Jan 2, 2019 · 40m · a16z
a16z Podcast | Of Presidents, Policies, and Tech
Ted Ullyot · 14m spoken Sonal Chokshi · 8m spoken Matt Spence · 7m spoken Matthew Colford · 7m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the a16z Podcast, host Sonal Chokshi and Andreessen Horowitz policy experts Ted Ullyot, Matt Spence, and Matthew Colford explore how presidential transitions, federal deregulation, and state-level governance impact technology startups. They outline strategies for tech founders to proactively engage with policymakers, navigate regulatory capture, and build bipartisan bridges between Silicon Valley and Washington.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The host holds 21.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The host as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 1.0 The host pushing back 1.9
speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 36:02 Matt Spence rejects state regulatory optimism
Matt Spence directly pushes back against the framing that state experimentation is entirely positive, arguing that regulatory uncertainty severely hurts startups regardless of product quality.
Hardest push from the host ▶ 19:11 Sonal challenges proactive narrativeSonal refuses Ted's assertion that startups should always proactively tell their story, countering that stealth mode startups explicitly require staying under the radar.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 27:00 Matthew Colford reframes ACA benefit portabilityMatthew Colford educates the room by pointing out that Democratic healthcare policy under the ACA actually empowered gig economy flexibility through benefit portability.
The host holds their own ▶ 29:55 Sonal demonstrates software defensibility insightSonal demonstrates strong tech industry knowledge by explaining that software moats rely on network effects rather than traditional patent matrices.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The host as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The host pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State and Local Governance Dynamics and Municipal Innovation | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | Sonal articulates the tension between Democratic-dominated cities and Republican-dominated state legislatures. Matthew Colford provides detailed statistical proof of Republican control across state chambers and governorships. | |
| Executive Branch Shifts and the Deregulation Framework | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Ted Ullyot outlines executive branch shifts under unified Republican control. Sonal accurately synthesizes the idea that legislative ideas now have a direct route to being signed rather than vetoed. | |
| Permissionless Innovation and Regulatory Knowledge Gaps | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Sonal introduces the concept of permissionless innovation driving the internet economy and offers analogies to existing laws. The guests explain how regulators struggle to understand emergent software models. | |
| Autonomous Vehicles and State-Level Regulatory Innovation | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Sonal frames regulatory inaction and sluggishness as a larger obstacle for startups than regulation itself. Ted Ullyot educates on the mechanics of intrastate preemption between cities and state governments. | |
| Startup Compliance Burdens and Public-Private Collaboration | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Matt Spence defends Obama administration efforts to partner with tech, while Sonal playfully pushes him to represent the Democratic side before bringing up insights from interviewing politicians. | |
| Proactive Storytelling and Analyzing Regulatory Capture | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Sonal pushes back on Ted's recommendation for proactive storytelling by citing stealth mode requirements. Matt Spence reframes regulatory capture into rent-seeking versus genuine policy challenges. | |
| Net Neutrality Shifts and Corporate Tax Repatriation | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Ted explains the flipping of the FCC to a Republican majority and net neutrality shifts. Sonal adds domain nuance by noting that net neutrality affects large platforms like Netflix differently than early startups. | |
| Labor Regulations, Class Action Lawsuits, and Healthcare Portability | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Ted frames Republican policy as hostile to unions and class action lawsuits. Matthew Colford educates the room by pointing out that ACA benefit portability actively empowered the gig economy. | |
| Global Trade Policies and Intellectual Property Rights | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Ted details EFF skepticism regarding IP provisions in TPP. Sonal demonstrates industry knowledge by explaining that software defensibility relies more on network effects than patent matrices. | |
| Cabinet Appointments and Government Field Presence | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Matthew Colford explains that incoming nominees lack explicit anti-tech bias and outlines the uncertainty surrounding whether Silicon Valley field offices like DIUx will remain prioritized. | |
| Policy Outlook for FinTech, Autonomous Mobility, and Health Tech | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | In a vertical lightning round, Matthew Colford describes state-level regulatory sandboxes, but Matt Spence pushes back by emphasizing that patchworks of state rules create damaging uncertainty for startups. | |
| Key Takeaways and Fostering Washington-Silicon Valley Bridges | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The guests summarize final recommendations, advising tech founders and policymakers to build proactive, non-transactional relationships across the Washington-Silicon Valley divide. |
Statements from this episode (27)
Ullyot: Feinstein and Burr are the leading Congressional opponents of encryption
“You had, until now, the leading proponents of backdoors, let's say the leading opponents on the Hill, of encryption have been Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican.”
Spence: Tech policy divides forward vs backward, not left vs right
“I mean, the traditional way you look at issues is left, right. In a weird way, the best way, it's almost like forward backwards if you're looking at different tech issues.”
Ullyot: Major tech policy issues are decided locally or internationally, not federally
“Another point is a lot of the tech policy issues that people think about today that are the headline issues in the world of tech policy are ones that are decided much more the state and local government issue or international rather than U S federal.”
