Marc Andreessen

By the way, the return opportunity off that early stage investment is as big as the return opportunity from the later stage companies, which is a characteristic of startups. So number one, financially, it actually makes sense for us to spend time with the early stage. But the

By the way, the return opportunity off that early stage investment is as big as the return opportunity from the later stage companies, which is a characteristic of startups. So number one, financially, it actually makes sense for us to spend time with the early stage. But the

All of our knowledge and all of our relationships and everything that makes us special as a firm is all the deep insight and all the people that we know and who trust us at that early stage. And so what I always tell people is, look, if push comes to shove and the world goes sideways and we need to sacrifice things, the thing that will never get sacrificed is the early stage venture business.

All of our knowledge and all of our relationships and everything that makes us special as a firm is all the deep insight and all the people that we know and who trust us at that early stage. And so what I always tell people is, look, if push comes to shove and the world goes sideways and we need to sacrifice things, the thing that will never get sacrificed is the early stage venture business.

That will always be the core of it. And a big part of what I try to do with that is then have a lot of my time free. And I think generally our founders actually get fairly surprised by this is I have a lot of time free in order to work with the early stage founders. Number one, it's super fun, but also like you learn the most.

That will always be the core of it. And a big part of what I try to do with that is then have a lot of my time free. And I think generally our founders actually get fairly surprised by this is I have a lot of time free in order to work with the early stage founders. Number one, it's super fun, but also like you learn the most.

the Machiavellians. I'm sure you've probably had a dozen people on your show that have recommended it. It's one of the great books of the 20th century. And it goes through kind of this theory of political power and social and cultural power. And one of the key things in that book I see everywhere right now is this idea of elites and counter elites. The idea goes like this.

the Machiavellians. I'm sure you've probably had a dozen people on your show that have recommended it. It's one of the great books of the 20th century. And it goes through kind of this theory of political power and social and cultural power. And one of the key things in that book I see everywhere right now is this idea of elites and counter elites. The idea goes like this.

It's basically democracy per se is a myth. You never have an actual fully democratic society. By the way, the US, of course, is not a democracy. It's a republic. Experiments in direct democracy historically have worked very badly. The systems that work, even the democratic systems that work, they tend to be republican in nature.

It's basically democracy per se is a myth. You never have an actual fully democratic society. By the way, the US, of course, is not a democracy. It's a republic. Experiments in direct democracy historically have worked very badly. The systems that work, even the democratic systems that work, they tend to be republican in nature.

small r republican in nature they tend to have a parliament or they have a house and senate or something they have some sort of representative body the reason for that is a phenomenon described in that book is called the iron law of oligarchy which basically is the following which is the problem with quote direct democracy is that the masses can't organize you can't actually get 350 million people to organize in anything it's too many people

small r republican in nature they tend to have a parliament or they have a house and senate or something they have some sort of representative body the reason for that is a phenomenon described in that book is called the iron law of oligarchy which basically is the following which is the problem with quote direct democracy is that the masses can't organize you can't actually get 350 million people to organize in anything it's too many people

So what you have in basically every political system in human history is you have a small organized elite that governs a large disorganized mass. You had that in the original hunter-gatherer tribes all the way up through to America and every other political system in the modern era. By the way, this was the Greeks and it was the Romans and it was every other political society that ever worked.

So what you have in basically every political system in human history is you have a small organized elite that governs a large disorganized mass. You had that in the original hunter-gatherer tribes all the way up through to America and every other political system in the modern era. By the way, this was the Greeks and it was the Romans and it was every other political society that ever worked.

Every empire in history, every country in history. So a small organized elite governing a large unorganized mass. And that's a relationship that's fraught with peril because the unorganized masses will go along with the elite for a while, but not necessarily forever. And if the elite becomes abusive towards the masses, the masses greatly outnumber the elites.

Every empire in history, every country in history. So a small organized elite governing a large unorganized mass. And that's a relationship that's fraught with peril because the unorganized masses will go along with the elite for a while, but not necessarily forever. And if the elite becomes abusive towards the masses, the masses greatly outnumber the elites.

And at some point they're going to show up with pitchforks and torches. So there is some tension there. And a lot of revolutions occur when the masses decide that the elites are no longer representing them properly. And so our society is no different than any other society, which is we have large disorganized masses. We have a very small organized elite.

And at some point they're going to show up with pitchforks and torches. So there is some tension there. And a lot of revolutions occur when the masses decide that the elites are no longer representing them properly. And so our society is no different than any other society, which is we have large disorganized masses. We have a very small organized elite.

We have two elites, our political system, our founders set up. We have our Democrat elites and our Republican elites. And by the way, with quite a bit of overlap between them, some people actually call that the uniparty. Maybe those elites have more in common with each other than they do with any of the people. Those elites cruise along.

We have two elites, our political system, our founders set up. We have our Democrat elites and our Republican elites. And by the way, with quite a bit of overlap between them, some people actually call that the uniparty. Maybe those elites have more in common with each other than they do with any of the people. Those elites cruise along.