The Exchanges

Q I, I asked Doug Leone this, but I'm intrigued because you have the same challenge. The weight of your voice is so significant. How do you ensure that people will fight back when the weight is as great as it is?

A So number one, it's, it's, let's say, it's nice. There's an upside to it. Um, uh, so, uh, I don't, I would say I don't want to lose the upside. I do like the upside to it. Um, um, but yeah, look, I, the very specific form of that is I think, well, so there's actually maybe you could say two problems. There's the giving advice part, and then there's actually the just asking questions part, which is also a problem because people will interpret the, the, the questions as, as advice or directives. Um, I just think you have to like, the way I think about it is if I'm, if I'm dealing with one of my partners at the firm, or if I'm dealing with one of our portfolio CEOs, I just, I actually have to be really careful to say, look, I'm not, I don't know what the right thing to do here is. I, I don't have the information that you have. Um, I, I, I don't believe I can dictate, um, you know, what this is. Um, I used to use, do you remember the concept of an in-flight magazine? Does that ring a bell?

AI assessment note: “I actually have to be really careful to say, look, I'm not, I don't know”

Q I, I asked Doug Leone this, but I'm intrigued because you have the same challenge. The weight of your voice is so significant. How do you ensure that people will fight back when the weight is as great as it is?

A So number one, it's, it's, let's say, it's nice. There's an upside to it. Um, uh, so, uh, I don't, I would say I don't want to lose the upside. I do like the upside to it. Um, um, but yeah, look, I, the very specific form of that is I think, well, so there's actually maybe you could say two problems. There's the giving advice part, and then there's actually the just asking questions part, which is also a problem because people will interpret the, the, the questions as, as advice or directives. Um, I just think you have to like, the way I think about it is if I'm, if I'm dealing with one of my partners at the firm, or if I'm dealing with one of our portfolio CEOs, I just, I actually have to be really careful to say, look, I'm not, I don't know what the right thing to do here is. I, I don't have the information that you have. Um, I, I, I don't believe I can dictate, um, you know, what this is. Um, I used to use, do you remember the concept of an in-flight magazine? Does that ring a bell?

AI assessment note: “I actually have to be really careful to say, look, I'm not, I don't know”

Q So then how do you, when you are guiding conversation, when you are guiding partners, how do you ensure that they have a fresh mind with every new company and every new investment and are not plagued by the downsides that bluntly lost money before?

A Yeah. So by the way, just the other example, by the way, is AI. AI was a tremendously good way to lose a lot of money in venture capital from 19, from 1945 to 20 17 right so there i mean look when i was getting my computer science degree in the late eighties like ai was like it was like the one field that you knew would never succeed like there had actually been an investment boom for ai in the eighties and it failed and everybody including all the computer scientists were like yeah this field is dead and that happened like five times over the course of uh of ai over the last eight years um and so like that you know so again another great example so so look i i think a couple things in terms of how we we run our firm or how you run a firm like this so so one is as you well know that there are But very important, there are two categories of mistakes, right? There's, there's the mistake of commission, and there's the mistake of omission, or there's a mistake of cost, and there's the mistake of opportunity cost. Um, and so, of course, the mistake of cost is you invest a million dollars in a startup, it fails, you loses the money, you lose the money, that's bad. Um, the, the, the, the, the, the mistake of omission is you don't invest in Google, and you lose a hundred billion dollars of opportunity cost, right? Um, and so, of course, venture is like the most polar, you know, it's th…

AI assessment note: “there's the mistake of cost, and there's the mistake of opportunity cost.”

Q What was the most controversial deal or most disagreed upon deal internally from your memory?

A I don't think we've individual, individual deals that are really controversial internally. Cause we, we, we could, so the deal we kind of make with all of our investing partners is they all get to, they all get to take risk. So they all get to go out on a limb and do the things that other people are going to think are dumb. Um, and so they don't generally like backbite each other on that. Um, so I don't think it's really that as much. Which, um, I, the, the bigger issue, I think, is probably more, and I put this more on Ben and me than anybody else, but it's just like, okay, what are the kinds of investments that we do? Like, what's, like, what, you know, what sectors are in and out of the strike zone, right? Um, and I'll just, I'll just give you an, I'll give you an, I'll give you an example. I mean, the most straightforward example is the deal we didn't do, we should have done, is the Andrewle Series A, um, right, which was like, which was just, like, sort of obvious that it was gonna be special, and, you know, Palmer, we had worked with Palmer at Oculus, and it was just, you know, and his colleagues were clearly very capable, and it was just kind of obvious that, You know, there was something, you know, very special, but it was just like at the, the, the, the, say like the politics, the cultural elements of that at the time when it first came around, I would say we got scare…

AI assessment note: “I don't think we've individual, individual deals that are really controversial internally.”

