Erik Torenberg
General Partner, a16z. On 3 shows, 82 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderhostauthor@eriktorenberg ↗LinkedIn ↗eriktorenberg.substack.com ↗
Erik Torenberg is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who co-founded Village Global, On Deck, and Turpentine. He was the first employee at Product Hunt and has hosted several technology podcasts, including The a16z Podcast and Upstream.
3shows
82appearances
41statements
6resolved
5supported
0contradicted
83%fully supported
9said about them ↓ Everything Erik Torenberg said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Torenberg: 99% of needed software will be built in next 5 years
“On the investment team, we've said that there's, you know, the world has one percent of the software that it needs and that the rest is going to be built in the next five years.”
Torenberg: Apple's $55B annual China investment rivals the Marshall Plan
“I believe they said Apple invests fifty-five billion dollars a year in, in China. And I think the author said that's equivalent or maybe even bigger than the entirety of the Marshall Plan is, is just astronomical.”
Torenberg predicts a group chat app will replace Twitter for fast discourse
“I think that in the next five years, like someone is going to build a group chat social network where every day where you guys cover the current thing every day. But Twitter is too slow in the way that like Twitter sort of obsoleted the New York, the tradition…”
Torenberg: Business Media Companies Should Price Discriminate and Charge Premium Rates
“People in the media, businesses and media creators often don't price discriminate. And especially if you're in business media, if you can attract information, that's extremely valuable to a very small subset of people, you should be charging a ton.”
Tornberg: Twitter ran as well or better after 70% headcount cuts
“Twitter proved it, right? Cutting 70%, and then it's running better or as good as it was before.”
Tornberg: Media hostility toward a product indicates a winning proposition
“If the media hates it, you, you've really got something.”
Torenberg: a16z regrets not investing even more aggressively in AI
“Because when we look back at the last few years of our sort of growth investing in this category, we, We've been very aggressive, but we regret not being even more aggressive.”
Torenberg: a16z Role Combines Venture Investing and Media Networks
“Basically they had had a desire to, Go much bigger on, on, on, on content, like separate from me. And they kind of liked what I was up to at Terpeton with sort of this network approach and they crafted the right dual role. That's a mix of investing and a mix o…”
Torenberg: a16z plans to build an affiliate podcast network for top creators
“We want to, like, Do something like an affiliate network where we can partner with amazing shows, help them get distribution, help them make more money and kind of make it a no brainer for them to be part of this sort of broader podcast network that just sort …”
Torenberg: Podcasts are the only media format that spawns all others
“They're the only media that you can create that allows you to create every other form of media from a podcast.”
Torenberg: Turpentine splits revenue 50/50 with top creators like Packy McCormick
“So basically in our network, we have Paki McCormick, we have Noah Smith and Brian Hobart of a few other kind of pretty big newsletter writers for their specific niches who have a few 100,000 subscribers. And we say, Hey, you don't have a podcast today. Let's c…”
Torenberg: Turpentine Will Monetize Proprietary Data Gathered via Industry Lists
“So we are going to create media that helps people do better at their job and identify you know, which companies are doing well, et cetera. We're gonna get in the list game, right? Top companies, top people per sector, get, use these, this media to get all this…”
Torenberg: David Perell should have taken equity instead of selling courses
“He could have, instead of teaching people how to write, he could have gone to people who either, you know, are big on other platforms or just have really valuable service businesses like you know, financial wealth managers or accountants or lawyers or whatever…”
Torenberg: Rappers prefer traditional label deals for upfront advance cash
“Most artists or at least rappers actually prefer the deals that the record labels gave them because they got more money up front. And they were able to do anything they wanted with that money.”
Torenberg: a16z Offered Series A Weeks After Product Hunt Seed Round
“I remember at Product Hunt, we raised a seed round. We had like two million dollars or something, maybe 1.5 or two million dollars in the seed round. And then a few weeks later, we got a term, a series A term sheet from Andreessen Horowitz. And we didn't even …”
Torenberg is launching a Bookface competitor with VC and SaaS ratings
“One is a VC rating system. One is a service provider rating system. One is a SAS tool rating system or a review site. One is a company review site. I'm going to have individual metrics for, or a company reviews that, yeah, like a glass door competitor, individ…”
Torenberg: Dating apps approach the market incorrectly by not price discriminating
“The dating space. I think people are going around at the wrong way. They're not price discriminating.”
Torenberg: Top 50 podcasts capture 90% of listener traffic share
“The top 50 podcasts have something like 90% of the traffic of the share, and that, you know, more and more people are creating podcasts every day, and they're actually creating a show about, you know, what are the gems that are not in the top 50.”
Tornberg: Few possess both internet-native taste and professional polish
“There's this sweet spot where you need to be online enough to really know the, have a taste and have sensibility and understand these new platforms. But you also need to be functioning enough and professional enough to work at one of these companies. And there…”
Torenberg: AI capex spending currently exceeds 1% of GDP
“AI capex is, you know, over one percent of GDP.”
Torenberg: VC ecosystem will be dominated by massive funds and boutique firms
“I also do still very much believe in the barbell that there will be, you know, these big, you know, sort of massive funds that continue to win and invest in compound value. And also these you know Smaller, focused, concentrated, expert, the boutiques who absol…”
Torenberg: Benedict Evans Called a16z a Media Firm Monetizing via VC
“Benedict Evans once called A, 16 Z a media company that monetizes via VC.”
Tornberg: Out-of-power political parties rely on subversion and comedy
“When your party is out of power, you have to learn sort of sort of the skills of subversion, right? And comedy and sort of contrarian thinking these are tools of subversion or tools that you can, that help you when you're not in power, when you are in power, y…”
The other half of the tape: Erik Torenberg's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 9 times in 7 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most John Coogan 3Jeff Woo 2Marc Andreessen 1Fred Wilson 1Cody Schneider 1Alex Rampell 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
the a16z Podcast 5
TBPN 3
the Startup Ideas Podcast 1
2026 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2025 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Erik's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTUP IDEASLEDGER | General Partner, a16z | 1 | 17 | — | full record on the Startup Ideas Podcast → |
| a16zLEDGER | General Partner, a16zhost | 80 | 16 | 80% 4/5 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |
| TBPNLEDGER | General Partner, a16z | 1 | 8 | 100% 1/1 | full record on TBPN → |