a16z General Partner Martin Casado discusses learning strategy from colleague Chris Dixon and how tracking founder movements provides superior market signals.
Assertion Open · timeframe Jul 2030
Casado: OpenAI Lost Its Early Leads In Code, Image, And Video Generation
“OpenAI was the first to code, right? With GitHub Copilot. I mean, they provided the weights. As far as I know, and they lost that. And they were first to image with Dali, and they lost that. And they were the first to video with Sora. And as far as I can tell,…”
Opinion
Casado: Vertical SaaS Tech Is Simple CRUD Where The Team Doesn't Matter
“Every time I look at vertical SAS, I'm like, why do we even care about the technical team? It's fucking crud, man. It's like, crud is like create, you know, read, update, delete. It's like, they all do the same thing. They all just kind of look like a web app.…”
Opinion
Casado: Open-Source AI Is Dangerous Because China Is Better At It
“I think that right now open source is most dangerous because China is better at it than we are, and as a result of that.”
Opinion
Casado: Operating background likely hurts venture capitalists more than it helps
“I don't know if operating helps or not. Like, I don't know if it helps you pick. I don't know if it helps you close. I don't know. Like, I don't know how to answer that. Probably not. It probably hurts more than helps.”
Opinion
Casado: VCs who skip evenings and weekends do not deserve to invest
“And you should work in the evenings, and you should work on weekends. And if you don't, like, I, like, I just don't think you deserve to be investing in these companies. You just don't.”
Opinion
Casado: Thesis investing is flawed because market narratives are usually retrofitted
“A lot of investors talk about actually in the, a lot of investors talk about thesis. I don't think that's the right way to think about investing at all. I think it's just so crazy to come up with some story, which to your point is more retrofit. So I'm definit…”