The a16z Show

Marketing web3: Audience, Community, More

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

with @amandacassatt @kimbatronic @smc90All about marketing, and web3 -- not just for marketers already in or seeking to enter web3, but also anyone do...

Building Hardware and Taking on the Phone Giants

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

People often say that building a hardware company is like “playing on hard mode”. Building a hardware company during a global pandemic, with the u...

Digital Humans and the Story Behind Lil Miquela

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve probably heard of ‘Lil Miquela. The 19 year-old Brazilian-American influencer has millions of followers and has partnered with the likes o...

The Marketplace 100: A Glimpse Into the Future of Commerce

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last decade, we’ve seen the marketplace model evolve and grow, and this year a16z is back with our fourth edition of the Marketplace100 –...

The Art and Science of Podcasting

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s both easier and harder than ever to build a successful podcast. In this episode, we chat with Sriram and Aarthi from the Good Time Show, who ve...

Unlocking Creativity with Prompt Engineering

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With every new technology, some jobs are lost while others are gained. People often focus on the former, but in this episode we chose to highlight the...

Rebooting the Arsenal of Democracy with Palmer Luckey

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Starting in the 1960s, technology companies, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, were essential for creating the processors that would eventuall...

The Robot Lawyer Resistance

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when you don’t have the resources to fight for your rights? Whether it’s a major medical bill or a more minor parking ticket… even ...

The Challenge of Replicating Reality

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What would you do if you believed in an idea but everyone said it would fail, nobody would fund you, and the industry was experiencing a nuclear winte...

The 1000x Developer

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A small minority – likely less than 1% – of the world can code. Yet also widely known that the skillset tends to yield outsized returns, with deve...

The State of Apps

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks ago, Apple released a stunning statistic: they’ve paid developers over $320B — yes, billion! — since the launch of the App Store in ...

Disrupting the World’s Largest Asset Class with Adam Neumann

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Back in August, after a16z announced our investment into Adam Neumann’s new company, Flow, it felt like almost everyone – whether it was other VCs...

Healthspan, Lifespan, and the Biology of Aging

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this cross-over episode from Bio Eats World, Kristen Fortney, cofounder and CEO of BioAge, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Healt...

2023 Big Ideas in Technology (Part 2)

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of 2022, our team at a16z asked dozens of partners across the firm to spotlight one big idea that startups in their fields could tackle in ...

2023 Big Ideas in Technology (Part 1)

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of 2022, our team at a16z asked dozens of partners across the firm to spotlight one big idea that startups in their fields could tackle in ...

The Human Behind the Genius

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode, we share never heard before footage from Steve Wozniak alongside his cofounder and best man, Alex Fielding. Listeners get an...

Building for Tomorrow

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New year, new you! Right?Well, as much as we’d all like to believe that we embrace the new… the reality is that we often resist change.That’s wh...

Expert AI as a Healthcare Superpower

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Marc Andreessen and Vijay Pande discuss expert AI and its role in healthcare, bio, and more. Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/c7Sc...

Creators, Creativity, and Technology with Bob Iger

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

with @robertiger @cdixon @smc90A wide-ranging conversation with Bob Iger on the interplay between technology, content, and distribution; as well as Bo...

Best Clips of 2022

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve had some incredible guests join us on the a16z podcast this year, ranging from moonshot entrepreneurs, to top creators, to some of the most fo...

Pay Without Borders with Deel, GitLab, and Safetywing

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The predecessor to the office was Florence’s Uffizi Gallery – an admin building to the Medici mercantile empire. That was in… 1560. In the centu...

Carbon Solutions Now and Next: From Biomass to Mineralization

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we tackle three carbon removal projects of varying scale, business models, and technical challenges.Biomass pyrolysis via Charm Indus...

Ben Horowitz and Brian Armstrong on Building and Overcoming the Hard Things

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard of the recent FTX scandal.While there’s much still unknown, in this episode we get the ...

Building a Marketplace for Carbon

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In part 1 of our carbon removal series, we talked to Nan Ransohoff — Head of Climate at Stripe — about what it might take to jumpstart the market ...

