Erik Torenberg

You cannot buy your way out of a software problem.

Hire a thousand engineers and you still won't catch a faster competitor.

Fred Brooks called it the mythical man-month, and every engineering leader believed it.

That rule no longer holds.

With enough GPUs and the right data, companies can now compress years of development into weeks.

But a disruption cuts both ways.

The same forces that let startups move faster are dissolving the moats that protected incumbents.

Customer lock-in, proprietary data, switching costs, all eroding at once.

So in a world where the old defenses no longer work, what actually makes a company worth building, funding, or keeping?

Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at A16Z, speaks with A16Z general partner Alex Rampell at FinTech Connect conference in Deer Valley.

More unique.

Yeah.

What is a CAPTCHA, right?

Thanks for listening to this episode of the A16Z podcast.

If you liked this episode, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, and share it with your friends and family.

For more episodes, go to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Follow us on X and A16Z, and subscribe to our Substack at a16z.substack.com.

Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.

As a reminder, the content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal business, tax, or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund.

Please note that A16Z and its affiliates may also maintain investments in the companies discussed in this podcast.