The a16z Show
Episodes
a16z Podcast: Making a (Really) Wild Geo-Engineering Idea Real
18 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s what we know: There’s a pair (father and son) of Russian scientists trying to resurrect (or rather, "rewild") an Ice Age (aka Ple...
a16z Podcast: Addiction vs Popularity in the Age of Virality
15 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the age of virality, what does it actually mean to be popular? When does popularity -- or good product design, for that matter -- cross over from d...
a16z Podcast: The Golden Era of Productivity, Retail, and Supply Chains
11 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the a16z Podcast takes us on a quick tour through the themes of economics/historian/journalist Marc Levinson's books -- from An Extra...
a16z Podcast: The Cloud Atlas to Real Quantum Computing
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A funny thing happened on the way to quantum computing: Unlike other major shifts in classic computing before it, it begins -- not ends -- with The Cl...
a16z Podcast: Companies, Networks, Crowds
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Is a network -- whether a crowd or blockchain-based entity -- going to replace the firm anytime soon? Not yet, argue Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfss...
a16z Podcast: Lobbying Tech
24 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is lobbying, really? Is it “white", "heavy-set" men "playing golf" and making arrangements in "smoke-filled back ...
a16z Podcast: Cybersecurity in the Boardroom vs. the Situation Room
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"We're always fighting the last war" -- that's a phrase historians like to use because policymakers and others tend to be so focused on the ...
a16z Podcast: Taking the ‘Cyber’ Out of Cybersecurity
16 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly every cybersecurity discussion/presentation follows this formula: We don’t know what we’re doing; the bad guys are getting smarter; our def...
a16z Podcast: Changing the Conversation about Cybersecurity
16 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When individuals gain the abilities that only nation states once had, how do we put cyber threats in perspective for policymakers -- without unduly &q...
a16z Podcast: Taking the Measure of Tech in Policy -- with Kamala Harris
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Slow down, cowboys" -- that's what Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) said when prosecutors in her office wanted to bring a case against ...
a16z Podcast: Modernizing Government Services, From Food Stamps to Foster Care
07 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When people think of modernizing government, they tend to think of new IT, of improved procurement, of new infrastructure ... rather than social servi...
a16z Podcast: The Law (and Tech) of Warfare
04 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rules, guidelines, regulations, and “laws” are all sometimes used interchangeably — but what’s legal and what isn’t is far more complex when...
a16z Podcast: The Living Museum
29 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Every industry (for-profit, non-profit, government, private-sector) has been touched by tech, with most trying to lead the charge in order to stay ahe...
a16z Podcast: Giving and Getting Feedback -- for Bosses and Employees
26 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
There's feedback and there's guidance; there's praise and there's criticism. All of it is important to do better work, but to develop a better and mor...
a16z Podcast: What Technology Wants, Needs, Does
23 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Turnabout is fair play: That's true in politics, and it's true at Andreessen Horowitz given our internal (and very opinionated!) culture of debate -- ...
a16z Podcast: Tech Policy and the Courts
22 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Discussions and headlines around tech policy tend to be dominated by what the President and the White House (aka the executive branch of the governmen...
a16z Podcast: The Blockchain, in Congress
20 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an interesting paradox when it comes to the U.S. government and tech: Either they’re an inventor, early adopter, and buyer of emerging new...
a16z Podcast: For Your Ears Only
18 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to spycraft — or rather, “tradecraft,” as they say in the biz — what do the movies get right, and what do they get wrong? In thi...
a16z Podcast: From Jobs to Flying Cars
15 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this lively conversation -- from our recent annual tech and policy summit in Washington, D.C. -- Axios' Dan Primack interviews a16z co-founder Marc...
a16z Podcast: Quantum Computing, Now and Next
13 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Moore's Law -- putting more and more transistors on a chip -- accelerated the computing industry by so many orders of magnitude, it has (and continues...
a16z Podcast: Boards, from Both Sides of the Table
11 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A board veteran who has sat on both sides of the table, CEO of PagerDuty Jennifer Tejada shares what you gain from board membership (vs. being only an...
a16z Podcast: On Wearables, Quantified Self, and Biohacking
01 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the end of the beginning — not the beginning of the end — for wearables, argue the guests in this episode of the a16z Podcast. Especially a...
a16z Podcast: The Rise of the Digital 'Pill'
28 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The first thing that comes to mind when treating health problems is the need to take a pill (or other pharmaceutical) of some kind. But could a digita...
a16z Podcast: QR. AR. VR.