The Economics of Carbon Removal with Nan Ransohoff

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when there’s demand for a solution that doesn’t quite exist yet?Today, we bring on Nan Ransohoff to talk about this exact problem as ...

Ryan Petersen on Rearchitecting the Supply Chain

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we have a special treat. Flexport’s co-CEO and Founder, Ryan Petersen, chats with a16z Growth Editor Das Rush. They start with...

Neal Stephenson on The Future of the Metaverse

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Neal Stephenson coined “the metaverse” three decades ago, his book Snow Crash was found on the shelves of “science fiction”. While the bo...

The Factory of the Future with Chris Power

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we have an episode with Chris Power, the founder and CEO of Hadrian. Hadrian is a company trying to build the most efficient factories on the p...

Balaji Srinivasan on The Network State

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’ll explore the concept of The Network State with Balaji Srinivasan. As the world becomes more digital, it also becomes more dist...

AI and the Creator Economy with Karen X Cheng

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Generative AI tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have taken the world by storm in recent months, wowing the masses with their uncanny...

Why Technology Still Matters with Marc Andreessen

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With much coverage of technology lined with pessimism, the a16z Podcast returns to highlight the bright side of technology, alongside the founders bui...

The Data Highway Above with Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many people consider space to be the next frontier and equally an infinite horizon to explore. But the reality is that not all “space” is the same...

The a16z Podcast Returns

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The long-standing (and chart-topping) a16z Podcast returns to cover the most important topics within the world of technology. Brought to you by the mi...

Is a Fun, Therapeutic Game Possible?

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode from a16z’s Bio Eats World podcast, general partners Vijay Pande and Jon Lai join bio editorial lead Olivia Webb to discuss ...

Cycles of Computing, Now and Next

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we have a special episode for you, from our newest podcast, "web3 with a16z" . This episode features Chris Dixon – founding general partn...

The Future of Audio

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Audio is no longer just audio anymore -- podcasts now pull from new video platforms like TikTok and older ones like radio, user experience is growing ...

Culture as Code

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While building and shaping culture is as relevant as ever for startups and companies today, leaders have sought the answers to these questions for hun...

On Mentorship and Leadership

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Behind many great leaders, you’ll usually find a great mentor. The mentor-mentee relationship is often one of the most important and most fulfilling...

Cloud Wars, Company Wars, and Innovating Through Change

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from October 2021, Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies and one of the longest serving founder-CEOs in the technology in...

How to Find Product-Market-Sales Fit

03 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from February 2019, Jyoti Bansal, founding CEO of AppDynamics and co-founder of Unusual Ventures, joins a16z general partner Peter Lev...

The Fintech Opportunity for Students and Gen Z

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, student loans are back in the news, with the administration's announcement of a plan to forgive student loan debt for certain kinds of borr...

How to Make Better Decisions

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can you get better at decision-making with practice? Many founders, investors, and builders must make many critical decisions, big and small, every da...

Learning from Open Source Communities

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What can we learn from the evolution of open source communities and how might they be applied to online communities and the creator economy today? Aut...

The Art and Science of Moderating Discussions

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it’s moderating a live panel discussion, managing your (virtual) All Hands meeting, or even guiding a cross-functional team to a decision in...

Tiktok's Algorithm and Creativity Network Effects

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What does the success of TikTok's algorithmically-driven product tell us about the future of creators and the creator economy, product design, and inn...

From Research to Startup, There and Back Again

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from December 2018, Hennessy, currently the chairman of Alphabet as well as Turing Award-winning computer scientist, joins a16z co-fou...

Crisis Communications 101

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this hallway-style conversation with a16z's Margit Wennmachers, longtime operating partner for Marketing, and Kim Milosevich, CMO for a16z crypto, ...

All About Synthetic Biology

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 20 years, the idea of “designing biology” has gone from science fiction to just science, as the field of synthetic biology has explo...

Mining the Data for Cobalt

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from July 2019, Kurt House, CEO and co-founder of Kobold Metals, John Thompson, professor of earth and geosciences at Cornell; and Con...

Applying AI in B2B

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from October 2019, People.AI founder and CEO Oleg Rogynskyy and a16z partner Peter Lauten discuss with Das Rush about what the rise of...

