Erik Torenberg

General Partner, a16z · 1 appearance on the record.

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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.

17statements → 3claims → 0claims resolved → 3.65/5average certainty → 2.18/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

3 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 1 opinion · 4 insights · 8 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Erik argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Erik Torenberg on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Erik Torenberg said on the Startup Ideas Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
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.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 22:12 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Insight
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.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 4:27 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
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…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 13:44 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
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…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 23:09 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
What-if
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…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 29:58 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 31:31 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
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 …”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 43:35 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
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…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 49:37 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Opinion
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.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 52:11 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Torenberg: Niche creators like Lenny Rachitsky will emerge for every sector
“What Lenny is doing for product managers that will exist for every position. For finance people, for engineering, for sales marketing, et cetera. And that will also exist for every sector.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 2:45 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
Torenberg: Turpentine B2B podcasts monetize well with under 1,000 listeners
“We've created. You know, just in the last few months, I think we have like a top three CFO podcast or chief people officer podcast. They don't have a ton of listeners. So, you know, under a thousand per episode, but they monetize really well because people wan…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 5:15 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
Torenberg: Turpentine reaches $2M run rate on 350,000 monthly downloads
“We're doing about 350,000 downloads a month across 13 shows, which is not huge. Like some shows, you know, my first million does is bigger than all of our shows put together probably, but we're at about two million run rate probably because the shows monetize …”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 6:39 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Insight
Torenberg: Podcasting Networks Face Major Risk Without Feed Ownership
“The challenge of podcasts when you don't own the feed is that the host can just leave you.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 11:30 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Torenberg: Venture fund size growth will eventually require $100B outcomes
“Because venture capitalists have raised more and more money, the expectations of what they need for returns are much higher, right? So it used to be like one billion dollar business that they, that was like venture scale. Then it's like ten billion dollar busi…”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 36:16 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
Torenberg targets taking home $1M from Turpentine in 2024
“I want turpentine to I want a million dollars in my bank account as a result of, you know, next year turpentine.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 48:16 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Insight
Torenberg: Services are shifting from education to done-for-you execution
“I think in general, it's a big trend of, like, shifting from, like, teach you how to do something to, like, press button and it's done. Like, do it for you.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 53:36 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg
Disclosure
Torenberg: I Want to Build 'Reference Checks as a Service'
“One business I want to build is reference checks as a service, right? We do all these reference checks, and yet no one ever compiles them or organizes them.”
Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 ▶ 25:08 How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg

The other half of the tape: Erik Torenberg's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on the Startup Ideas Podcast. every mention, with the transcript →

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Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
How To Build A Million-Dollar Media Empire | Erik Torenberg Jan 5, 2024 41m
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