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The hottest role in tech — the forward-deployed engineer — was "the ugliest duckling" for a decade. In this conversation, Akshay Krishnaswamy, Chief Architect of Palantir, joins a16z GP Erin Price-Wright to cover: - Why a good team of engineers is like a hive mind - The archetypes of... people that thrive as FDEs - Why pain tolerance is a hiring filter - Managing high-agency engineers without hierarchy and more. 00:00 Introduction 02:17 Defining forward-deployed engineering 04:49 Differences between FDE and other roles 06:09 Building and managing teams 09:55 Challenges and evolution of FDE 15:27 Maintaining product focus and customer relationships Akshay Krishnaswamy Erin Price-Wrightshow more

a16z

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134,494 views • 7 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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What is the archetype Palantir looks for in forward deployed engineers? a16z's Erin Price-Wright asked Palantir Chief Architect Akshay Krishnaswamy: "One is some sort of interesting cross-functional persona. Someone was a physicist, but now wants to do this." "There’s a little bit of 'I need to prove to myself, to the world, that this outcome should happen, and also that I can do it.'" "It's a bit of a chip on the shoulder. It's a bit of a thumos in them." Akshay Krishnaswamy Erin Price-Wright

What is the archetype Palantir looks for in forward deployed engineers? a16z's Erin Price-Wright asked Palantir Chief Architect Akshay Krishnaswamy: "One is some sort of interesting cross-functional persona. Someone was a physicist, but now wants to do this." "There’s a little bit of 'I need to prove to myself, to the world, that this outcome should happen, and also that I can do it.'" "It's a bit of a chip on the shoulder. It's a bit of a thumos in them." Akshay Krishnaswamy Erin Price-Wright

a16z

32,649 views • 7 months ago

How to become a $1M forward-deployed engineer (FDE) in 30 days (and what FDE clearly means): - What an FDE is and why the role EXPLODED - The 3 stages of the job (business reality, judgment, building) - The exact 30 day roadmap to become one - What the top roles actually pay

How to become a $1M forward-deployed engineer (FDE) in 30 days (and what FDE clearly means): - What an FDE is and why the role EXPLODED - The 3 stages of the job (business reality, judgment, building) - The exact 30 day roadmap to become one - What the top roles actually pay

GREG ISENBERG

364,971 views • 1 month ago

'India can be the FDE factory for the world.' What is a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) and why is it becoming AI's hottest new job? Speaking to Shereen Bhan on Young Turks Reloaded, Fundamentum Co-founder Sanjeev Aggarwal says FDEs combine the skills of an engineer, product manager and AI architect to solve real business problems. 'It's almost like a unicorn... a 10x engineer.' He says a company can potentially build a $100 million business with just 100 FDEs, compared to 2,000–2,500 employees in a traditional IT services model. 'The gross margins can be as high as 70-80-90%.' As AI rewrites software development and companies like Microsoft ramp up hiring for FDE roles, Aggarwal believes India's decades of IT expertise could make it the world's biggest talent hub for this new category. Shereen Bhan

'India can be the FDE factory for the world.' What is a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) and why is it becoming AI's hottest new job? Speaking to Shereen Bhan on Young Turks Reloaded, Fundamentum Co-founder Sanjeev Aggarwal says FDEs combine the skills of an engineer, product manager and AI architect to solve real business problems. 'It's almost like a unicorn... a 10x engineer.' He says a company can potentially build a $100 million business with just 100 FDEs, compared to 2,000–2,500 employees in a traditional IT services model. 'The gross margins can be as high as 70-80-90%.' As AI rewrites software development and companies like Microsoft ramp up hiring for FDE roles, Aggarwal believes India's decades of IT expertise could make it the world's biggest talent hub for this new category. Shereen Bhan

CNBC-TV18

101,423 views • 1 month ago

Bob McGrew (Bob McGrew) helped build some of the most influential technologies of the past two decades. He was an early engineer at PayPal, an early executive at Palantir—where he helped pioneer the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model— and was recently Chief Research Officer at OpenAI - where he led the development of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and o1. On this episode of Lightcone Podcast, he explains how FDEs became central to today's startups, why "doing things that don't scale at scale" works, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for founders working in AI. 00:29 – From PayPal to Palantir to OpenAI 02:19 – The Role of a Forward Deployed Engineer 03:19 – How Palantir Invented It 07:56 – Product Discovery in the Field vs. Sales 09:51 – Echo and Delta Teams Explained 13:34 – Training Ground for Founders 14:35 – Consulting or Real Software? 17:54 – The Birth of Palantir’s Ontology 23:04 – Why AI Companies Adopt It 36:17 – What Success Metrics Look Like 41:14 – Building with Demo-Driven Development 44:56 – Joining the US Army Reserve 47:43 – Opportunities for Founders

