Andreessen Horowitz Part II

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2021

⏱️ 173 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alright, backstory's out of the way, and Acquired is rolling three hours deep on the venture firm that changed the game for everyone — a16z.

VC marketing? Check.
"Founder-friendly?" Check.
Platform services? Check.
Huge valuations and massive fund sizes? Check and check.

We dissect it all in glorious detail, right down to the famous office library (located next to the Rosewood on Sand Hill, natch). The story of modern venture capital starts here. Let's Go!!!

If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and access for live events and discussions with episode guests. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/

Sponsors:
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

Statsig: bit.ly/statsigacquired
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury

Links:

Michael Mauboussin on persistence of returns across asset classes: https://www.morganstanley.com/im/publication/insights/articles/articles_publictoprivateequityintheusalongtermlook_us.pdf
Tomorrow's Advance Man: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/tomorrows-advance-man
Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12jf9pwTdEuANtdOffUzSzvE0xEJptT0Or-gBSJgk8mg/edit?usp=sharing

Carve Outs:

Childhood's End: https://www.amazon.com/Childhoods-End-Arthur-C-Clarke/dp/110196703X
MKBHD's Studio channel and tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkuxIy3kFZM
The Godfather: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
Who Got the Truth on Spotify!! https://open.spotify.com/track/03X7SwpsCjZIofK8RFPwch?si=649d93b2be7743d5

‍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	I need an M1 so that we can not have this very quiet little background noise that hums that we have to remove in our audio, that annoys me to the nth degree.
0:10.0	There's a million reasons I need an M1 Mac, but this one is clear and present. I can't wait, September.
0:30.0	Welcome to season 9, episode 2 of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them.
0:40.0	I'm Ben Gilbert and I am the co-founder and managing director of Seattle based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund PSL Ventures.
0:48.0	And I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
0:54.0	And we are your hosts.
0:57.0	Well, listeners, welcome to Andreessen Horowitz, part 2.
1:01.0	We last left Mark and Ben in their instant messenger conversation in 2009 with the famous first words.
1:07.0	We ought to start a venture capital firm and I was thinking the same thing.
1:12.0	Yeah, I think that conversation was actually, it was actually 2008.
1:16.0	2008, that makes more sense, launched 09.
1:19.0	Takes a little while. We'll get into it. We'll get into it. It takes a little while to set up a venture firm, raise the money.
1:24.0	Well, you don't just like snap your fingers and have 300 million dollars.
1:28.0	Well, today listeners, we will cover the next 11 years from the firms founding to today.
1:34.0	This is the story of the VC firm that basically changed everything in the whole landscape.
1:39.0	Super high valuations, massive fund sizes, criticism for both of those things, becoming an investment firm and a media company,
1:46.0	popularizing the message that former operators make better VCs than career investors do.
1:52.0	David, reflecting back, it's pretty crazy that A16Z is only 11, 12 years old.
1:58.0	Wow. Yeah, they became a big dominant force so quickly to put it in perspective.
2:03.0	They were founded two years after the iPhone came out.
2:07.0	That's right. That's right.
2:09.0	Pretty good time to start a venture capital firm.
	...

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