Whether you're an investor or entrepreneur, the most important thing to start with is to look for these forces, to look for these exponential forces.

You can do all sorts of tactical product things, everything else, but these forces are going to overwhelm you for better or worse.

How intentional do you think you have to be as a founder about building, like you're building a tool.

Do you have to be sort of thinking about

the network a priori or can the network sort of emerge? Because in AI so far, we've seen a lot

of tools and not a lot of networks. What's your instinct? Why does some consumer products

suddenly explode into networks that v shape the internet while others fade away? Today on the podcast,

A16D general partners and Nisha

Charya and Chris Dixon take on that question. Anish invest in AI-native consumer products

in the next wave of consumer tech. Chris is best known for his work in Web3 and network economies,

and he's also led some of A16s's biggest consumer bets. They cover the history and power

of consumer networks,

the forces that shape how they grow, and what all this means for founders building in the age

of AI. Let's get into it. Welcome to the A16Z Consumer Pod. I'm super excited and honored to have

my partner, Chris, Dixon, here today. You know, Chris, you're probably best known for your work

in Web 3 in

network economies recently, but what folks may not know is that you've led a lot of the most

important consumer investments at Andreessen Horowitz and prior. You also founded two consumer

companies. I thought a fun place to start would be networks. That feels like the first place

you really cut your teeth. So maybe talk about your investments in Stack Overflow,

Pinterest, Instagram, and how you generally think about consumer networks. So many of the most

important Internet services are networks, right? Going back to the early Internet email and the

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