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Chris Dixon Joins Andreessen Horowitz

173 points by sethbannon 14y ago

swohns 14y ago
Chris is a giant in the NYC tech community, and his machine learning at Hunch has been a personal inspiration. He's a brilliant addition to a16z.
- achompas 14y ago
  his machine learning at Hunch has been a personal inspiration Can you explain? I have no knowledge of the degree to which Chris worked on Hunch's models.
sethbannon 14y ago
Big congrats to both Chris and AH. But why not have Chris open up a NYC office? With more and more VC funds opening up satellite offices in New York, it seems silly to move one of the city's best to Silicon Valley.
- smalter 14y ago
  From PandoDaily (http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/19/chris-dixon-is-not-only-joining-andreessen-horowitz-hes-leaving-new-york/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/19/chris-dixon-is-not-only-joi...): “We are a single office firm,” Marc Andreessen says. “We take teamwork really seriously, and it’s a big deal to have everyone in the same place.”
  - mikeleeorg 14y ago
    On a side note, I found it interesting that Andreessen wasn't aware of the laptop stickers thing. It's pretty huge on the West Coast too. Sticker-littered laptops are a common sight in Silicon Valley hackathons.
antr 14y ago
I love how humble entrepreneurs like Chris are taking on the traditional gentlemen's club (read British upper class men in the 18th century) that the VC industry still is. Hope.
rdl 14y ago
Congratulations! This makes me kind of sad (selfishly) because a16z and Chris Dixon were two of my favorite investors; this increases the awesomeness of the combined entity, but reduces the number of potential great investors out there.
flipside 14y ago
Wow, that's awesome. It's a huge win for Andreesen Horowitz but also the bay area since it looks like he'll be making SF his primary residence (with the secondary being NYC).
kloncks 14y ago
I wonder what this means for Founder Collective?
jfornear 14y ago
Is the NYC startup scene over?
- zmitri 14y ago
  I think a lot of money got thrown around too quickly and now investors are being much more wary. With TechStars NYC going on hiatus, and things like this happening, sounds like trouble ahead in NYC. Find it more interesting though how critical of consumer products cdixon has been lately in his blog posts, and how founder collective's seed investments seem to be very b2b focused lately, and yet he's going to be dealing with mostly consumer internet it sounds like.
  - mhartl 14y ago
    With TechStars NYC going on hiatus Is it? It looks alive to me: http://www.techstars.com/program/locations/nyc/ http://www.techstars.com/program/locations/nyc/
    - zmitri 14y ago
      Woah, this is very recent! An article published today: http://betabeat.com/2012/11/david-tisch-techstars-new-york-city-managing-director-nicole-glaros-david-cohen-application/ http://betabeat.com/2012/11/david-tisch-techstars-new-york-c...
brandonb 14y ago
Chris is a fantastic investor. This is a steal for a16z.
jgalt212 14y ago
I dunno about this. From his postings, cdixon seems like a reasonable and thoughtful investor and business builder. Can you really see him pouring $15M into rap genius? Or $100M into github? Or $40M into Fab? Seems like a bad mix. Or perhaps, a16z has lost its way amongst the hype machine it has helped resurrect. Perhaps, cdixon can bring a16z back to the thought processes and valuations that drove some of their earlier plays.
- ironchef 14y ago
  People seem to make fun of lots of a16z's investments; however, their returns have been excellent.. I seem to recall people ridiculing/questioning their skype investment as well.
- zmitri 14y ago
  Out of anyone I've met personally in NYC, Rap Genius dudes seem by far the smartest investment. Hard to make sweeping calls like that until you see numbers, meet the founders, and hear about the vision.
  - jgalt212 14y ago
    It's not really a sweeping call. I'm not criticizing AH's picks, just their outrageous valuations. Anecdotally, I've heard they've outbid others by multiples in some cases. When you pump too much money into a growing business, Fab, or a largely built out one, Github, you create unrealistic goals for further growth. Managers at these shops no longer go after high ROI projects, but instead feel pressured to hit the home runs that can justify their valuations. At more reasonable valuations, these companies leaders would be better decision makers and thus increase the probability of long term success for their respective businesses. Make no mistake about it, I believe AH and the unrealistic valuations they have imposed upon the sector is bad for tech in the medium and long term. As far as their high early returns go, one could argue any growing fund (be it VC, PE, or HF) has high early returns. It's called survivorship bias. As for the Skype exit, these sales may become much more difficult with the impending tax reform. Companies will be under a lot of pressure to pay out big dividends in 2012, rather than risk higher taxes in 2013. Reducing the tech sectors internal cash hoards could put a lid of exit prices paid by GOOG,MSFT,AMZN,AAPL,CSCO (and other giants). The flip side of less cash in corporate coffers means more cash in investor hands that could be put to work in the IPO market. Now if we can only IPO solid companies at reasonable valuations, there is some long term hope to avoid boom/bust.
sayemm 14y ago
Just curious, how old is Chris Dixon? Awesome news, I'm a big fan of his posts and his track-record as an entrepreneur/investor. He bleeds startups. Just looking at his LinkedIn profile to get a sense of his career path and where it's taken him (http://linkedin.com/profile/view?id=56309 http://linkedin.com/profile/view?id=56309)... guess he's 41 years old? (since he started undergrad in 1989) That must mean SiteAdvisor was acquired when he was 36. I know age doesn't mean much, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, esp after reading that Fast Company article on Paul Graham. I think all too often startup founders forget that big wins don't happen overnight, there's something to be said for training and having a long time horizon.
jval 14y ago
I'd be interested to see whether the NYC connection was part of why a16z offered him the job. Depending on how you read the announcement it could either be a huge win for NYC or a huge loss. Probably need to wait for some more info from people closer to the source to find out.

