Welcome to Web 3 with A16Z. How many of you are regulars at a favorite cafe, bar, or

dinner spot? Probably a lot of you. But if you're not, well, our guest today aims to make you

one. This episode features Ben Leaventhal, the founder and CEO of Blackbird, and formerly the founder of Rezi and Eater.

In it, he shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur in conversation with A16Crypto general partner, Ariana Simpson.

Ben shares hard-won lessons learned in company building, including navigating in wartime,

the difference between measuring

versus feeling when it comes to defining success, and more. Today's conversation originally

took place in the fall at our CSX crypto startup accelerator in New York. We're currently

accepting applications for our next cohort in the spring in San Francisco. Visit A16Z Crypto.com slash CSX for more information and to apply.

As a reminder, none of the content should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice.

Please see A16Z.com slash disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

We're excited to welcome Ariana back, who's going to have a conversation with Ben Leventhal.

So Ben was co-founder and CEO of Rezi, which he sold to Amex back in 2019. I think we've all used it.

And then prior to that, founded one of the early food media sites called Eater in the early to mid-Ots and is now working on Blackbird, which you're going to hear more about today.

So please join me in welcoming Ben and Ariana.

Well, thanks so much for joining me here.

I'm very excited for this conversation.

So, Ben, you've been like a huge part of shaping not just the New York City food scene,

but kind of the tech intersection with food for decades, really.

And I'm curious to kind of go back to the origin story of that and all the way back to the early Eater days in the early 2000s. You said 2005,

right?

What prompted you to kind of want to play in this landscape and what led you to kind of the beginning of the story?

...