Q Um, and you worry, do you worry about the future of Europe when you look at that flat or sinking growth rate for many European countries? Do you worry about it?

A Yeah. So I would say I am a tremendously, I am, I am, I am like tremendously pro-European. I am like Like, pro-European at my very core. Like, I'm an Anglophile and a Francophile and a, you know, Germanophile. Um, and, um, you know, like, I, I, I love all these countries. I love all these people. Uh, I, I think it's absolutely, you know, the, the, every country in Europe, I think, has made, like, fundamental contributions to civilization. Um, I think the human capital in Europe is just, like, absolutely amazing. Uh, you'll, you'll hate what I'm about to say. Um, but, uh, I, one of my things in the firm is I say, we, we should back every single European founder who moves to the US. Like, we should just reflexively say yes.

AI assessment note: “we should back every single European founder who moves to the US.”

Q You haven't gone to Miami? I think I got lost. Like, why has he moved to Miami? I'm like, has he moved to Miami? My research tells me no, but fuck, okay. Maybe he's done a Sergey.

A No, I'm a California, I'm a California, I'm a California, I'm very dug into California. Um, and so, like, look, I am very keenly, I am not a, I am not a Silicon Valley partisan in the sense of, like, I think everything should be in Silicon Valley, or I think it'd be good if everything was in Silicon Valley, like, I don't believe that, and I am a very, very keen, I would say, student of all the issues, uh, in Silicon Valley, and I, I could spend a long time taking you through them, you probably know them all already, um, but, like, Silicon Valley has real issues as a, as a place, including, by the way, just, like, practical issues, cost, cost of living, cost of housing, trans, you know, The cost of, you know, transportation, commutes, like, you know, and then, and then when you get into politics, and it's a whole other kind of parade of horribles. Um, and, and so, like, there are a lot of issues. Um, uh, and then, you know, look, San Francisco proper, there are a lot of issues. Like, it, you know, it's a city that, 100% does not want to grow. It's a city for which, like, the voters on average do not want business to be there. Um, you know, it's a city that's, you know, has real issues for, you know, quality of life, um, and so forth. Um, and so, like, Like, I would love to see the I would love to see the industry spread throughout the US and then spread throughout the world. I w…

AI assessment note: “No, I'm a California, I'm a California, I'm very dug into California.”

Q Macaulay Culkin, Mark. Do you remember Home Alone? Yeah. The kid who ever knew when he was young and then I was like, oh yeah, what is he doing now? Oh, kind of no one knows. I have nightmares about being Macaulay Culkin adventure. What are you, what are you scared of? To me, you're, you're the great Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz. You've got nothing to be scared of.

A I mean, I've been through kind of every version of this. Um, uh, yeah, I mean, like, I've been through kind of every version of this myself. There's a famous, uh, F. Scott Fitzgerald line, uh, where he said in the 19 twenties, where he said, you know, author of The Great Gatsby, um, and he said, uh, there are no second acts in American lives. Like, you get one shot and that's it. And fortunately, I think, like, he was very, very, very deeply wrong about that. Um, and I think, and I think he was definitely wrong about that for American lives. And I think, I think he was generally wrong about that for, you know, for, for, for, for lives, at least elsewhere in the West. Um, maybe a little bit less so in Europe, but I, I think still, you know, more, more than, more than not. Um, anyway, the, the point being, like, we don't, I mean, look, somebody once told me there are two great stories, uh, oh, the glory of it and oh, the shame of it, right? And so, oh, the glory of it is like the story of great success. Oh, the shame of it is the story of, like, great disaster. But then the even better version of it is, oh, the glory of it, followed by, oh, the shame of it, followed by, oh, the glory of it, right? And, and, right, and so the recovery. Right. Um, and, and, you know, getting back up on your feet and, and, and then re, and then, and then reachieving and, and, and rebuilding. Um, and…

AI assessment note: “I mean, I've been through kind of every version of this myself.”