More from Less: The Environment, Capitalism, and Technology

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from October 2019, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen and former a16z podcast showrunner Sonal Choksi bring on MIT economist and bestsell...

Blockchains, crypto, & web3: Connections, models, more

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blockchain, crypto, web3 – these terms get thrown around a lot and sometimes interchangeably, but what are the actual connections between them? And ...

Crypto, an Oral Essay

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this special “innovation overview” episode from April 2021, the a16z crypto team and other experts take you from the ground up of crypto and we...

Stories of Startup Survival Mode

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from February 2017, a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz and Jason Rosenthal, former Lytro CEO (now Vice President, Subscription Services, at ...

Innovating While Scaling: Lessons from Amazon

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from February 2021, early Amazon execs Colin Bryar and Bill Carr -- in conversation with a16z's Sonal Chokshi -- go beyond the well-kn...

When Gross Margins Matter

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gross margins–which are essentially a company’s revenue from products and services minus the costs to deliver those products and services to custo...

The Founder to Investor Journey

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we have a special crossover episode from June 2021: Joel Beasley, host of the Modern CTO podcast, interviews a16z general partner David Ule...

Inside Apple Software Design

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this wide-ranging conversation from April 2019, a16z’s Frank Chen sits down with Ken Kocienda, a longtime software engineer and designer at Apple...

Tesla and the Nature of Disruption

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this re-run from September 2018, Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky talk all about Tesla — and more broadly, the nature of disruption overall. Ho...

Designing a Culture of Reinvention

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode from September 2020, originally recorded for the Commonwealth Club of California, Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hasting talks about ...

The Basics of Growth Marketing: Engagement & Retention

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After achieving product-market fit and starting to gain users, how do startups then avoid the "leaky bucket" problem of losing users as quickly as the...

The Basics of Growth Marketing: User Acquisition

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Once known as “growth hacking”, the concept of Growth has now evolved into an entire discipline that spans marketing, product management, user exp...

The Great Data Debate

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over a decade after the idea of “big data'' was first born, data has become the central nervous system for decision-making in organizations of all s...

Principles for Work and Life

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the face of great uncertainty, how do you make decisions? Can you really apply the lessons of the past to the present and the future, to navigate s...

How the Internet Happened

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In his book (and podcast), Brian McCullough chronicles the history and evolution of the internet -- from college kids in a basement and the dot-com bo...

Technologies & Threads Through the Fabric of Our Lives

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

original episode notes and transcript here: https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/textiles-technology-science-math-cultures-civilization/Longtime podcast ...

Innovating and Deciding, for Companies and People

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

original episode notes and transcript here: https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/innovating-in-bets/Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host...

Geo-engineering and the Power of Narrative

19 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

original episode notes and transcript here: https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/pleistocenepark-geoengineering-iceagebiome/Longtime podcast showrunner (...

M&A, Before and After: What Founders Need to Know

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the a16z podcast. Today we’re talking about the mindsets and frameworks founders should know about when navigating the mergers and acquis...

How 'Hyperscalers' are Innovating — and Competing — in the Data Center

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Innovation in the data center has been constrained by the traditional model of suppliers providing fixed-function chips that limit how much the bigges...

Kickstarting Network Effects

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What are network effects? [1:32]How do you cold start and get your first users? [2:33]Atomic networks and why minimum viable community is more importa...

NFTs, Explained

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Given all the activity and interest recently around crypto and web3, as well as in upcoming holidays and art events, we’re re-running our episode al...

Play-to-Earn Gaming and How Work is Evolving in Web3

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode we’re talking about an emerging model of gaming called play to earn, in which players can make actual money based on how much tim...

On container ships, supply chains, and the physical world

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Beyond the Meme: Ever Given, Supply Chains, and the Physical World" -- by Ryan Petersen (June 2021). Bio + essay details/ originally appeared at: htt...

Crypto Security and the New Web3 Mindsets for Users

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode is all about crypto security — that is, the new mindsets and the new strategies for storing crypto assets safely while also allowi...

Cloud Wars and Company Wars: Play Nice But Win

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There are lots of challenges in being public while trying to innovate, and limits to being a private company as well; but it's rare to see a company g...