Bob McGrew (Bob McGrew) helped build some of the most influential technologies of the past two decades. He was an early engineer at PayPal, an early executive at Palantir—where he helped pioneer the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model— and was recently Chief Research Officer at OpenAI - where he led the development of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and o1. On this episode of Lightcone Podcast, he explains how FDEs became central to today's startups, why "doing things that don't scale at scale" works, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for founders working in AI. 00:29 – From PayPal to Palantir to OpenAI 02:19 – The Role of a Forward Deployed Engineer 03:19 – How Palantir Invented It 07:56 – Product Discovery in the Field vs. Sales 09:51 – Echo and Delta Teams Explained 13:34 – Training Ground for Founders 14:35 – Consulting or Real Software? 17:54 – The Birth of Palantir’s Ontology 23:04 – Why AI Companies Adopt It 36:17 – What Success Metrics Look Like 41:14 – Building with Demo-Driven Development 44:56 – Joining the US Army Reserve 47:43 – Opportunities for Founders

Y Combinator

409,322 views • 11 months ago

Erin Price-Wright: Engineers with full-stack skills to bridge hardware and software are expected to be in demand, as industries integrate AI into physical systems.

Erin Price-Wright: Engineers with full-stack skills to bridge hardware and software are expected to be in demand, as industries integrate AI into physical systems.

a16z

12,495 views • 1 year ago

"We are clearly entering a world where a product-minded engineer is now empowered to produce software without writing a line of code for it." In this conversation, Temporal CEO Samar Abbas joins a16z GPs Sarah Wang and Raghu Raghuram to cover: - Why agents are going from short-lived and interactive to long-running and async - Why the engineer of the future manages 15 parallel AI tasks at once - How OpenAI Codex runs millions of concurrent agent executions on Temporal - How real-time context engineering is exploding on Temporal - Why SaaS isn't dead, and value is migrating to APIs 00:00 Introduction 04:03 Temporal's origin story 11:14 Why agents raise the stakes 16:00 Specialized agents need durable RPC 25:20 Deep research agents 30:58 Execution histories as a superpower 39:04 Minimal viable long-running agent architecture 45:07 Context engineering at scale 52:40 Where value accrues: The "five-layer cake" and breakout AI applications Samar Abbas Sarah Wang Raghu Raghuram

"We are clearly entering a world where a product-minded engineer is now empowered to produce software without writing a line of code for it." In this conversation, Temporal CEO Samar Abbas joins a16z GPs Sarah Wang and Raghu Raghuram to cover: - Why agents are going from short-lived and interactive to long-running and async - Why the engineer of the future manages 15 parallel AI tasks at once - How OpenAI Codex runs millions of concurrent agent executions on Temporal - How real-time context engineering is exploding on Temporal - Why SaaS isn't dead, and value is migrating to APIs 00:00 Introduction 04:03 Temporal's origin story 11:14 Why agents raise the stakes 16:00 Specialized agents need durable RPC 25:20 Deep research agents 30:58 Execution histories as a superpower 39:04 Minimal viable long-running agent architecture 45:07 Context engineering at scale 52:40 Where value accrues: The "five-layer cake" and breakout AI applications Samar Abbas Sarah Wang Raghu Raghuram

a16z

45,989 views • 6 months ago

Sat down with Scott Kupor, Director of OPM and former a16z managing partner, about why he left a comfy VC job to work in Gov and what he's building with US Tech Force. (00:00) His wife's reaction to leaving a16z (04:00) How this Trump admin is different for tech (09:00) What is OPM and the federal talent gap (16:00) Where DOGE stands now (18:00) $250B on employees vs $750B on contractors (22:00) The 1981 hiring law nobody touched for 44 years (28:00) What is US Tech Force (36:00) AI in government today (44:30) His pitch on why engineers should work for government

Sat down with Scott Kupor, Director of OPM and former a16z managing partner, about why he left a comfy VC job to work in Gov and what he's building with US Tech Force. (00:00) His wife's reaction to leaving a16z (04:00) How this Trump admin is different for tech (09:00) What is OPM and the federal talent gap (16:00) Where DOGE stands now (18:00) $250B on employees vs $750B on contractors (22:00) The 1981 hiring law nobody touched for 44 years (28:00) What is US Tech Force (36:00) AI in government today (44:30) His pitch on why engineers should work for government

