There is arguably nothing that impacts our daily lives more than consumer technology. This technology can drive our ability to change careers, build an audience, or feel understood. And in this episode, listeners get a sneak peek into our new consumer series, Field Notes, where a16zs very own Connie Chan speaks with the builders, creators, and investors behind the technology that shapes our daily lives. If you like these segments, you can find the full episodes at a16z.com/fieldnotes. Topics Cov...
Apr 19, 2023•35 min•Ep 714•Transcript available on Metacast with @amandacassatt @kimbatronic @smc90 All about marketing, and web3 -- not just for marketers already in or seeking to enter web3, but also anyone doing community marketing/ community management, devrel (developer relations); or simply doing marketing in web2 or classic growth marketing, seeking to understand the latest trends and tactics. With the author of the new book, Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution , Amanda Cassatt (who was also the first CMO at ConsenSys, help...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep 713•Transcript available on Metacast People often say that building a hardware company is like playing on hard mode. Building a hardware company during a global pandemic, with the unpredictability of supply chains and markets, is harder than hard. Trying to penetrate the phone market in particular where only a few players own almost all the market share is REALLY hard. In todays episode we chat with Carl Pei, founder of Nothing. Between Nothing and previously co-founding OnePlus, Carl has twice managed to do what many others have f...
Apr 06, 2023•37 min•Ep 712•Transcript available on Metacast Youve probably heard of Lil Miquela. The 19 year-old Brazilian-American inuencer has millions of followers and has partnered with the likes of Samsung and Prada. But despite capturing the hearts of many, shes not real . But you probably havent heard her origin story. In this episode we take a trip back to 2016, to a world that looked much different to today, together with two of Miquelas creators Trevor McFedries and Isaac Bratzel cofounder and Chief Design and Innovation Officer of Brud at the ...
Mar 30, 2023•45 min•Ep 711•Transcript available on Metacast Over the last decade, weve seen the marketplace model evolve and grow, and this year a16z is back with our fourth edition of the Marketplace100 a ranking of the top private marketplaces by GMV giving a unique window into what may be to come. This years list features nearly three dozen newcomers, including marketplaces for refurbished electronics, precious metals, and sustainably raised meat. And in this episode, we break down key trends from the report together with a16zs Consumer partners Conni...
Mar 23, 2023•47 min•Ep 710•Transcript available on Metacast Its both easier and harder than ever to build a successful podcast. In this episode, we chat with Sriram and Aarthi from the Good Time Show, who ventured into the world of audio peak pandemic and have since interviewed the likes of Elon Musk, Calvin Harris, and Naomi Osaka. We get their perspective on how to succeed in this competitive landscape, differentiation and the sliding scale of entertainment and information, the difference between an audience and a community, podcast analytics and how t...
Mar 20, 2023•52 min•Ep 709•Transcript available on Metacast With every new technology, some jobs are lost while others are gained. People often focus on the former, but in this episode we chose to highlight the latter a highly creative role that emerges alongside AI: the prompt engineer. Until AI can close the loop of its own, each tool still requires a set of prompts. Just like a composer feeds an instrument the notes to play, a prompt engineer feeds an AI a map of what to produce. And if we know anything from music its that composing great music takes ...
Mar 09, 2023•39 min•Ep 708•Transcript available on Metacast Starting in the 1960s, technology companies, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, were essential for creating the processors that would eventually launch satellites and guide missiles. Half a century later, todays tech companies can and need to move even faster and smarter, as international adversaries scale up their aggressions. In this episode, Anduril Industries Founder Palmer Luckey will discuss how Silicon Valley is using new technologies to build new tools, systems, and companies to d...
Mar 07, 2023•19 min•Ep 707•Transcript available on Metacast What happens when you dont have the resources to fight for your rights? Whether its a major medical bill or a more minor parking ticket even if you were in the right, is it easier to just pay? Well, Joshua Browder's answer is Do Not Pay! Hes built a thriving company of the same name, that helps consumers fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone at the press of a button. Through the power of technology, DoNotPay has resolved over 2m cases successfully and in this interview we get to h...
Mar 01, 2023•48 min•Ep 706•Transcript available on Metacast What would you do if you believed in an idea but everyone said it would fail, nobody would fund you, and the industry was experiencing a nuclear winter? Despite experiencing exactly that, Sandbox VR founder Steve Zhao doubled down and invested all of his personal savings into the unproven business. 7 years and 1 bankruptcy later, Steve has built the worlds leading full-body VR experience with over 30 locations across the globe. In this interview, we get to chat with Steve about the many challeng...
