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 61 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 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
Horowitz: The SEC has sued over 30 a16z portfolio companies
“So they've sued, I think, over 30 of our companies.”
Horowitz: Employees who refuse to support US defense work can leave a16z
“You're gonna decide that those people who are sacrificing their lives, putting their lives on the line to protect us, don't get the best technology? Like, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. So, like, you don't have to work here if you want to do that.”
Horowitz: Dozens of a16z portfolio companies were debanked under Choke Point 2.0
“And we had, you know, dozens of companies kicked out of the banking system simply for In a very legally compliant way trying to build a company, you know, that would, you know, employ people and, you know, make the country strong.”
Horowitz: Proposed federal compute limits threaten rapidly growing foundation model startups
“For little tech, which is, by the way, you know, everything that we've invested in foundation, not everything, but almost everything is growing incredibly fast and doing incredibly well, and these will be snuffed out by this kind of regulation.”
Horowitz: a16z stopped publicly attacking VC rivals after scaling
“When we started the firm, we were the upstart, and I talked just fucking crazy shit about the other VCs, and this and that, and, you know, call them bitches. But, like, at some point, like, I could feel it turning, and I remembered what happened to him, and I …”
Horowitz: a16z introduced Adam Neumann and Flow to Saudi government and investors
“So we're able to take a company like Flo, Adam Newman's company, bring him to Saudi Arabia, introduce him to the right people in the government, introduce him to the right people in business, introduce him to the right investors,”
Horowitz: a16z rejected ESG verticals in favor of American Dynamism
“I don't think we got that serious with them, but the other one was kind of ESG kinds of things, you know clean tech green energy, this and that and the other. You know, we thought that the right lens on that was much more going to be American dynamism one beca…”
Horowitz: a16z's American Dynamism Originated as a Marketing Idea
“Yeah, AD is a good marketing idea. And I think what, right, when they presented it internally, they presented the marketing idea, and I was like, well, I want to know what the fund idea is. You know, like, how do I make money? Like, we have investors, we got t…”
Sundar Pichai Described Project Maven Backlash as International AI Revolt
“Oh, they all, like, yeah, it was like a revolt from, I remember Sundar described it to me, a revolt from the international AI community.”
Ben Horowitz reveals early a16z rejected founders who yielded to their ideas
“One of the things that, that Mark and I used to do a lot in the early days was Basically try and convince the entrepreneur to do what we wanted. And then if they did that, we would not invest because they didn't, you know, they're coming in with their beliefs.”
Horowitz: Trump and Kushner felt they were too deferential in term one
“In talking to Jared and, in talking to, ah, the president, It was, well, we didn't go hard enough. You know, we kind of were too differential to the system, which has probably shocked a lot of people because they're like, they were differential. But they were …”
Horowitz: Donating to Las Vegas police aims to build safest US city
“There's been a little controversy lately about donations that I've made to the police department, and it's really a collaboration. You know, we've been working together to kind of make Las Vegas both kind of the safest city in America and the best police, the …”
Horowitz: a16z met with Trump and White House, but Biden declined
“Mark mentioned we met with President Trump. We did meet with White House, many White House officials including Jeff Zeitz, the Chief of Staff and Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, Gina Raimondo, the Commerce Secretary, and so forth. We have not met…”
Horowitz: a16z never saw private company Wells Notices before crypto crackdown
“They've issued Wells Notices, which in our whole career we never saw a Wells Notice, which is kind of a form of a, of an SEC declaring they're investigating and going after a company for any private company, and these are all private companies.”
Horowitz: Worldcoin launched globally except in the U.S. due to regulations
“And they have launched their product everywhere in the world except the United States, because the United States of these, of this behavior and these laws”
Horowitz: a16z supports regulation in crypto, drug development, and finance
“We're, you know, in representing little tech, we're not a pure libertarian, anti-regulatory kind of You know, force here. We think we need regulation in places. We certainly need it in drug development. We certainly need regulation in crypto and financial serv…”
Horowitz: a16z made a major donation to the Fairshake PAC
“We have a big kind of donation to something called the fair shake pack, which is kind of work on this and just identifying for kind of citizens like, okay, which politicians are on what side of these issues?”
Horowitz: Worldcoin is unable to list on exchanges in the United States
“We have an investment in a company called world coin, which is like a very kind of topical relevant technology because it's proof of human. They can do a zero knowledge proof that proves you're a human being and not an AI bot. But the one country that they can…”
Horowitz: Rival VCs heavily criticized Andreessen Horowitz's GitHub investment for overpaying
“This one probably got the most criticism, particularly from other VCs when we made it. It was, they way overpaid, you know, businesses like that will never be worth a, rational was, went for the most money ever in that space, and they'll never make their money…”
Horowitz: a16z refuses to invest in young founders with obvious ideas
“Like, if two young people just, like, start a company with a good but obvious idea, I would never invest in that because, like, I'd rather invest in, like, the experienced people with the same good and obvious idea.”
Horowitz: a16z lost Uber's Series B deal to Shervin Pishevar
“Ok, but, like, I just assumed we were doing the deal, and then the next thing I knew Shervin had the deal, and I was like, jeez.”
Horowitz personally took over Lyft board seat after rocky initial launch
“So, and you know, in order to Dave and Catch, I ended up having to go on the board. Like, I took over that board seat to kind of help them through that.”