Q When you think about all the people that you've met who have been heads of state or in positions of political power, which one were you most compelled to feel you wanted to invest with, work with? They, they, you'd want to work with them.

A Um, so I will, um, I will say, like in the last five, I should say this, in the last five years, um, it's the heads of, I would say in particular UAE, um, Saudi, um, Qatar, uh, Kuwait. Um, there is something really special, uh, happening in those countries. I find there's a lot of very talented people, politicians, European politicians, heads of state, former heads of state, where when you get them in private, they know everything. Um, they know what needs to be done. You just pick a topic and they know what, again, it's, it's, it's, it's almost like the policy discussions have been had so many times that we kind of know all the answers already. It's just, we, we either like or we don't like the answers to, and specifically right, of course, we, we, we like or don't like the consequences of the answers. We don't, we don't like the trade-offs. But like, I think there's a lot of people who like know, I think there's a lot of people who know like, okay, this, this, there is a formula, there are a set of things to be done, and it could be on this question of having a tech industry, or it could be on some, some other, you know, pressing issue. You know, fiscal, whatever, whatever, whatever the issue is. And they kind of know what it is, and then they kind of explain, you know, here's why we can't do that. And then they kind of go back, and then they kind of go out in public, and the…

AI assessment note: “it's the heads of, I would say in particular UAE, um, Saudi, um, Qatar”

Q When you think about all the people that you've met who have been heads of state or in positions of political power, which one were you most compelled to feel you wanted to invest with, work with? They, they, you'd want to work with them.

A Um, so I will, um, I will say, like in the last five, I should say this, in the last five years, um, it's the heads of, I would say in particular UAE, um, Saudi, um, Qatar, uh, Kuwait. Um, there is something really special, uh, happening in those countries. I find there's a lot of very talented people, politicians, European politicians, heads of state, former heads of state, where when you get them in private, they know everything. Um, they know what needs to be done. You just pick a topic and they know what, again, it's, it's, it's, it's almost like the policy discussions have been had so many times that we kind of know all the answers already. It's just, we, we either like or we don't like the answers to, and specifically right, of course, we, we, we like or don't like the consequences of the answers. We don't, we don't like the trade-offs. But like, I think there's a lot of people who like know, I think there's a lot of people who know like, okay, this, this, there is a formula, there are a set of things to be done, and it could be on this question of having a tech industry, or it could be on some, some other, you know, pressing issue. You know, fiscal, whatever, whatever, whatever the issue is. And they kind of know what it is, and then they kind of explain, you know, here's why we can't do that. And then they kind of go back, and then they kind of go out in public, and the…

AI assessment note: “it's the heads of, I would say in particular UAE, um, Saudi, um, Qatar”

Q Macaulay Culkin, Mark. Do you remember Home Alone? Yeah. The kid who ever knew when he was young and then I was like, oh yeah, what is he doing now? Oh, kind of no one knows. I have nightmares about being Macaulay Culkin adventure. What are you, what are you scared of? To me, you're, you're the great Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz. You've got nothing to be scared of.

A I mean, I've been through kind of every version of this. Um, uh, yeah, I mean, like, I've been through kind of every version of this myself. There's a famous, uh, F. Scott Fitzgerald line, uh, where he said in the 19 twenties, where he said, you know, author of The Great Gatsby, um, and he said, uh, there are no second acts in American lives. Like, you get one shot and that's it. And fortunately, I think, like, he was very, very, very deeply wrong about that. Um, and I think, and I think he was definitely wrong about that for American lives. And I think, I think he was generally wrong about that for, you know, for, for, for, for lives, at least elsewhere in the West. Um, maybe a little bit less so in Europe, but I, I think still, you know, more, more than, more than not. Um, anyway, the, the point being, like, we don't, I mean, look, somebody once told me there are two great stories, uh, oh, the glory of it and oh, the shame of it, right? And so, oh, the glory of it is like the story of great success. Oh, the shame of it is the story of, like, great disaster. But then the even better version of it is, oh, the glory of it, followed by, oh, the shame of it, followed by, oh, the glory of it, right? And, and, right, and so the recovery. Right. Um, and, and, you know, getting back up on your feet and, and, and then re, and then, and then reachieving and, and, and rebuilding. Um, and…

AI assessment note: “there are no second acts in American lives. Like, you get one shot”