You know, when we started the firm, like a big idea that we had was that venture capital was disappointing as a product for an entrepreneur.

We always thought, wow, a much better product would be, give me, like, the network to be confident and the advice I need to run this fucking thing.

Today, we're sharing a few drop from Uncapped to Jack Altman featuring A16Z co-founder Ben Horowitz.

In this conversation, Ben reflects on one of the core ideas behind A16Z.

That venture capital as a product for founders often wasn't good enough.

And that a better model would be a firm built around a real network, real operating experience, and real support for entrepreneurs

building through the hard parts. Jack and Ben also get into Ben's 30-year relationship

with Mark Andresen, how the relationship works in practice, how they make decisions, and

how you scale a venture firm without losing the edge to actually help founders.

Ben, I'm really happy to be back here doing this.

I got to be in the same room with Mark earlier in the year and I'm really happy that you're doing this with me.

Right now, I'm glad to be here.

It should be some fun.

Can we start with your relationship with Mark?

Because I think it's like a super unique thing where you guys obviously work together, you know, running companies.

You've built this firm together.

You have a really unique relationship.

I can't think of that many examples where I feel like I've seen it in that sort of equal way for so long.

Can you talk about it a little bit?

We've been working together 30 years.

And I would say we're both different and complement and the same. And so not too complimentary. So that helps. He's kind of like,

we're a little more like relatives than anything else at this point. You know, working together

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