Feb 22, 2023•56 min•Ep 705•Transcript available on Metacast A small minority likely less than 1% of the world can code. Yet also widely known that the skillset tends to yield outsized returns, with developers generating some of the highest paying salaries out there. But the field is quickly shifting, especially with the advent of wide-scale AI. In this podcast, we get to chat with Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, about these foundational shifts. We cover how Replit has integrated AI into its platform and the implications on both current and future develop...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr•Ep 704•Transcript available on Metacast A few weeks ago, Apple released a stunning statistic: theyve paid developers over $320B yes, billion! since the launch of the App Store in 2008, highlighting the cast opportunity in the marketplace. And around the same time, a16z Consumer Partner, Olivia Moore, compiled a list of the top apps across the US app store throughout 2022. In this episode, youll get to hear which apps made it to the top and what they have in common. Hint: the big winners were in social, but perhaps a new wave of social...
Feb 09, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep 703•Transcript available on Metacast Back in August, after a16z announced our investment into Adam Neumanns new company, Flow, it felt like almost everyone whether it was other VCs, founders, or journalists had something to say. But the one person that you didnt hear from was Adam himself. In this never-before shared footage from a16zs American Dynamism Summit in Washington DC, Adam Neumann sits down with Marc Andreessen and David Ulevitch, to discuss the opportunities that have emerged from post-pandemic shifts in both work and ho...
Feb 07, 2023•49 min•Ep 701•Transcript available on Metacast In this cross-over episode from Bio Eats World,Kristen Fortney, cofounder and CEO of BioAge, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health, and Olivia Webb, editorial lead, to discuss the biology of aging, how she started a company, and some fun things like how long a hypothetical venture capitalist can expect to live. Resources: Greg Egan, whose writing inspired Kristen, has a list of his books on his website Stay Updated: Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z Find us on Linke...
Feb 03, 2023•37 min•Ep 702•Transcript available on Metacast At the end of 2022, our team at a16z asked dozens of partners across the firm to spotlight one big idea that startups in their fields could tackle in 2023. Emerging from this exercise came 40+ builder-worthy pursuits for the year, ranging from entertainment franchise games to precision delivery of medicine to small modular reactors, and of course loads of AI applications. In our 2-part series, well be covering 12 of these big ideas with the partners that shared them. Here in part 2, well cover F...
Jan 27, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 700•Transcript available on Metacast At the end of 2022, our team at a16z asked dozens of partners across the firm to spotlight one big idea that startups in their fields could tackle in 2023. Emerging from this exercise came 40+ builder-worthy pursuits for the year, ranging from entertainment franchise games to precision delivery of medicine to small modular reactors, and of course loads of AI applications. In our 2-part series, well be covering 12 of these big ideas with the partners that shared them. Here in part 1, well cover C...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep 699•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode, we share never heard before footage from Steve Wozniak alongside his cofounder and best man, Alex Fielding. Listeners get an inside look into what drove Woz to building a computer, but also how Steves zest for life was applied beyond computers from the rare opportunity to play Tetris on the side of a building or throw a concert across borders. Full Privateer episode: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/new-the-data-highway-above-with-privateers-steve-wozniak-alex-fieldi...
Jan 19, 2023•23 min•Ep 698•Transcript available on Metacast New year, new you! Right? Well, as much as wed all like to believe that we embrace the new the reality is that we often resist change. Thats why weve brought in someone who has studied how humans respond to and adapt to change or sometimes how we fail to. That person is Jason Feifer long-time editor in chief at Entrepreneur Magazine, host of two popular podcasts, and recent author of his book Build for Tomorrow. Today, Jason shares 6 specific frameworks around the very natural human responses to...
Jan 12, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 697•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Marc Andreessen and Vijay Pande discuss expert AI and its role in healthcare, bio, and more. Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/c7ScUDYSRYo Subscribe to Bio Eats World: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bio-eats-world/id1529318900 Stay Updated: Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/ Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio Please note...
Jan 10, 2023•58 min•Ep 696•Transcript available on Metacast with @robertiger @cdixon @smc90 A wide-ranging conversation with Bob Iger on the interplay between technology, content, and distribution; as well as Bobs journey -- and that of various creators! -- especially as the industry evolved from TV and cable to the advent of the internet/ web 1.0 to 2.0 to briefly touching on web3 and other emerging technologies. As well as topics top of mind for all company and community builders: from build vs. buy and the innovator's dilemma, to managing creativity, ...
