Counterfactuals: Could Boston Have Stayed Dominant?

Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison and Charlie Songhurst to discuss the history of Silicon Valley, spotting bubbles in real time, the "Elon method" of management, and why the mistakes that haunt you are the companies you don't invest in.

Show notes:

• Roger Lowenstein: When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
• David Swensen: Pioneering Portfolio Management
• Ian M Banks: Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel
• Walter Isaacson: Elon Musk
• Thomas Rid: Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History
• George McGovern: A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare, WSJ
• Steve Blank: The Secret History of Silicon Valley
• Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine
• John Perry Barlow: A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
• Martin Gurri: Revolt of the Public
• John Malone: Born to Be Wired

Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/marc-andreessen-and-charlie-songhurst 

Subscribe to Cheeky Pint

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2IHbGJJMpiFoz5YrvRfTFw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cheeky-pint/id1821055332

Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/

Key moments

(00:00) Marc needs to know: what is a cheeky pint?

(04:30) Are we in a bubble?

(14:55) Do VCs matter?

(19:01) The history of Silicon Valley

(32:25) How Digital Research almost made it

(39:02) A bear case on the internet

(59:52) AI productivity

(01:12:10) Stripe + AI

(01:13:08) Crypto

(01:24:08) Should a16z start a hedge fund?

(01:29:51) Big companies

(01:35:33) Boards

(01:40:27) The Elon method

(01:52:59) The future of media