Rebuilding for the Future

My guest today is Silicon Valley icon, Marc Andreessen. Before co-founding the legendary venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc was an early pioneer of the internet. At age 22, he built Mosaic, the first widely adopted web browser and the technology that underpinned Netscape Communications. Marc was an early proponent of cloud computing, social networks, and the software business model. In each case, Marc seemed to be well ahead of the crowd. During our conversation, we explore how software is making the world better, how slow sectors like education, healthcare, and housing are eating the economy, and Marc’s vision of the future for A16Z. Please enjoy my conversation with Marc Andreessen.

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Show Notes

[00:04:10] - [First question] The ways in which software is eating the world

[00:06:25] - The power of transitioning from atoms to bits and its impacts

[00:09:57] - Potential downsides and credible concerns as we shift into an automated world 

[00:16:00] - Major impediments of productive growth over the coming decades  

[00:23:12] - Real change versus false change due to COVID-19 writ large 

[00:30:06] - Thoughts on the rising cost of post-secondary education in light of the internet

[00:37:03] - Why doesn’t Google have their own university and if they might in the future

[00:41:30] - Whether or not an entrepreneurial focus on generally slower sectors may produce excess returns

[00:44:17] - Thoughts on hardware, its unit economics, and its role in shaping society

[00:47:52] - How to think about investing in immensely complicated, large-scale projects

[00:54:10] - What they’re building at A16Z, a new crypto fund, and where their sights are set

[01:03:09] - East coast investing styles and things we can borrow from them

[01:06:01] - Potential plans to step into the public equity space 

[01:11:09] - Defining why it’s time to build and the imperative it sets

[01:15:13] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him