What is the job of VC?

The job of VC is, literally, you are the legitimacy bank.

Your job is to make founders powerful.

As you put in the work to write and as you put into work to read, what happens, this

actually reshapes your brain a little bit.

It reshapes your understanding of what you're talking about such a way that the person

writing can actually transfer some legitimacy to the person reading.

There is something that is missing of the craft of like putting in an extraordinary amount

of tortured effort into creating, you know, like a 5,000 word delivery of what is it that

you have to say this year.

Fresh off the news of his move from Shopify to join A16Z, Alex Dancoe joined TBPN to talk about the trade deal that brought him here and what he's setting out to do next.

Alex shares why he's betting big on the craft of writing in an AI-saturated world, why speech writing might be venture's most underrated medium, and how great writing can serve as power transfer technology for founders.

He reflects on his years at Shopify, his long-running career as a blogger,

and why giving people the right words can change the directory of a pitch, a partnership, or a company.

We'll hear about the formats his most excited to explore A16Z,

the role of legitimacy in venture capital,

and why sometimes the most important negotiation point

is just getting unblocked on Twitter. Let's get into it.

We have Alex Denko. We got a trade deal.

Trade. The news broke today. He's going from Shopify to A16Z.

Andresen Horowitz.

Eric Torrenberg's latest pickup.

...