LATW 2022: Building the Future of Games
In this episode of a16z Live, David Banks, a former Riot Games executive who's now the co-founder and CEO of Elodie Games, and Timmu Tõke, the co-founder and CEO of Ready Player Me, a leading platform for cross game avatars, join a16z General Partner and games investor Jon Lai for a conversation about where they think the metaverse is going, and the future of building games
24 Okt 202219min
LATW 2022: Building Better Factories
In this episode of a16z Live, Chris Power, the Founder and CEO of the precision parts manufacturing company, Hadrian, talks with a16z American Dynamism Partner Oliver Hsu, about why he decided to build his factories in LA, why software engineers shouldn't be afraid of manufacturing company jobs, and how a single mom and pop machinist shop can affect the national supply chain. What follows is a slightly edited version of that conversation.
24 Okt 202212min
LATW 2022: Building Better Marketplaces
In this episode of a16z Live, Grant LaFontaine, the co-founder and CEO of the livestream shopping platform Whatnot, talks with a16z General Partner Connie Chan about building the company, his experience as the site's first person to go live, and why he prefers Los Angeles over San Francisco. What follows is a slightly edited version of that conversation.
24 Okt 202216min
Investing in Los Angeles
To celebrate the L.A. community and the city's growth, a16z recently hosted, "Time to Build Los Angeles," an event where we invited L.A.-based investors, founders, and operators from across a diverse range of industries to talk about company building in L.A. In the first in our series of interviews, we invited Andrew Chen from a16z, Minnie Ingersoll from TenOneTen, and Turner Novak from Banana Capital to talk about why L.A. is at an inflection point, misperceptions about the region, and what makes a great meme. But first, we opened our panel discussion with a presentation from a16z consumer partner, Katia Ameri, on what you need to know about the L.A. scene and why we think it's worth paying attention to in the years to come. What follows is a slightly edited version of that conversation.
24 Okt 202230min
Titan's Clayton Gardner on How the Fintech Market is Changing
In this episode of a16z Live, we are joined by Titan Invest co-founder and co-CEO Clayton Gardner; a16z General Partner Anish Acharya; and a16z growth partner, Alex Immerman. The trio starts their conversation by diving into the difference between active and passive investment management and where Titan fits into that matrix. Building upon that foundation, they discuss how the fintech market is changing, why historically the best fund managers have not taken retail money, and whether that's changing the importance of curation in UX on competitive platforms, and of course the role of regulation.
20 Okt 202238min
Ben Horowitz on How the Best Leaders Build Culture
Ben Horowitz discusses the leadership styles of Intel’s Andy Grove and Apple’s Bill Campbell, how Okta won its market with culture, and how to look for and hire the talent you don’t have in an interview with David Weiden, founding partner at Khosla Ventures, at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit. Read a transcript of the conversation here. 0:40: The management legacy of Intel’s Andy Grove4:26: Why everyone remembers Bill Campbell7:35: How culture gave Okta the competitive edge12:15: Finding the talent you don’t have16:07: Building a resilient company cultureRead a transcript of this conversation here.
19 Aug 202221min
The Importance of Partnerships in the Great Unbundling
The API economy and a Cambrian explosion of apps are transforming best-in-class tech from monolithic tools to a stack of 20 applications that work together. Amid this unbundling, partnerships have become a critical part of early go-to-market strategy that can lead to higher quality pipeline and accelerated sales. In this fireside chat, recorded at the 2022 Crossbeam Supernode conference, a16z General Partner Sarah Wang and Bob Moore, Cofounder and CEO of Crossbeam, discuss how partnerships have changed and why the best startups invest early in building a partnership program. You can read a transcript of this podcast here.
29 Jun 202219min
Goldman Sachs' Stephanie Cohen on How the Firm's Approach to Technology Has Evolved
a16z General Partner David Haber chats with his former colleague Stephanie Cohen, Goldman Sachs' Global Co-Head of Consumer and Wealth Management, about her journey from being an investment banker to running a global division, how Goldman Sachs stays relevant to different client audiences, and how fintech entrepreneurs can think about partnering with the financial services giant.
23 Jun 202223min