Horowitz: Ben Horowitz is a16z CEO, but Marc Andreessen is the brand
“Like, us as a firm, like, technically, I'm really the CEO, but, like, Mark is more the brand, I would say, in terms of he just does way more media than I do. And that works, but it works because it's Andreessen Horowitz, and nobody knows the fucking difference…”
Horowitz: Much of a16z's brand was built by responding to public attacks
“A reasonable portion of the brand that we built was just responding to people attacking us”
a16z Does Not Hire Group Leaders From Outside the Firm
“First of all, in order to lead one of those groups, you just have to have been here and performed for a long time. So that, that, that's kind of the first thing. So we just know you extremely well. We're not interviewing people for that job from the outside. L…”
Horowitz: a16z founders took zero management pay from $300M Fund 1
“We rather than paying the partners a lot of money or in our case, we didn't pay ourselves any money. What if we took all that money? Cause it was a lot of money. Cause, you know, we're like, even on a three hundred million dollar fund, it was a really a lot of…”
Horowitz: Venture firms are better off avoiding public company board seats
“It's actually the only reason that I ever end up on public boards because, you know, like as a venture capital firm, we're kind of better off not being on the public board. But what keeps happening to me is the CEO will go, But then we kind of need you because…”
Horowitz: Nearly all a16z hardware investments required follow-on rescue funding
“I don't think that we've done anything in hardware where that hasn't been the case. I mean, the one was Oculus, but Oculus got, you know, they sold relatively early to meta.”
Horowitz: AI startups reached profitability faster than any in a16z history
“I think probably The companies that have gotten to profitability the fastest, maybe in the history of the firm have been AI companies or have been, you know, AI companies in the portfolio where the revenue grows so fast that it actually kind of runs out ahead …”
Horowitz: OpenAI maintains a small headcount relative to its revenue
“Like if you look at open AI, which is the big spender in startup world which, you know, we are also investors and is yeah, headcount wise, they're pretty small against their revenue.”
Horowitz: a16z is working with the UK government on AI policy
“So we'll, you know, look, we're working on that in Britain. And we look, we've got some pretty good reception from the UK government. There's you know, a lot of very, very smart people there. We're working with them, you know, tightly on their AI and crypto ef…”
Horowitz: a16z encourages dropping college degree requirements in its hiring
“In our own hiring process, we encourage people not to have those kinds of requirements because, you know, like people can become extremely smart without ever going to college and very skilled, you know, particularly in computer science.”
Horowitz: a16z invested in dorm-style housing startup for young adults
“Yeah, there's a, there is a new idea in the portfolio that creates a place that is like a college dorm, you know, from a living perspective and has a community and so forth and so on. You pay rent there but, you know, rent somewhere that you would, you know, i…”
Horowitz: Anti-statism means opposing communism and overreach, not government entirely
“When you know, when I say I'm anti-status, I'm really saying I'm anti-communist and anti too much weight on the public sector. At the expense of free markets and basically freedom for the citizens.”
Horowitz: I lost my own startup options due to the 90-day rule
“Look, I have been an employee at a startup. I've lost options. Over the 90 day exercise window that I can afford, you know, like, you know, really can afford it. I got, you know, three kids and 26 years old and all that kind of thing. So I understand the issue…”
Horowitz told Andreessen he could fire him without a formal conversation
“I'd say to Mark was on my board. I'd say, Mark, look, if you need to fire me, You don't even have to sit me down and tell me I'm fired. You just, like, tap me on the shoulder and, like, we don't have the conversation. Like, I'm done. If you think I'm not the b…”
Horowitz says his investment in Atoms is his largest check ever
“Certainly the biggest check I ever run.”
Horowitz: a16z prioritizes international expansion in strong US ally nations
“From our standpoint, it's very powerful. When we, when they're a strong ally of the US, we've got a relationship with the people in government, we've got a relationship with the people in business, we've got a relationship with the investors, you know, cause t…”
Horowitz: a16z media strategy targets founders over mass market audience
“You know, for us, that's great, because the audience, our audience is founders not the world. And so, you know, having a way to talk to 90% of founders as opposed to four percent of the world is just a much better thing for us.”
Horowitz: Public Attacks Bother a16z Staff More Than Founders
“We've been criticized so much at this point that, like, it really, it bothers, interestingly, which I never thought I'd see, is it kind of bothers people inside the firm much more than it bothers Mark or me.”
Ben Horowitz: Andreessen Horowitz Has Less Politics Than 10-Person Venture Firms
“The feedback we get from people who come from other firms is we have less politics than firms with, you know, 10 or 11 people you know, and it's just, it, that's a cultural thing.”
Horowitz: a16z maintains 20% or higher equity ownership in recent investments
“So I think that like what we've seen is we're getting pretty good ownership. So if you look at a lot of the recent investments where You know, at 20% or better there are ones that we're not, we're, you know, we don't get to that level of ownership, but those c…”
Ben Horowitz frequently consults AI models on management decisions
“Well, no, as somebody runs an organization, I ask the AI a lot of questions about what I should do. It comes up with some pretty interesting answers.”
Horowitz says a16z is working with the US government on crypto regulation
“We've been kind of working with the US government to try and get the correct regulation.”
Horowitz: a16z does not use macro predictions for investment decisions
“In fact, so one macro in our view is highly unpredictable. So that's the first thing. And so we don't try to predict it. And then secondly we have a ten-year horizon on exits, so if we invest in a company today, we're expecting it to come out in the environmen…”
Horowitz: a16z originally required all General Partners to be former founders
“Then the second idea that we had was to kind of only founders or CEOs were allowed to be general partners.”