25 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this hallway-style episode of the podcast, a16z partners Connie Chan and Kyle Russell discuss recent announcements at Facebook's annual developer c...
a16z Podcast: The Science Of Extending Life
18 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Is it real or science fiction to dream of being able to treat… getting old? In this episode, we discuss with Dr. Thomas Rando from Stanford (who dir...
a16z Podcast: Crisis Communications
13 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A crisis is an opportunity to change one's culture, to model scenarios and set up a crisis plan/process, to become a better company. But it's also a b...
a16z Podcast: Monetizing Open Source (Or, All Enterprise Software)
11 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s what we know about open source: Developers are the new buyers. Community matters. And there will never be another Red Hat (i.e., a successful...
a16z Podcast: The Changing Culture of Open Source
08 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The culture of open source has changed across generations, from previous ones that had to fight for the brave new way -- to the current "GitHub g...
a16z Podcast: Cryptocurrencies, App Coins, and Investing in Protocols
03 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us have probably heard of bitcoin and ethereum -- but did you know there were 15 new cryptocurrencies launched this past month alone? How then...
a16z Podcast: Eyes in the Sky
25 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the a16z Podcast recorded at our inaugural Summit, Jonathan Downey, CEO of Airware, Grant Jordan, CEO of Skysafe, and Kyle Russell,...
a16z Podcast: From Hidden Figure to Sonic BOOM
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
An aerospace engineer who worked for NASA for over 40 years, Dr. Christine Darden is one of the mathematicians that the book and movie Hidden Figures ...
a16z Podcast: The Storage Renaissance
21 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As we enter a new era of distributed computing -- and of big data, in the form of machine and deep learning -- storage becomes (even more) important. ...
a16z Podcast: The Product Edge in Machine Learning Startups
17 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of machine learning startups initially feel a bit of “impostor syndrome” around competing with big companies, because (the argument goes), t...
a16z Podcast: Build Your Personal Brand
13 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Your brand, says head of a16z marketing and Outcast Agency co-founder Margit Wennmachers, is what people say about you when you're not in the room. An...
a16z Podcast: The Business of Healthcare
09 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Starbucks supposedly spends more on healthcare than it does on coffee beans. And 20 years ago, says Rajeev Singh, CEO of Accolade, healthcare was 10% ...
a16z Podcast: The Genetics Of Drug Delivery
07 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the a16z Podcast introduced by Vijay Pande (based on a presentation at our summit event), Russ Altman, Stanford professor of bioeng...
a16z Podcast: Technology, Mobility, and the American Dream
01 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The irony of our systems working so well -- technological, corporate, and yes, even political -- is that we've become too comfortable: matching to oth...
a16z Podcast: The Future of... You
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have always wanted to enhance themselves -- from getting nutrition just-right to optimizing their performance, whether in sports or health or w...
a16z Podcast: Tech and Entertainment in the 'Era of Mass Customization'
26 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine, for a moment, an alternative universe: One where Netflix got disrupted by some other streaming-content company that made its DVD rental busin...
a16z Podcast: Brains, Bodies, Minds ... and Techno-Religions
23 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Evolution and technology have allowed our human species to manipulate the physical environment around us -- reshaping fields into cities, redirecting ...
a16z Podcast: When Will Genomics Live Up to the Hype?
22 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It's been nearly 15 years since the Human Genome Project was completed. But "are we there yet" in the golden age of genomics? What did we th...
a16z Podcast: Startups, Pivots, Culture, and Timing (Oh Shit!)
19 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The hardest thing about pivots (major shifts in company/product direction) isn't just the actual pivot. It's the courage to make the decision... and b...
a16z Podcast: Securing Infrastructure and Enterprise Services
14 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The modern enterprise holds all sorts of applications, devices, and workflow needs. How should we be thinking about securing infrastructure -- and ide...
a16z Podcast: Cars and Cities, the Autonomy Edition
08 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to freeways, cities became something to get through instead of something to get to. Now, as the next transportation revolution -- from rivers t...
a16z Podcast: What Startups Should Know about Analyst Relations
01 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the age of the internet -- where information is freely available online, and connections between sellers and buyers of software products are visibl...
a16z Podcast: Building Worlds with VR, Art, and Narrative
27 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Once upon a time, Robert Stromberg got a phone call from "Jim" Cameron (aka James Francis Cameron of Terminator and Titanic fame) about a li...
a16z Podcast: The Why, How, and When of PR
26 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Punch above your weight" -- If there's one thing public relations (PR) should help startups and founders do, it's that. Unfortunately, some...
a16z Podcast: VR, AR, and Beyond: The New Medium of Human Experience
24 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The building blocks for VR and AR are finally here -- but the content is just beginning. So everything you'll actually experience and consume in these...
a16z Podcast: Of Policy, Capital, and the Startup Ecosystem
21 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How to think about business policy and top-of-mind issues for the tech industry, given a new president? From what agencies matter for startups and VC ...