Colford: Democrats control 70 of 100 largest U.S. cities
“Democrats control about 70 of the hundred largest cities, but they're all competing in a way to be tech friendly.”
Spence: Hartford is converting the historic Colt Armory into a tech incubator
“Hartford, Connecticut, who thinks about them as a tech city? They're emerging from bankruptcy, but they recently started a program where they're converting the old Colt Armory, which used to manufacture, you know, Colt firearms, into a incubator.”
Colford: Republicans control 33 governorships and 68 state legislative chambers
“So Republicans now control 33 governorships. The governor of Alaska is independent, so Democrats only control 16. The Republicans actually outnumber two to one Democratic governors. They control 68 out of 99 state legislative bodies, so both upper and lower Ho…”
Ullyot: Federal deregulation will shift tech policy authority to state governments
“On balance, there'll be fewer instances in which a federal regulation preempts to set aside and overrule a state law or to obviate the need for a state law. So you'll have more opportunities for state legislatures and governors, just state governments generall…”
Spence: Tech policy regulatory experimentation enjoys broad Democratic support
“I mean, I think this is one of those issues that's not a traditional Republican-Democratic divide. Yeah, I mean, speaking of someone who worked in the Obama administration, Democrats believe strongly in, you know, common rules of the road. The federal governme…”
Chokshi: Restricting early internet commerce would have destroyed modern tech economy
“And if people had said like from the very get go, cause no one predicted the internet would lead to all these different businesses. And to be able to say then like, oh, but we have to proscribe the use of it for commerce. It wouldn't have created this economy …”
Ullyot: Regulators reflexively force new tech into legacy regulatory boxes
“They're going to try to channel a new technology into an existing box to impose existing regulations, whereas what we and most entrepreneurs want to see is, hey, it's still early days in this technology. Don't jump in and assume that this is, that, that, that …”
Colford: State regulatory experimentation forces faster federal action on tech policy
“All of that is to say that the states can almost be A forcing mechanism or a forcing function for the federal government to respond more quickly.”
Ullyot: States tend to be laissez-faire while cities are regulatory prescriptive
“And I think generally speaking, you're going to find states being much more laissez-faire and cities being prescriptive.”
Spence: Regulatory capture occurs mostly at state and local levels
“The regulatory capture happens more, I think, at the state and local level.”
Colford: Pentagon officials favor legacy defense contractors like Raytheon over startups
“You know, if you live in Washington and you work in defense, your vision for private sector engagement with the defense, with defense is Raytheon, Boeing, you know, it's not some of these smaller cyber companies out here.”
Ullyot: The incoming Republican-led FCC will massively modify net neutrality rules
“So it's been a Democrat commission, Democrat-dominated, three-two commission, and now it's going to flip and be three-two Republican, and the FCC series of Rules about net neutrality will, at minimum, be massively modified by the incoming administration.”
Ullyot: Corporate tax repatriation will drive tech M&A and R&D
“Laws will be changed to allow that money to be repatriated at lower tax rates. It'll be attractive to, for American companies to bring that money back. And one potential outcome of that is a very good thing for tech in particular, which would be a lot of, Larg…”
Colford: The Affordable Care Act actually empowered the gig economy
“In many ways, the ACA has actually empowered the gig economy.”
Colford: Republican Congress Will Pass Legislation Fostering Regulatory Experimentation
“A lot of the legislation that you're going to see for A Republican-controlled Congress moving forward is going to move to, you know, set up this environment for more experimentation.”
Ullyot: U.S. trade restrictions will hit physical goods, not software
“I think most of the impact as I see it of the trade talk would be on physical goods rather than software, especially when it's delivered no longer by, you know, long, long ago, you know, when it was, you could stop a shipment of discs at the border. That was o…”
Spence: American IP protection will become a primary U.S. trade policy priority
“There's one, I think, in a sense, bipartisan issue that I think will become more important in trade policy is protection of American intellectual property.”
Ullyot: EFF opposed TPP IP rules over concerns for global web development
“That was a place where a very influential Silicon Valley voice, that of the EFF, was highly skeptical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership because the TPP, you know, there, there's a push by American intellectual, intellectual property owners To make sure that the…”
Chokshi: Network effects, not patents, provide defensible moats in software
“In our business and software, obviously there is a complex matrix of patents in some cases where you really need it. But At the end of the day, a lot of the defensibility and moats, we're looking at our network effects.”
Colford: Early Trump cabinet nominees lack anti-tech bias
“The good news is that none of the folks that have been named at this point come in with any sort of anti-tech bias.”
Ullyot: Peter Thiel's role in the Trump transition was invaluable for tech
“The role that Peter Thiel has played for tech has been invaluable for tech in that room. It's a voice. It's a very respected voice within that team.”
Ullyot: Congress and Trump may substantially rein in or eliminate the CFPB
“Now that you have a change of administration, it's conceivable that the Congress and President Trump will substantially rein in the CFPB, if not eliminate it altogether.”