Nathan Lands

41,285 views • 6 months ago

Tony James on Costco, Starbucks, Blackstone, and Charlie Munger Tony James is an investor, Chairman of the Board at Costco, and former President and COO of Blackstone. In this conversation, he joins a16z GP David Haber for a conversation on scaling Blackstone from $14 billion to nearly $1 trillion, lessons from 38 years on the board of Costco, the future of private markets, and more. 00:00 Intro 00:45 Starting at DLJ: Getting in on the ground floor 03:05 The LBO revolution & building a merchant bank 09:09 Leading the Series A into Costco & lessons from Jim Sinegal 15:00 38 years on the Costco board & learning from Charlie Munger 25:17 Joining Blackstone: The partnership with Steve Schwarzman 33:44 Blackstone's journey from $14 billion to nearly $1 trillion 44:09 Investment committee culture & the art of robust debate 53:41 The IPO, retail distribution, and building competitive moats 01:05:39 Succession planning & knowing when to step away 01:10:00 The future of private markets 01:15:24 Advice for young people David Haber

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a16z

212,474 views • 3 months ago

Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land & the State of Energy Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about the data center buildout, and how to fix the US electricity grid. Plus, Erik and Katherine talk with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin about Silicon Valley’s favorite Dark Enlightenment philosopher, Nick Land. Zach Dell Eddy Lazzarin ☀️ Erin Price-Wright Katherine Boyle Erik Torenberg

Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land & the State of Energy Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about the data center buildout, and how to fix the US electricity grid. Plus, Erik and Katherine talk with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin about Silicon Valley’s favorite Dark Enlightenment philosopher, Nick Land. Zach Dell Eddy Lazzarin ☀️ Erin Price-Wright Katherine Boyle Erik Torenberg

a16z

166,909 views • 10 months ago

Earvin "Magic" Johnson and a16z's Chris Lyons sat down for a conversation on Magic's 30 year journey from athlete to billionaire businessman, including what Magic learned from Michael Ovitz, Magic's investments in Silicon Valley and sports, why athletes should take equity over endorsements, and more. 00:00 Introduction 05:09 How Michael Ovitz became Magic's first business mentor 07:42 The art of deal making and building a Rolodex 17:30 Magic's first Silicon Valley investment: Skydio 27:00 Building a team: Get people smarter than you 29:48 The one that got away: Nike stock in 1979 37:36 Why AI is changing everything 44:36 Sports ownership: Dodgers, Commanders, Sparks, and LAFC Earvin Magic Johnson chrislyons

Earvin "Magic" Johnson and a16z's Chris Lyons sat down for a conversation on Magic's 30 year journey from athlete to billionaire businessman, including what Magic learned from Michael Ovitz, Magic's investments in Silicon Valley and sports, why athletes should take equity over endorsements, and more. 00:00 Introduction 05:09 How Michael Ovitz became Magic's first business mentor 07:42 The art of deal making and building a Rolodex 17:30 Magic's first Silicon Valley investment: Skydio 27:00 Building a team: Get people smarter than you 29:48 The one that got away: Nike stock in 1979 37:36 Why AI is changing everything 44:36 Sports ownership: Dodgers, Commanders, Sparks, and LAFC Earvin Magic Johnson chrislyons

a16z

266,512 views • 6 months ago

Datadog CISO Emilio Escobar on Securing Agents at Scale In this conversation, Emilio Escobar joins a16z's Joel de la Garza at Black Hat to cover what happens when you hand coding agents to 4,000 engineers, why the permissioning that worked for a decade broke the moment agents could write their own SQL, and why Emilio isn't panicking: 00:00 Intro 00:55 Securing agents 03:11 AI flattens the org chart 05:20 Role-based MCP servers & sandboxing agent credentials 07:34 Understanding agents' intent 10:27 How to avoid reward hacking 12:07 How the CISO's role is changing 14:05 "Security engineers will become real engineers" 18:12 Why Emilio isn't panicking Emilio Escobar Datadog, Inc.