a16z Podcast: Of Presidents, Policies, and Tech
21 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How to think about tech policy and top-of-mind issues for the tech industry, given a new president? From what agencies matter for different tech domai...
a16z Podcast: Culture and/of Design
18 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Mobile-first" (and now too AI-first) has been a mantra of sorts in design, but what does that mean at a company, product management, and co...
a16z Podcast: Real Estate -- Ownership, Asset, Economy
13 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The largest asset class in the United States is owner-occupied real estate, yet options for homeowners accessing this are very binary right now: eithe...
a16z Podcast: Machine Intelligence, from University to Industry
11 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From the significance of Google DeepMind's AlphaGo wins to recent advances in "expert-level artificial intelligence" in playing an imperfect...
a16z Podcast: New Year, New Horizons -- Pluto!
01 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What (on earth) does it take to get a signal to Pluto? Stanford senior scientist and astronomer Ivan Linscott, part of the team that ran the radio sci...
a16z Podcast: The Movement of Money
31 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
As companies expand out from the internet into the rest of the economy — the proverbial bits to atoms — “the business models are becoming more c...
a16z Podcast: The Realities of Aging / When Healthcare Is Local
27 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
As people live longer, aging is more top of mind than ever. This is especially true for the "sandwich generation" wedged between caring for ...
a16z Podcast: Mobility and the Global Refugee Crisis
16 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"We throw around words like 'crisis' very easily, but this is a global crisis, and it is of historic proportions," says current U.S. Deputy ...
a16z Podcast: Produce or Perish! (What We Eat)
14 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Nature is the ultimate complex system, of course — but with today’s technology, it’s now provided us with an “incredible toolkit” of differe...
a16z Podcast: The Internet Is Your Movement
09 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Clearly disruption plays out not just in business but also in politics. Whether it was the Scottish national party, recent election campaigns, or loca...
a16z Podcast: Health Data -- A Feedback Loop for Humanity
05 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"We live in a world where we use millions of variables to predict which ad you're going to click on. Whether or not you deserve to get a loan. Wh...
a16z Podcast: Knowledge Builds Technology and Technology Builds Knowledge -- with Joel Mokyr
27 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Industrial Revolution (and period between 1500-1700) was an unprecedented age of technology and economic progress — not unlike today’s, in fac...
a16z Podcast: Drones for Delivery in Healthcare
23 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“If we have instant delivery for our burgers,” says Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo, “we should have it for our medicine.” So while...
a16z Podcast: Old Food, New Tech -- 'Clean Meat'
23 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve heard the numbers or some statistic like this: By the year 2050, we’ll need to feed 9.7 billion humans on the planet. Our current productio...
a16z Podcast: The Business of Creativity -- Pixar CFO, IPO, and Beyond!
09 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
You've heard a version of this story before: Steve Jobs calls some executive out of the blue to come work for him. Only this time the story turns out ...
a16z Podcast: What's Next for Technology and National Security?
09 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We live in very interesting times, to say the least -- whether it's a shift in how technology is built and adopted today compared to the past; a chang...
a16z Podcast: Messages and Movements in Politics AND Business
03 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In business, as in politics, "the movement is the message" -- whether that "movement" is a product that's taking off grassroots-st...
a16z Podcast: So Where Are We on the 'S-curve' for PC Devices?
29 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There have been a number of new device announcements this past month -- from Google’s new Pixel phone (the first time they made their own phone on t...
a16z Podcast: On the Genomics of Disease, From Science to Business
18 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Once we sequenced the human genome, we'd know the cause of -- and therefore be able to help cure -- all diseases... Or so we thought. Turns out, 20,00...
a16z Podcast: Stickers! Filters! Memes! Livestreams!
12 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
From glittery reaction gifs modded by grandparents to rage faces on Reddit, stickers (gifs and other layered images) and emotive “biaoqing” have t...
a16z Podcast: Truce for Mobile, Battle for VR
10 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The most recent Oculus Connect event (the third and largest yet) has been lauded as bringing us closer than ever to the future promised for virtual re...
a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo)
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This special episode of the a16z Podcast is based on a Q&A from an early screening we hosted of Disney's Queen of Katwe, now in theaters. The movi...
a16z Podcast: From Data Warehouses to Data Lakes
22 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
From the silver age of on-prem software companies like SAP and Siebel Systems to the golden age of enterprise software-as-a-service, we're now seeing ...
a16z Podcast: Welcome to the New Era of Commerce
18 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Just as "social networking" is a bland term that doesn't really capture the layers of what happens underneath (and on top of) social network...
a16z Podcast: Apple and the Case of Invisible But Audible Innovation
13 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Apple isn't just a tech company; it's a tastemaker." Remember the iconic ads of dancing silhouettes in black, with only the headphone wires...
a16z Podcast: Sleep!
