How to Be Smart Bullish When Writing Trends

When you identify an emerging trend, whether it's Web3 or AI, some people are more prudent about it. Some people are more bullish. And I put you guys more on the bullish camp. Smart bullish. Is the logic there that, hey, not everything's going to work out, but the things that work just work so much that it just really makes sense to be extremely bullish? Or when you reflect on the past few years and things that you were to do versions of againGoing forward in the future, now this AI wave, of course, how do you think about writing trends and how hard to write them?

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Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and one of the most influential venture capitalists of the last decade, joins Erik for the inaugural episode of Turpentine VC. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(02:25) Ben on what allows the legendary VC firms to be great for multi-decades

(03:37) a16z’s unique product-first, investor-second approach

(04:34) YC as a16z’s closest spiritual analog

(06:20) The strategy behind how Ben and Marc set up their firm structure

(08:12) Ben on why venture firms should stay private

(09:32) How a16z scaled their fund sizes to market opportunities

(10:54) Why a16z chose to go bigger than Benchmark or USV on fund size