Datadog CISO Emilio Escobar on Securing Agents at Scale In this conversation, Emilio Escobar joins a16z's Joel de la Garza at Black Hat to cover what happens when you hand coding agents to 4,000 engineers, why the permissioning that worked for a decade broke the moment agents could write their own SQL, and why Emilio isn't panicking: 00:00 Intro 00:55 Securing agents 03:11 AI flattens the org chart 05:20 Role-based MCP servers & sandboxing agent credentials 07:34 Understanding agents' intent 10:27 How to avoid reward hacking 12:07 How the CISO's role is changing 14:05 "Security engineers will become real engineers" 18:12 Why Emilio isn't panicking Emilio Escobar Datadog, Inc.

a16z

47,472 views • 19 days ago

a16z always intended to be a media empire. This is the story of how it was built. As one of a16z’s earliest employees, Margit Wennmachers laid the foundations for a16z’s marketing operation. In this conversation with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, she shares stories of telling Marc to write Why Software Is Eating the World, getting Ben on the cover of Fortune Magazine, and finding that no publications were willing to run Marc’s now famous It’s Time to Build. The conversation also covers why founders should have a public voice, how a16z learned from CAA and changed venture, the power of authentic personality-driven media, and how the role of traditional media has changed. 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Meeting at The Creamery: When the firm had no office 06:24 “Treat LPs like mushrooms” 11:00 “We don’t have products. We have people and ideas” 14:45 The Fortune cover that started a war 28:03 Software is Eating the World: One draft, no edits 29:45 When nobody would publish “It’s Time to Build” 33:36 Why Ben wrote a book 41:30 “You can’t market a company without a character” 50:33 The GPT test for human communication 53:30 “How many people have something to say every day?” 57:00 Every company needs a personality Margit Wennmachers Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth

a16z always intended to be a media empire. This is the story of how it was built. As one of a16z’s earliest employees, Margit Wennmachers laid the foundations for a16z’s marketing operation. In this conversation with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, she shares stories of telling Marc to write Why Software Is Eating the World, getting Ben on the cover of Fortune Magazine, and finding that no publications were willing to run Marc’s now famous It’s Time to Build. The conversation also covers why founders should have a public voice, how a16z learned from CAA and changed venture, the power of authentic personality-driven media, and how the role of traditional media has changed. 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Meeting at The Creamery: When the firm had no office 06:24 “Treat LPs like mushrooms” 11:00 “We don’t have products. We have people and ideas” 14:45 The Fortune cover that started a war 28:03 Software is Eating the World: One draft, no edits 29:45 When nobody would publish “It’s Time to Build” 33:36 Why Ben wrote a book 41:30 “You can’t market a company without a character” 50:33 The GPT test for human communication 53:30 “How many people have something to say every day?” 57:00 Every company needs a personality Margit Wennmachers Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth

a16z

39,155 views • 9 months ago

Inside Block: How AI Changes Software Development Block's Owen Jennings sat down with a16z GP David Haber to discuss how AI is changing software businesses, including the end of handwritten code, why Block reduced its workforce by 40%, how small teams are doing more with agents, and more. 00:00 Introduction 09:08 The most meaningful difference in how Block is operating 12:57 AI infrastructure build across the org 17:09 The shape of the business: Square, Cash App, Afterpay 20:00 From static UI to generative UI 23:23 Defensibility in the AI era OBJ David Haber Block

Inside Block: How AI Changes Software Development Block's Owen Jennings sat down with a16z GP David Haber to discuss how AI is changing software businesses, including the end of handwritten code, why Block reduced its workforce by 40%, how small teams are doing more with agents, and more. 00:00 Introduction 09:08 The most meaningful difference in how Block is operating 12:57 AI infrastructure build across the org 17:09 The shape of the business: Square, Cash App, Afterpay 20:00 From static UI to generative UI 23:23 Defensibility in the AI era OBJ David Haber Block

a16z

93,210 views • 5 months ago

What our consumer team expects in 2026 for AI: - Enterprise usage drives consumer usage - More app generation - More multimodality: Anything-in, anything-out - Better models enable startups to fill niches with opinionated products a16z's Anish Acharya, Bryan Kim, Olivia Moore, and Justine Moore sat down for a conversation on the state of consumer AI, including what we saw in 2025 and what's coming in 2026. They cover the “winner-take-most” trend for general-purpose LLMs, the role of brand in distribution, great products that flew under the radar in 2025, and more. 00:00 Introduction & market overview 00:35 Who won consumer AI in 2025? 02:24 Image and video model innovations 09:11 Underhyped products and productivity apps 10:21 Prosumer tools and power user workflows 12:56 Distribution and brand 14:04 Product nuances: Onboarding and engagement 16:09 Social features 26:54 Looking to 2026: Enterprise, apps, and multimodality 32:02 Startup opportunities and app generation 36:27 Favorite products and recommendations 42:19 Building consumer products in 2026 Anish Acharya Bryan Kim Olivia Moore Justine Moore