Uncontrolled Spread: Science, Policy, Institutions, Infrastructure

20 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's no question technology played a huge role in the recent/current pandemic, including especially in the plug-and-play engineering and incredibly...

Systems Leadership for Disruptors and Incumbents

24 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's been a false dichotomy in technology and management lore over the past decade, between "brain" and "brawn", digital and physical, independence...

NFT Use Cases, Today and Tomorrow

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, a16z and the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research hosted the NFT Virtual Summit, which brought together leading thinkers and builders on ...

Man, Mosquito, Malaria Vaccine

02 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Playing out against the backdrop of a global pandemic (including recent massive surges in regions around the world) is the news that came out a week a...

Crypto, an Oral Essay

17 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a special episode of the a16z podcast — it's an audio history, told through the voices of the a16z crypto team, about what crypto is, how it...

On Monetizing Community with Patreon Cofounder Sam Yam

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's clear from the growth of Patreon, Substack, TikTok, Clubhouse and many more that the power of the Creator Economy continues to build. These platf...

The Creator Economy: NFTs and Beyond

03 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode of the a16z Podcast, we’re talking about the Creator Economy, and how NFTs (but not just NFTS!) are making it possible for arti...

All about NFTs

28 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is all about NFTs. It seems like nothing has caught on and spread into mainstream interest like NFTs, where one hears everything from "I'...

The Next Wave of Marketplace Startups

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the tech world, marketplaces are a hot topic. That term—marketplace—encompasses a huge swath of services we use every day, from grocery deliver...

The Third Vaccine, and Vaccine Choice

18 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

https://a16z.com/2021/03/15/16-minutes-58-the-johnson-johnson-vaccine-and-covid-efficacy-rates/ Stay Updated:Find a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen...

Companies & Culture: What You Do Is Who You Are

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast -- which was recorded at the Computer History Museum in a live event, before the pandemic (first published in December 2019) is all about...

Boss Talk with Ben Horowitz

28 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Boss Talk is a  weekly live show on Clubhouse, where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi discuss CEO stuff, leadership stuff, m...

All About Ransomware

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In just the last couple years, ransomware has grown into a multibillion dollar industry. It has evolved from taking systems and servers hostage to ste...

One on One with Marc and Ben

17 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On social audio app Clubhouse, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are hosting a new live show called "One on One with A and Z", where they go deep on qu...

Amazon Narratives: Memos, Working Backwards from Release, More

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When you hear stories about Amazon's "invention machine" -- which led to a company with not just one or two products but several successful diverse li...

Anatomy of the SolarWinds Hack: Who What Where When How

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this special “3x”-long episode of our (otherwise shortform) news analysis show 16 Minutes -- past such 2-3X explainer episodes have covered sec...

Psychedelics: Striking a Balance Between Benefits and Side Effects

23 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, there’s been a shift in how we think about psychedelics – from drugs of abuse and recreation, to powerful drugs for treating neur...

Developers as Creatives

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of developers -- as buyers, as influencers, as a creative class -- is a direct result of "software eating the world", and of key shifts in IT...

Section 230: Everything You Need to Know -- Tweets, Free Speech, Beyond

09 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

All about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- in what Wired senior writer (and host of the Get Wired podcast) described as "one of the cl...

Baumol's Cost Disease, in Healthcare... and Where We Go Next

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If software’s eating the world -- and more specifically, bringing costs down and increasing productivity through entire industries -- why have some ...

Words of 2020! (and Metaphors, and Interfaces of the Year)

24 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"In a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other”... so it's unprecedented that for the first time, the Oxfo...

The Machine That Made the Vaccine: Company, Platform, Innovation

21 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of Bio Eats World -- which aired right after the FDA authorized Moderna's mRNA vaccine for emergency use -- Moderna CEO Stepha...

The PPP Omnibus: Eminent Domain, Fraud, and Fintech

14 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features two relevant but previously recorded episodes, discussing the relevance of the Paycheck Protection Program (or PPP) from the Sma...

The Holy Grail of Social + Fintech

07 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The intersection of social and finance—as well as shifting attitudes around what we share about money online—have given way to an ambitious new wa...