David George is General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He is responding to claims by other VCs that large venture fund sizes inevitably dilute LP returns.
Opinion
Only five founders globally justify paying growth-stage valuations at early stages
“The kinds of people like that, that warrant an investment decision, you know, a thought process like that, I think are extremely small. I mean, the list is five people, I think.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
George: Aggressive crossover venture funds actually generate good returns
“First, I think there's a little bit of a misperception in the market about some of those firms who have been more aggressive recently. Their returns are pretty good. They've done a good job.”
Disclosure
a16z gives startups more leeway on gross margins today
“On the gross margin point today, I'll say this. We give a little bit more of a pass than we used to.”
Disclosure
a16z's best fund ever saw Databricks return 7x and Coinbase 5x
“Our best performing fund in the history of the firm is actually a one billion dollar fund. So it's a large fund, right? In that fund, Databricks has returned seven X the fund so far. Coinbase has returned already DPI five X of the fund.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
53% of dollar gains in top recent IPOs came post-Series C
“We actually just looked at the 50 top IPOs from 2017 to 2025. And if you disaggregate where the dollars of return come from, 47% of the dollars of gain happens between the seed in the series B and 53% of the dollars of gain happened from series C plus.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2030
Most AI value creation will happen in private markets, not public
“And if you look at what's happening in the private versus public markets now, the size of the winners from a new tech wave, that's going to happen in the private markets.”