a16z

66,374 views • 8 months ago

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-woke shift in Hollywood, the financial collapse of the streaming era, and why AI could spark a renaissance for a new generation of independent filmmakers. 00:00 Movies as modern myths 03:53 Why movies still matter 07:03 Taylor Swift, Scorsese & cultural artifacts 11:00 Streaming & the state of Hollywood post-COVID 27:41 Eddington: the first post-2020 real art film 48:49 AI in filmmaking & the future of creativity 52:26 Naked Gun revival and the return of humor 56:26 Fantastic Four and pro-family cinema 58:17 Could Atlas Shrugged be made today? Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 Katherine Boyle Erik Torenberg

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-woke shift in Hollywood, the financial collapse of the streaming era, and why AI could spark a renaissance for a new generation of independent filmmakers. 00:00 Movies as modern myths 03:53 Why movies still matter 07:03 Taylor Swift, Scorsese & cultural artifacts 11:00 Streaming & the state of Hollywood post-COVID 27:41 Eddington: the first post-2020 real art film 48:49 AI in filmmaking & the future of creativity 52:26 Naked Gun revival and the return of humor 56:26 Fantastic Four and pro-family cinema 58:17 Could Atlas Shrugged be made today? Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 Katherine Boyle Erik Torenberg

a16z

736,153 views • 10 months ago

A $100K/year customer gets white-glove treatment while a $10/year customer gets a help center. Decagon's bet is that AI closes that gap, and enterprise is buying it. Co-founders Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas sit down with a16z's Kimberly Tan and Sarah Wang to discuss what they've learned running agents inside the biggest banks, airlines, and telcos: - Smart-vs-cheap models are a false trade-off - Start with frontier models on new use cases, then migrate to open-source after they mature - Fine-tuning per use case works at the application layer - Support demand always outran supply: make it cheaper and companies buy more of it 00:00 Intro 01:07 90% of Decagon runs on open-source 05:00 The smart vs. cheap trade-off is false 09:26 Building a model factory in-house 15:07 Are the labs the last startups? 21:21 Are forward deployed engineers a trap? 28:36 The agent that builds the agent 37:02 Glass box beats black box 47:55 From help desk to AI concierge 1:14:45 Jevons paradox in customer support Jesse Zhang Ashwin Sreenivas Kimberly Tan Sarah Wang

A $100K/year customer gets white-glove treatment while a $10/year customer gets a help center. Decagon's bet is that AI closes that gap, and enterprise is buying it. Co-founders Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas sit down with a16z's Kimberly Tan and Sarah Wang to discuss what they've learned running agents inside the biggest banks, airlines, and telcos: - Smart-vs-cheap models are a false trade-off - Start with frontier models on new use cases, then migrate to open-source after they mature - Fine-tuning per use case works at the application layer - Support demand always outran supply: make it cheaper and companies buy more of it 00:00 Intro 01:07 90% of Decagon runs on open-source 05:00 The smart vs. cheap trade-off is false 09:26 Building a model factory in-house 15:07 Are the labs the last startups? 21:21 Are forward deployed engineers a trap? 28:36 The agent that builds the agent 37:02 Glass box beats black box 47:55 From help desk to AI concierge 1:14:45 Jevons paradox in customer support Jesse Zhang Ashwin Sreenivas Kimberly Tan Sarah Wang

a16z

131,728 views • 1 month ago

“Forward-deployed engineers are stolen from French restaurants. That’s where the whole idea came from.” In 2006, Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Shyam Sankar invented the FDE model after discussing French restaurants: “You sit in a French restaurant and you’re like, ‘why is the food so good?’” “It’s because the waiter is an expert in the food and is preparing the food all the way to the end.” “And if you ask for the craziest, dumbest thing that would blow up the restaurant, they’re like, ‘go somewhere else.’”

“Forward-deployed engineers are stolen from French restaurants. That’s where the whole idea came from.” In 2006, Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Shyam Sankar invented the FDE model after discussing French restaurants: “You sit in a French restaurant and you’re like, ‘why is the food so good?’” “It’s because the waiter is an expert in the food and is preparing the food all the way to the end.” “And if you ask for the craziest, dumbest thing that would blow up the restaurant, they’re like, ‘go somewhere else.’”

