Updates: 7 years at a16z, NYC tour, Speedrun deadline, etc

Lots of quick hit news from my work and personal life

Hello all!

Wow — lots of you read my recent post Every marketing channel sucks right now. It’s now one of the top 5 most widely-read essays. Thank you for that, and wanted to refer to a few other essays** I’ve written previously on related topics.

Couple other updates:

• a16z speedrun deadline this Sunday. As mentioned prev, I’m organizing 12-week program here at a16z focused on very early startups, where we invest up to a million! I’ll personally spend time 1:1/small groups with you. Applications are due this Saturday (May 10), so consider this your deadline and final reminder! Apply here — really only takes 5 minutes: http://sr.a16z.com. More details here.

• Also, I would love to see y’all in NYC when I’m there next month. I plan to be in town during June 2-6 for New York Tech Week, organized by the a16z team. There’s a bunch of panels/fireside chats where I’ll be speaking, including the Official a16z Kickoff Event, “AI Meets Culture: What’s Next?” hosted by Fenwick, Titans of New Media co-hosted with Substack, bunch of a16z speedrun events, etc. Check the calendar for more. (And friends/ex-colleagues, please DM me! Would love to say hello)

• I joined a16z 7 years ago, in May. Holy shit what a ride. Obviously it seems like so much has changed, and there’s been multiple distinct phases. A 2018-2020 set of boom years, pre-covid, where we were all investing in the post-Uber consumer age. Then lockdowns where I worked from an RV and lots of product categories thrived — particularly gaming. And I shipped my book. Then the past few years when I’ve been focused on tech, entertainment, gaming, AI, etc. A very fun, unpredictable, enjoyable journey so far — for which I’m grateful.

• Kicking off an LA speaker series program. I’m still living in LA! Even though the AI center of gravity remains SF, so I end up visiting every month. But as a side project, I’m now working with a bunch of folks in the LA ecosystem to put together a weekly program to hear from executives/founders from the top SoCal companies. Am hoping to get the big players like SpaceX/Tesla/Snap/Riot/etc, lots of startups, and VCs too. The idea will be that we can lend our Santa Monica offices to host events but will let outside teams host cool get-togethers. So watch this space! And reach out if interested to partner.

• Happy birthday to my wife! This weekend was her birthday and we went out for a wonderful (casual) meal. Pretty chill. I’m not sure she will read this far down this email, but if you do, you’re great and love ya.

Thanks to all of you for reading, and more to come soon!

Andrew
written from a hotel room on a 24 hour visit to SF :)

**related essays:

• Data shows losing 80% of mobile users is normal, and why the best apps do better

• How startups die from their addiction to paid marketing

• The Next Feature Fallacy: The fallacy that the next new feature will suddenly make people use your product

• The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics – 80 slide deck included!

• Why consumer product metrics are all terrible