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Acquired

Andreessen Horowitz Part I

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2021

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We kick off Season 9 with a classic: Part I of the a16z story. How did this brand new venture firm charge out of the gates in 2009, going from zero to disrupting the entire venture industry overnight? You probably know Marc & Ben's history with Netscape and Loudcloud/Opsware... but what about the Black Panthers, Nintendo 64, Al Gore, Doug Leone, Masayoshi Son, and an epic feud with Benchmark Capital that became Silicon Valley's version of the Hatfields and the McCoys? Buckle up, Acquired's got the truth.

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Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Transcript

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0:00.0

What do you think about playing the full who got the truth song at the end at the end? I like that. Yeah, it's so good

0:07.7

God the truth

0:10.7

Who got the truth

0:14.5

Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Who got the truth now?

0:19.6

Is it you? Is it you? Is it you?

0:22.2

Sit me down. Say it straight another story on the way

0:28.4

Welcome to season nine episode one of acquired the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them

0:36.8

I'm Ben Gilbert and I'm the co-founder and managing director of Seattle based pioneer square labs in our venture fund

0:43.4

PSL ventures and I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco and

0:50.1

We are your hosts

0:52.8

Listeners David and I decided to open this season with the complete story of the firm that

0:58.2

Totally upended the entire venture capital ecosystem a decade ago

1:02.5

Andreessen Horowitz

1:04.0

But as we started researching of course that meant telling the journeys of

1:08.5

Andreessen and Horowitz themselves before founding the firm

1:11.8

Which of course means telling the history of the web browser the creation of mosaic the founding an eventual IPO of Netscape

1:18.3

Which was the first real

1:20.3

Internet tech startup and of course the tumultuous story of loud cloud and opsware and

1:27.6

So much more than that that you don't even know Ben

1:30.4

Well, this is great. This is the first time I've literally not opened your notes at all like normally we don't trade notes

1:35.0

But I have no idea what you've prepared and listeners the

1:39.6

Impetus for that is that this was going to be a one-part episode until last night when David texted me and said

...

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