06 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sleep, productivity, and creatively are intimately linked, for better and for worse. And "we are living under a collective delusion that burnout ...
a16z Podcast: All About Microservices
31 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Incremental change may be good theory, but in practice you have to have a big enough stick to hit everybody with to make everything move at once...
a16z Podcast: It's Complicated
30 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
For better or worse, most of the computing systems that run much of our lives (whether invisibly or visibly) have become increasingly complex -- they'...
a16z Podcast: Ethereum, App Coins, and Beyond
28 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin quickly made its way from a whitepaper to a production network, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. But its scripting/ programmin...
a16z Podcast: Pricing Free
19 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Now that we know to price and plan early, price high -- especially for category-creating or "pre-chasm" businesses -- how do we handle freem...
a16z Podcast: Pricing, Pricing, Pricing
14 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Raise prices." Regular listeners of our podcast have heard this advice more than once. But why is this so key and yet so hard for many tech...
a16z Podcast: The Meaning of Emoji
03 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast is all about emoji. But it's really about how innovation really comes about -- through the tension between standards vs. proprietary move...
a16z Podcast: Not all Network Effects Are Created Equal
01 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
From hardware and hardwires to smartphones and social, technology wants to connect. It's almost a native property of technology and especially softwar...
a16z Podcast: We Gotta Talk Pokémon Go
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Seemingly overnight, a single game -- Pokémon Go -- has taken people by storm. But it's a game that was technically years in the making, building on ...
a16z Podcast: Getting Network Effects
15 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
One of the biggest misconceptions around network effects (which are one of the key dynamics behind many successful and highly defensible software comp...
a16z Podcast: On Government as Software Builder, Not Just Buyer
14 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We already know that the government is one of the largest IT buyers, but in many ways it is also an IT builder. Especially for areas where the governm...
a16z Podcast: Software Programs the World
11 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"All of a sudden you can program the world" -- it's the continuation of the software eating the world thesis we put out over five years ago,...
a16z Podcast: Beyond One Size Fits All for Startup Employee Options
01 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Do we need a new pay system for the way startup employees are compensated? While many people agree that the current 90-day exercise practice — an ou...
a16z Podcast: When Humanity Meets A.I.
28 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
with Fei-Fei Li (@drfeifei), Frank Chen (@withfries2), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) Who has the advantage in artificial intelligence — big companies, ...
a16z Podcast: Fintech Revolution or Evolution?
22 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How far along are we towards the vision of a "cashless, cardless, walletless, frictionless future" for fintech? We're not quite there yet, a...
a16z Podcast: An Economics Take on the Sharing Economy
16 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Love the term or hate it, the concept and reality of the "sharing economy" (or "gig economy" and so on) is here to stay. And in fa...
a16z Podcast: Apple and the Widgetification of Everything
14 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The world's most valuable company, Apple, made a number of seemingly incremental announcements at its most recent annual developer's conference (WWDC)...
a16z Podcast: Move Fast But Don't Break Things (When It Comes to Computational Biology)
14 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The mindset of "move fast and break things", while great for code, isn't exactly great for the human body. So adding computation to biology ...
a16z Podcast: Not If, But How -- When Technology is Inevitable (with Kevin Kelly)
07 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Technology has always been a force in how we live, work, and play; only now it's accelerating and compounding in unexpected ways. But just because we ...
Politics Over Pragmatism
02 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Anybody who is interested in China, who's developing things in China, who's doing business with China needs to be thinking about the instinct to...
a16z Podcast: Startups and Pendulum Swings Through Ideas, Time, Fame, and Money
30 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Everything old is new again when it comes to startup ideas and how technology innovation happens. But practically, how does that apply to starting and...
a16z Podcast: Trade, Commerce, Manufacturing, Immigration, & Cuba -- with Penny Pritzker
27 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"We really want Apple here... Would you please call Tim Cook?" That's just one of the things Penny Pritzker, the 38th Secretary of Commerce ...
a16z Podcast: Managing Uncertainty -- Layoffs and Talent
26 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In many ways, managing startups is about managing uncertainty: in product, market, and... people. So what happens when changes in the business require...
a16z Podcast: Automation, Jobs, & the Future of Work (and Income)
23 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There's no question automation is taking over more and more aspects of work and some jobs altogether. But we're now entering a "third era" o...
a16z Podcast: Innovation vs. Invention at Google I/O
20 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Innovation or invention? Platform or app? Vertical or horizontal? Strategy or tactic? Does the smartphone eat VR? And (not to get all existential abou...
a16z Podcast: Airspace as the Next Internet-Like Platform
18 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most important lessons of the internet age is what happens when we give people -- including companies, developers, engineers, hobbyists, an...