The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 34 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Dixon: a16z Crypto currently holds 94% of all historical investments
“Throughout the lifetime of the crypto funds, we could, we today hold 94% of our investments.”
Dixon: Most mainstream news coverage of crypto is factually incorrect
“I think, for example, on the crypto blockchain stuff, like most mainstream news coverage is just factually incorrect.”
Dixon: Crypto's success is inevitable; only timing remains uncertain
“I think the interesting question to me is not whether something like crypto blockchain will work. I don't think it's a question. I think it's a question of, the timing is a question as it is, as it was with AI and other things”
Dixon: Only ~1,000 Google employees build cutting-edge products
“Google has 300,000 employees or something. The vast majority are doing customer service, product management. They're maintaining old products. They're doing bureaucratic, you know, PowerPoints, arguing over politics. I don't know what they do, but like, I bet …”
Dixon: Meme coins are utterly stupid and have no purpose by design
“You know, meme coin is just an utterly stupid Token. It has no purpose by design.”
Dixon: Regulating open-source AI will entrench Big Five tech giants
“The obvious thing that's gonna happen if they do put regulations around this is just further entrench the power of the big five companies.”
Dixon: Big Tech Controls 95%+ of Traffic, AI Will Accelerate Consolidation
“The big five companies have 95% plus of the traffic and the money, and AI, as exciting as it is, will very likely accelerate that consolidation.”
Dixon: a16z Has Never Pivoted Strategy, Investing in AI Since 2013
“We are, we don't pivot at A-Six-Z, like we've never pivoted. We have all, you know, we've done AI for 10, since I've been at the firm, since 2013, we've done blockchain, crypto consistently, we've done bio, we've done SaaS, we've done video games.”
Dixon: FTX Collapse Set the Crypto Industry Back Two Years
“I think, you know, I'd like their setbacks, like in, in crypto, the stuff that happened two years ago with FTX and a bunch of scandals, I think, set back the space a couple, you know, maybe a couple of years.”
Dixon: Big Tech Monopoly Has Stifled Consumer Internet Startups for a Decade
“Look at consumer internet investing today. There's very few successful consumer internet companies the last 10 years. That's because you have this sort of chokehold with these five companies.”
Dixon: Blockchains are to web services what open-source was to OSs
“So blockchains are to centralize services as open source software was to centralize operating systems, right? Like this is, that's what we're doing here. We're trying to open the services layer of the internet.”
Dixon: US crypto regulation encourages speculation and penalizes productive uses
“So we have a system now that is, that, that literally encourages the casino behavior and discourages the productive use cases.”
Chris Dixon: Selling winning investments early is the worst VC strategy
“Look at the history of venture capital, like selling your winners is the worst possible strategy, and the things that aren't winners don't move the needle on funds. Like, it's just not how venture capital works.”
Dixon: Andreessen and Dixon Personally Funded California Forever Before a16z
“We do other kind of things like we, I don't know if you've seen this California forever. This was something we did. We, it's a new city in Northern California that, you know, at the time didn't fit into the venture Fun model. So we did that, you know, it was a…”
Chris Dixon: Software Movements Powered by Smart People Always Succeed
“I haven't seen a software movement where a bunch of very smart people were excited about it that hasn't eventually worked.”
Dixon: Junior VC incentives align with job survival, not LP returns
“A lot of issues are so-called principal agent problems. Meaning the individual is not aligned with the kind of the, ultimately with the, you know, with the financial interests of the LPs, because like you're a junior person, you're afraid and you're, you know,…”
Dixon: VCs Should Maintain Reserves and Exercise Pro-Rata Rights for Winners
“I would say the data also that I've looked at, you know, from my own history doesn't, you know, because the winners can be just so if you're good at it, the winners can just be so big that you want to do prorata. So, you know, I it's like, it's a hard question…”
Dixon: Big banks and big tech companies hate crypto
“The establishment banking, you know, the big banks hate crypto, the big tech companies hate crypto.”
Dixon: Regulatory gray areas discourage good entrepreneurs and attract bad actors
“My chief learning there is that gray areas discourage good entrepreneurs and encourage bad actors.”
Dixon: Crypto hacks stem from lack of mandatory security audit requirements
“You have these hacks and it's because there's no requirements around security audits.”
Dixon: Crypto regulatory impact depends on agency appointments over political party
“I think that, like, generally Trump, I don't know, but like Republicans tend to skew more, you know, kind of pro-business, and so there's some, but it ultimately really comes down to the specific people they choose to run these agencies.”
Dixon: a16z Crypto avoids seed deals, limiting investments to one company per category
“We very, we do very little seed investing. And the reason is we take conflicts very seriously, meaning we invest in one company per category. And if, you know, if we go too early, like that's sort of our bet in the category. And so I do very, you know, I, so w…”
Dixon: Achieving top-quartile board governance requires mostly care and support
“Unfortunately, I think it's relatively easy to be in the top quartile of that. If you care about it, if you're supportive in, in multiple in both up cycles and down cycles, like to your point earlier, there's just a lot of stuff that goes on when the market dr…”
Dixon: Remote work does not work for venture capital investing
“I, I've come to think it's, especially in our business, just doesn't work.”
Dixon: Two Main Venture Capital Strategies Work — Heat Seeking and Truffle Hunting
“I think there's sort of broadly two methods that work in venture, heat seeking and truffle hunting.”
Dixon: $10 million Series A was smallest check in mid-2000s VC
“In the time, 2000, you know, mid 2000, if you tried to raise money, essentially the product that venture capitalists offer was a ten million dollar series. A was sort of the smallest check.”
Dixon: I refrain from giving product feedback to portfolio startups
“I rarely in fact, I'm, I rarely get involved in, in those parts of the companies. And in fact, I, Probably judiciously tried to not comment on that because I think sometimes board members and investors opinions on like this button should be purple or something…”
Dixon: All a16z crypto funds are structured as 10-year venture funds
“First of all, all of our funds are Ten-year venture funds.”
Dixon: The primary point of blockchain is enabling digital ownership
“So, so to me, the point of a blockchain is to enable digital ownership.”
Dixon: The internet unbundled traditional venture capital firm brands
“I think that the internet changed the way that information flowed for sure. And I think probably unbundled a lot of brand and venture.”
Dixon: a16z's vertical structure prevents corporate bureaucracy from creeping in
“We, you know, we're very verticalized now. So we're a big firm, but, you know, I run a vertical and, you know, it's pretty independent. And that's important because I think we actually avoid a lot of the bureaucracy and other things.”
Dixon: Venture capital and hiring should focus on strength, not lack of weakness
“Invest in strength, not lack of weakness.”
Dixon: Andreessen Horowitz explicitly classifies deals as heat seeking or truffle hunting
“I think we try to do both. And I, that's the way I think about it. And I think about it explicitly, like this is a heat seeking investment. This is a, Truffle hunting investment.”
Dixon: Twitter chose Fred Wilson's Series A bid because he used the product
“If you're Fred Wilson doing, you know, consumer internet in 2005, you'll hear, you know, you heard the reason that, that Twitter picked him, you know, when it was a competitive deal at the series A was that he was using the product.”