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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast "Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon”, diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld once observed -- and that may be more true today than ever before. For most of us, nurses are essentially the face of the healthcare system: the person you’ll see the most of while you’re in it, who will monitor your vitals, administer medications, hold your hand when you’re in pain or scared, answer all the questions you forgot to ask the doctor. So in this episode, we take...
Nov 28, 2019•33 min•Ep 501•Transcript available on Metacast "Hi everyone, welcome to the a16z Podcast..." ... and welcome to our 500th episode, where, for the first time, we reveal behind-the-scenes details and the backstory of how we built this show, and the broader editorial operation. [You can also listen to episode 499, with head of marketing Margit Wennmachers, on building the a16z brand, here .] We've talked a lot about the podcasting industry, and even done podcasts about podcasting, so for this special episode, editor-in-chief and showrunner Sona...
Nov 27, 2019•48 min•Ep 500•Transcript available on Metacast Many technical founders, academics, and other experts often believe that great products -- or great ideas! -- sell themselves , without any extra effort or marketing. But in reality, they often need PR ( public relations ). The irony is, most of the work involved in PR is actually invisible to the public -- when it works, that is -- and therefore hard for those from the outside to see let alone understand. So how does such brand-building really work? In this 10-year anniversary episode of the a1...
Nov 20, 2019•35 min•Ep 499•Transcript available on Metacast The games industry is in the midst of a tectonic shift. Powered by platform convergence, games-as-a-service, and user-generated content, modern video games—what we call next-generation games —are unlike anything we've seen before. In the past decade, gaming has grown from a niche hobby into a global, culture-defining phenomenon. Not only are the games themselves becoming increasingly immersive, the way we develop and discover them has fundamentally changed. In contrast to the hits-driven busines...
Nov 02, 2019•23 min•Ep 498•Transcript available on Metacast Consumer software may have adopted and incorporated AI ahead of enterprise software, where the data is more proprietary, and the market is a few thousand companies not hundreds of millions of smartphone users. But recently AI has found its way into B2B, and it is rapidly transforming how we work and the software we use, across all industries and organizational functions. In this episode, Das Rush interviews Oleg Rogynskyy, founder of People.ai , an AI platform for sales and marketers, and Peter ...
Oct 24, 2019•24 min•Ep 497•Transcript available on Metacast Today, despite the critical importance of open source to software, it’s still seen by some as blasphemous to make money as an open source business. In this podcast, Armon Dadgar, Cofounder and CTO of HashiCorp; Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks; and a16z General Partner Peter Levine explain why it's necessary to turn some open source projects into businesses. They also cover the most important questions for open source leaders to answer: How do you keep community engaged while building a business? W...
Oct 21, 2019•35 min•Ep 496•Transcript available on Metacast This rerun podcast (first recorded in 2015, now being rerun as one of our evergreen classics/ favorites) -- is ALL about emoji. But it's really about how innovation really comes about: through the tension between open standards vs. closed/ proprietary systems; the politics of time and place; and the economics of creativity, from making to funding. So yes, this podcast is all about emoji. But it's also about where emoji fits in the taxonomy of social communication, and why that matters -- from ma...
Oct 15, 2019•39 min•Ep 495•Transcript available on Metacast It used to be that the only way for humanity to grow -- and progress -- was through destroying the environment. Sure, the Industrial Revolution brought about the growth of our economies, our population, our prosperity; but it also led to our extracting more resources from the planet, more pollution, and some nightmarish human conditions as well. But is this interplay between the two -- of human growth vs. environment, of protection vs. destruction -- really a zero-sum game? Even if it were true ...
Oct 04, 2019•47 min•Ep 494•Transcript available on Metacast Our news podcast, 16 Minutes -- where we quickly cover the top headlines of the week, the a16z way (why are these topics in the news; what's real, what's hype from our vantage point of tech trends) -- is now only available as its own show feed, separately from the main a16z Podcast... so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts if you want our weekly news & tech take! This is the tenth episode of the show, and this week we cover a variety of topics with the following a16z experts: Ama...
Sep 30, 2019•23 min•Ep 493•Transcript available on Metacast The combination of cloud, social, and mobile took gaming beyond a small base of just console- and PC-gamers to a massive player base. But the underlying business model -- the concept of "free-to-play", built on top of games-as-a-service -- may have been the real innovation that led us to the global gaming phenomenons we have today. Unfortunately, observes gaming veteran Kevin Chou -- who's seen it all when it comes to tech platform shifts and gaming as a longtime gamer, founding CEO of Kabam, an...
Sep 28, 2019•42 min•Ep 492•Transcript available on Metacast This is episode #9 of our news show , 16 Minutes , where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they’re in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts’ views on the trends involved. This week we do a short but deep dive to tease apart the FUD from the facts on all the phone hacks of late (also, arguably, one of the worst years on record for certain device manufacturers) -- given the following news: Just this week, the FBI’s Cyber ...
Sep 23, 2019•20 min•Ep 491•Transcript available on Metacast What is the nature of physical pain? Why do we even experience it? Is there one type, or many? Do people experience pain differently? What is happening in our brains and our bodies when we experience pain? What is the biological link between pain and addiction? In this episode Clifford Woolf, Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and a renowned expert on understanding pain, shares with with a16z's Hanne Tidnam all we know about the biology of pain. Technology is enabling a new, dee...
Sep 17, 2019•37 min•Ep 490•Transcript available on Metacast with @benedictevans @vijaypande and @smc90 This is episode #8 of our news show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends. This week we cover, with the following a16z experts: Apple's latest event announcing new products and services across mobile, TV, and gaming; where is (and isn't) innovation happening, and what's next -- with a16z's Be...
