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Dixon: Investments in Oculus, Coinbase, and Soylent came from hobbyist forums

Chris Dixon · Chris Dixon on How to Build Networks, Movements, and AI-Native Products · Sep 10, 2025 · at 18:23

Chris Dixon, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), explains his strategy of tracking niche developer and hobbyist internet forums to source early venture investments.

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“3D printing, like this led to my investment in Oculus and Coinbase really were both from that you know, from that thesis sort of VR, seeing the developers and the kind of, you know, Kickstarter community enthusiasm around, you know, when Palmer, Palmer Luckey was first creating that The, it also, you know, I've got into how new tropics, and that led to an investment in things like Soylent, and got into, back then it was like, this is like when I joined the firm in 2013, like drones, we did a few investments around that.”

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