Jan 06, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep 695•Transcript available on Metacast Weve had some incredible guests join us on the a16z podcast this year, ranging from moonshot entrepreneurs, to top creators, to some of the most forward thinking technologists all of which are busy shaping the future right before our eyes We have so much more in store for 2023 and cannot wait for you to see who we bring on as guests. But before we turn the page, we wanted to recap some of the most interesting, thought-provoking segments from our 2022 roster. Here are 8 of our favorite clips, cov...
Dec 27, 2022•43 min•Ep 694•Transcript available on Metacast The predecessor to the office was Florences Uffizi Gallery an admin building to the Medici mercantile empire. That was in 1560. In the centuries to come, work was revolutionized, with perhaps the most well-known inflection of Ford Motors adopting the 40-hour work week in 1926. The cubicle? We have Robert Propst to thank for that, entering the picture in 1968. It wasnt until the 80s when the Internet appeared on the scene and wifi released in 1997, forever changing the way people live and work. S...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep 693•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we tackle three carbon removal projects of varying scale, business models, and technical challenges. Biomass pyrolysis via Charm Industrial An electrochemical process via Travertine Mineralization via 44.01 We cover these companies through the lens of their founders Peter Reinhardt (CEO of Charm Industrial), Laura Lammers (CEO of Travertine), and Karan Khimji (COO of 44.01) who share the fascinating stories of how they stumbled into this industry, how their processes work, wheth...
Dec 13, 2022•45 min•Ep 692•Transcript available on Metacast If youve been following the news, youve probably heard of the recent FTX scandal. While theres much still unknown, in this episode we get the unique opportunity to hear from Brian Armstrong co-founder and CEO of Coinbase about whats top of mind for the crypto industry. That includes the impact of this current event on future regulation, how this crypto winter might be different from previous ones, founder psychology during downturns, the transparency that comes with being public, and much more. ...
Dec 08, 2022•44 min•Ep 691•Transcript available on Metacast In part 1 of our carbon removal series, we talked to Nan Ransohoff Head of Climate at Stripe about what it might take to jumpstart the market of carbon removal solutions. But what happens when there is a true, thriving market of buyers and sellers? How will suppliers effectively reach the right buyers, and as more solutions become available, how will buyers effectively vet the options? In part 2, we address these questions and more, together with Brennan Spellacy, co-founder & CEO of Patch a gro...
Dec 06, 2022•48 min•Ep 690•Transcript available on Metacast What happens when theres demand for a solution that doesnt quite exist yet? Today, we bring on Nan Ransohoff to talk about this exact problem as it relates to carbon removal, and how Frontier the initiative out of Stripe that she is leading is using a nearly $1B advanced market commitment fund to try to jumpstart this market. If you dont know what that means, dont worry weve got you covered. Throughout the episode, we discuss the multivariate carbon equation and why emission reductions are not e...
Nov 30, 2022•59 min•Ep 689•Transcript available on Metacast In todays episode, we have a special treat. Flexports co-CEO and Founder, Ryan Petersen, chats with a16z Growth Editor Das Rush. They start with the question of why Ryan has chosen of all the problem spaces to work on improving the resiliency of the supply chain. They cover just how complex the supply chain is in the era of ecommerce, evolving customer expectations, and ultimately how we can rearchitect our supply chain to meet them. Given the holiday shopping coming up, you wont want to miss th...
Nov 24, 2022•18 min•Ep 688•Transcript available on Metacast When Neal Stephenson coined the metaverse three decades ago, his book Snow Crash was found on the shelves of science fiction. While the book remains in that category, many of its concepts are now found in reality Fast forward to 2022, where numerous companies are now building toward their version of the metaverse, including Neal himself working on Lamina1 a blockchain company oriented toward creators. While the present metaverses dont perfectly mimic that from Stephensons early imagination, we g...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep 687•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we have an episode with Chris Power, the founder and CEO of Hadrian. Hadrian is a company trying to build the most efficient factories on the planet. In this conversation, well introduce the audience to advanced manufacturing, and expose them to the reality that its a remnant of the first space race. We also cover the challenge of manufacturing, the importance of visibility in complex systems, the killer app for space, how simplifying the world of atoms can be done through bits and ultima...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep 686•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, well explore the concept of The Network State with Balaji Srinivasan. As the world becomes more digital, it also becomes more distributed. This is obvious on the individual level how you order goods, the way you chat with friends, and the news you consume all from a handheld computer. Its also becoming more obvious at the company level. The pandemic shook the world into remote work and many companies have decided that maybe work can be done in ways they never imagined. But what ...
Nov 15, 2022•3 hr 46 min•Ep 685•Transcript available on Metacast 
