Marc Andreessen on The Future of Venture Capital | Ep. 12

Here's what I encourage, I'm gonna break the fourth wall.

Yes. [chuckles]

[chuckles] Here's what I would encourage people to do. Here's the thought experiment to do: just write down two of these, in the middle of the night with nobody around, door's locked.

Write it down on a piece of paper, and let's pull it out in ten years?

Write down on a piece of paper two lists. What are the things that I believe that I can't say?

Mm-hmm.

And then what are the things that I don't believe that I must say?

Hmm. [upbeat music] All right, I am so excited to be here with Marc Andreessen. Marc, thank you so much for doing this with me today.

Jack, it, it's a pleasure.

So what I wanted to start with was the topic of small funds, big funds. We had Josh Kopelman on the podcast, and he made a point that resonated around fund size, the outcomes in venture, and sort of just, like, looking at the math of all of it. And I think as venture funds have grown, it sort of spoke to a lot of people about, like, kinda what the plan is a- and sort of how tech is gonna go. And so I guess to start, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts around that whole dynamic. Obviously, you know, s- you've got a big venture firm, and so I just want to hear kinda your perspective on this whole topic to start.

So, so start by saying, like, Jo- Josh is a longtime friend, and I, I think is a, he's a hero of the industry. Uh, and I say that because, you know, he started First Round Ventures back in the very dark days. Uh, I forget the exact year, but, you know, back, back during the dark days of, uh... after the 2000 crash. Um, and in fact, you know, there was a period of time back there when, you know, the total number of angel investors or seed investors operating in tech was, you know, maybe eight total. [chuckles] And, and, you know, f- uh, actually, Ben and I were two of them. But, you know, this was sort of the heyday of, you know, Ron Conway and, and, um, you know, kind of a, uh, you know, Reid Hoffman and a, a very small group of people who were kind of brave enough to invest in new companies at a point in time when, you know, basically everybody believed the internet was over, like the whole thing was, was, was done. And so he, like, I just think, like, that was an incredibly heroic, brave act. It obviously worked really well. It, you know, turns out buy low [chuckles] sell high actually is a good strategy.

It is very good.

Um, it's, it's very nerve-wracking when you're trying to do it, but it does work, and he, he, he had brilliant timing for when he started, and, you know, the companies that he's supported have gone on to become incredibly successful, and we've, we've worked with him a lot. Um, so, you know, we're a big fan, uh, of his. And then second is, I would say I didn't actually... I heard, I heard there was a discussion.