Jawwwn

148,959 views • 5 months ago

In Packy McCormick's recent deep dive on a16z, he writes, “What a16z aims to do is provide legitimacy and power [for startups]”. a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have been building the venture firm to provide entrepreneurs with legitimacy and power for almost two decades. In this conversation, they join Packy and a16z GP Erik Torenberg to cover how they did it and the worldview behind a16z, including: - How a16z compounds reputation - How the media ecosystem has changed since a16z began & how a16z has adapted - How a16z is structured to put entrepreneurs first and enable them to win - a16z's culture document and how written culture shapes people's actions - How to size markets that will grow exponentially because of technology - Why there are so many great Zoomer founders and much more. 0:00 Introduction 00:46 How the media ecosystem is changing 4:20 Substack 6:28 Supply-driven markets and new content creation 10:09 Databricks 13:58 Demand for great content 18:49 Market sizing 22:37 Turning inventors into confident CEOs 27:29 Building dreams 30:46 Compounding reputation 40:39 a16z team structure 46:01 Why intangibles matter more than ever 48:17 Original thinkers with charisma 50:06 Zoomers Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth Packy McCormick Erik Torenberg Not an offer or solicitation. None of the information herein should be taken as investment advice; Some of the companies mentioned are portfolio companies of a16z. Please see for more information. A list of investments made by a16z is available at

In Packy McCormick's recent deep dive on a16z, he writes, “What a16z aims to do is provide legitimacy and power [for startups]”. a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have been building the venture firm to provide entrepreneurs with legitimacy and power for almost two decades. In this conversation, they join Packy and a16z GP Erik Torenberg to cover how they did it and the worldview behind a16z, including: - How a16z compounds reputation - How the media ecosystem has changed since a16z began & how a16z has adapted - How a16z is structured to put entrepreneurs first and enable them to win - a16z's culture document and how written culture shapes people's actions - How to size markets that will grow exponentially because of technology - Why there are so many great Zoomer founders and much more. 0:00 Introduction 00:46 How the media ecosystem is changing 4:20 Substack 6:28 Supply-driven markets and new content creation 10:09 Databricks 13:58 Demand for great content 18:49 Market sizing 22:37 Turning inventors into confident CEOs 27:29 Building dreams 30:46 Compounding reputation 40:39 a16z team structure 46:01 Why intangibles matter more than ever 48:17 Original thinkers with charisma 50:06 Zoomers Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth Packy McCormick Erik Torenberg Not an offer or solicitation. None of the information herein should be taken as investment advice; Some of the companies mentioned are portfolio companies of a16z. Please see for more information. A list of investments made by a16z is available at

a16z

568,515 views • 7 months ago

“Product Management isn’t going to exist in 5 years” - 2x CPO @ Qualtrics and Apollo That's just one of the bold takes Shek, my former manager, shares in today's episode. If you're observing the future of the PM role, this episode is a must-listen. Designers in the AI-Driven Era – 09:19 AI Tools for Rapid Prototyping – 17:44 Why PMs Must Be Technical with AI – 30:13 Product Engineers Taking on PM Roles – 40:50 The Two Categories of Product Engineers – 45:33 The Future of Product Management – 51:15 How Technical PMs Impact a Company – 57:11 How Companies Will Win by Embracing This Shift – 01:04:38 The Rise of the Feature Factory Era – 01:08:13 Why the Top Two Jobs of a PM Are the Same – 01:14:13 The Expanding Role of Product Engineers Beyond Building – 01:20:23 Lessons from Failures as a Product Builder – 01:27:19 Balancing Work and Execution as a Product Leader – 01:34:55 Paid Promotions Included

“Product Management isn’t going to exist in 5 years” - 2x CPO @ Qualtrics and Apollo That's just one of the bold takes Shek, my former manager, shares in today's episode. If you're observing the future of the PM role, this episode is a must-listen. Designers in the AI-Driven Era – 09:19 AI Tools for Rapid Prototyping – 17:44 Why PMs Must Be Technical with AI – 30:13 Product Engineers Taking on PM Roles – 40:50 The Two Categories of Product Engineers – 45:33 The Future of Product Management – 51:15 How Technical PMs Impact a Company – 57:11 How Companies Will Win by Embracing This Shift – 01:04:38 The Rise of the Feature Factory Era – 01:08:13 Why the Top Two Jobs of a PM Are the Same – 01:14:13 The Expanding Role of Product Engineers Beyond Building – 01:20:23 Lessons from Failures as a Product Builder – 01:27:19 Balancing Work and Execution as a Product Leader – 01:34:55 Paid Promotions Included

Aakash Gupta

34,037 views • 1 year ago