Sep 16, 2019•20 min•Ep 489•Transcript available on Metacast There's been a lot of talk about the need for our healthcare system to shift away from volume and fee-for-service, where you pay by appointment, procedure, etc, to value-based care, where you pay for both quality and outcomes—essentially, good health. But there's also been a real dearth of seeing how that might work in action, or concrete models for how to implement it at scale. In this episode, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina Patrick Conway dives deep into how exactly we can make t...
Sep 06, 2019•37 min•Ep 488•Transcript available on Metacast with @bhorowitz @shakasenghor @diishanimira @therealritabee Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms -- and mindsets -- for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more about it here. Episode #3, "The Hustler's Guide to the Hair Business" features Diishan Imira, CEO and co-founder of Mayvenn, a technology company re-shaping salon retail distribution; Sherita (SherriAnn) Cole, wh...
Sep 06, 2019•41 min•Ep 487•Transcript available on Metacast with @bhorowitz @shakasenghor ram @earnin & vaughn ferguson Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms — and mindsets — for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more about it here. Episode #2, “The Hustler’s Guide to Getting Paid” (early, but actually, on time) features Ram Palianappan, CEO and founder of Earnin, which allows workers to access their pay instantly with no fees or inte...
Sep 06, 2019•30 min•Ep 486•Transcript available on Metacast with @bhorowitz @shakasenghor @8ennett & sherie james Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms -- and mindsets -- for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more about it here. Episode #1, "The Hustler's Guide to Preschool" features Chris Bennett, CEO and co-founder of Wonderschool, a network of modern early education programs that helps both parents and teachers to start a...
Sep 06, 2019•37 min•Ep 485•Transcript available on Metacast We're excited to introduce a new podcast series hosted by a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz and Shaka Senghor, a leading voice in criminal justice reform and bestselling author. The series is called “Hustlin’ Tech” and so far, there are three episodes to follow, which you can find in this feed: #1 The Hustler’s Guide to Preschool #2 The Hustler’s Guide to Getting Paid #3 The Hustler’s Guide to the Hair Business You can read more about the what and the why of this new series -- and sign up to be notif...
Sep 06, 2019•37 sec•Ep 484•Transcript available on Metacast "You cannot be IN it... and not be OF it." Dapper Dan a.k.a. Daniel Day shares his remarkable history and story of defining an era of fashion and cultural influence in this special episode of the a16z Podcast — based on his conversation in San Francisco (also available as video here) with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz around his memoir, Made in Harlem. Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the early 1980s, remixing luxury brand logos into his own designs for gangsters, athletes, a...
Sep 02, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep 483•Transcript available on Metacast What can we learn from the history of the internet for the future of crypto? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, general partner Katie Haun interviews a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen -- and co-founder of Netscape, which helped popularize and mainstream the internet for many -- and who also penned "Why Software is Eating the World" (in the Wall Street Journal in 2011) and "Why Bitcoin Matters" (in the New York Times in 2014). This episode is based on a fireside chat between K...
Aug 29, 2019•27 min•Ep 482•Transcript available on Metacast with @ldhawke and @stevesi The government wants to get onto the cloud! But how do they assess the levels of risk in adopting specific cloud products, and which "cloud service providers" (aka "CSPs") to work with? That's where FedRAMP -- the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program -- comes in. And enterprise SaaS companies need to pay attention, since it will be a requirement for selling to the U.S. government, which is one of the biggest buyers of tech. Not just tha...
Aug 28, 2019•34 min•Ep 481•Transcript available on Metacast with @illscience and @smc90 This is episode #7 of our news show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends. This week we cover, with the following a16z experts: Apple releasing a credit card, and what it means beyond the card features itself, what it means for consumer credit (and recession risks), and the financial ecosystem overall -- wi...
Aug 25, 2019•18 min•Ep 480•Transcript available on Metacast Back in 2011, a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen first made the bold claim that software would eat the world. In this episode (originally recorded as part of an event at a16z), Andreesseen and a16z general partner on the bio fund Jorge Conde (@JorgeCondeBio) take a look back at that thesis, and think about where we are now, nearly a decade later—how software has delivered on that promise… and most of all, where it is yet to come. In the wide-ranging conversation, the two partners discuss everything ...
Aug 15, 2019•47 min•Ep 479•Transcript available on Metacast with @julesyoo @smc90 This is episode #6 of our new show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends as well. This week we cover, with the following a16z experts: health claims, insurance & big tech, and healthcare data liquidity -- with a16z bio partner Julie Yoo; Capital One data breach, cloud security, and corporate hacks -- with a16...
Aug 12, 2019•17 min•Ep 478•Transcript available on Metacast with @astrange @jeff_jordan and @smc90 This is episode #5 of our new show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends as well. This week we cover, with the following a16z experts: Federal Reserve real-time payment and settlement service FedNow, the U.S. payments rail, and fintech -- with a16z general partner Angela Strange; Barney's bankrup...
Aug 11, 2019•17 min•Ep 477•Transcript available on Metacast with @jorgecondebio @vijaypande and @smc90 This is episode #4 of our new show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends as well. This week we do a short but deep dive on the opioid crisis, given recent data around where and who was behind the manufacturing and distribution of specific opioids: How do opioids work, why these drugs? Who's t...
Aug 04, 2019•18 min•Ep 476•Transcript available on Metacast with @andrewchen @dcoolican and @smc90 This is episode #3 of our new show, 16 Minutes, where we quickly cover recent headlines of the week, the a16z way -- why they're in the news; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and share our experts' views on these trends as well. This week we do a short but deep dive on esports, given recent news of the inaugural Fortnite World Cup champion, and how this all fits into the broader trends in gaming, social networks, and the future of entertain...
Aug 04, 2019•18 min•Ep 475•Transcript available on Metacast 
