partner appearances on other podcasts with our audience here, this episode is cross-posted from the new show Starting Greatness -- featuring interviews with startup builders before they were successful -- hosted by Mike Maples junior. In the conversation, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen shares some rare, behind-the-scenes details of his story from 0 to 1 -- from the University of Illinois and Mosaic to Netscape -- and along the journey, rea...
Dec 17, 2019•44 min•Ep. 505
We’ve covered a lot of the strategic financing milestones for startups seeking to build a sustainable and enduring business -- from mindsets for startup fundraising to when and how to build a finance function with a CFO to what it takes to do an initial public offering (IPO ) and stories from the inside out . There’s also a lot that goes on behind the scenes en route to IPO , including how they’re priced and what the "pop" means. Yet another route to the public markets is the direct listing , re...
Dec 11, 2019•44 min•Ep. 504
There are some common tropes that can kill your company culture -- whether it's that corporate values can be weaponized; "fake it til you make it"; the "reality distortion fields" of visionaries vs. liars; and so on. All of this just reveals the confusing, sometimes blurry line between the yellow zones and red zones of behavior, because the very things that are strengths can also become weaknesses (and vice versa!). The fact is, in any complex adaptive system (which is what a company is), even t...
Dec 07, 2019•59 min•Ep. 503
This podcast rerun -- first recorded over two and a half years ago, now being rerun as one of our evergreen classics on the tails of the world's largest designated shopping days (Black Friday, Singles Day in China, Prime Day online, and so on) -- is ALL about the container ship. Also known as " The Box ", with author Marc Levinson (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi and Hanne Tidnam). But this episode is really about connecting the dots between logistics, transportation, infrastructure, and much...
Dec 03, 2019•34 min•Ep. 502