173 points by sethbannon 14y ago

Chris is a giant in the NYC tech community, and his machine learning at Hunch has been a personal inspiration. He's a brilliant addition to a16z.

achompas 14y ago
his machine learning at Hunch has been a personal inspiration Can you explain? I have no knowledge of the degree to which Chris worked on Hunch's models.

sethbannon 14y ago

Big congrats to both Chris and AH. But why not have Chris open up a NYC office? With more and more VC funds opening up satellite offices in New York, it seems silly to move one of the city's best to Silicon Valley.

smalter 14y ago
From PandoDaily (http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/19/chris-dixon-is-not-only-joining-andreessen-horowitz-hes-leaving-new-york/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/19/chris-dixon-is-not-only-joi...): “We are a single office firm,” Marc Andreessen says. “We take teamwork really seriously, and it’s a big deal to have everyone in the same place.”
- mikeleeorg 14y ago
  On a side note, I found it interesting that Andreessen wasn't aware of the laptop stickers thing. It's pretty huge on the West Coast too. Sticker-littered laptops are a common sight in Silicon Valley hackathons.

antr 14y ago

I love how humble entrepreneurs like Chris are taking on the traditional gentlemen's club (read British upper class men in the 18th century) that the VC industry still is. Hope.

rdl 14y ago

Congratulations! This makes me kind of sad (selfishly) because a16z and Chris Dixon were two of my favorite investors; this increases the awesomeness of the combined entity, but reduces the number of potential great investors out there.

flipside 14y ago

Wow, that's awesome. It's a huge win for Andreesen Horowitz but also the bay area since it looks like he'll be making SF his primary residence (with the secondary being NYC).

kloncks 14y ago

I wonder what this means for Founder Collective?

jfornear 14y ago

Is the NYC startup scene over?

zmitri 14y ago
I think a lot of money got thrown around too quickly and now investors are being much more wary. With TechStars NYC going on hiatus, and things like this happening, sounds like trouble ahead in NYC. Find it more interesting though how critical of consumer products cdixon has been lately in his blog posts, and how founder collective's seed investments seem to be very b2b focused lately, and yet he's going to be dealing with mostly consumer internet it sounds like.
- mhartl 14y ago
  With TechStars NYC going on hiatus Is it? It looks alive to me: http://www.techstars.com/program/locations/nyc/ http://www.techstars.com/program/locations/nyc/
  - zmitri 14y ago
    Woah, this is very recent! An article published today: http://betabeat.com/2012/11/david-tisch-techstars-new-york-city-managing-director-nicole-glaros-david-cohen-application/ http://betabeat.com/2012/11/david-tisch-techstars-new-york-c...

brandonb 14y ago

Chris is a fantastic investor. This is a steal for a16z.

jgalt212 14y ago

I dunno about this. From his postings, cdixon seems like a reasonable and thoughtful investor and business builder. Can you really see him pouring $15M into rap genius? Or $100M into github? Or $40M into Fab? Seems like a bad mix. Or perhaps, a16z has lost its way amongst the hype machine it has helped resurrect. Perhaps, cdixon can bring a16z back to the thought processes and valuations that drove some of their earlier plays.

ironchef 14y ago
People seem to make fun of lots of a16z's investments; however, their returns have been excellent.. I seem to recall people ridiculing/questioning their skype investment as well.
zmitri 14y ago
Out of anyone I've met personally in NYC, Rap Genius dudes seem by far the smartest investment. Hard to make sweeping calls like that until you see numbers, meet the founders, and hear about the vision.
- jgalt212 14y ago
  It's not really a sweeping call. I'm not criticizing AH's picks, just their outrageous valuations. Anecdotally, I've heard they've outbid others by multiples in some cases. When you pump too much money into a growing business, Fab, or a largely built out one, Github, you create unrealistic goals for further growth. Managers at these shops no longer go after high ROI projects, but instead feel pressured to hit the home runs that can justify their valuations. At more reasonable valuations, these companies leaders would be better decision makers and thus increase the probability of long term success for their respective businesses. Make no mistake about it, I believe AH and the unrealistic valuations they have imposed upon the sector is bad for tech in the medium and long term. As far as their high early returns go, one could argue any growing fund (be it VC, PE, or HF) has high early returns. It's called survivorship bias. As for the Skype exit, these sales may become much more difficult with the impending tax reform. Companies will be under a lot of pressure to pay out big dividends in 2012, rather than risk higher taxes in 2013. Reducing the tech sectors internal cash hoards could put a lid of exit prices paid by GOOG,MSFT,AMZN,AAPL,CSCO (and other giants). The flip side of less cash in corporate coffers means more cash in investor hands that could be put to work in the IPO market. Now if we can only IPO solid companies at reasonable valuations, there is some long term hope to avoid boom/bust.

sayemm 14y ago

Just curious, how old is Chris Dixon? Awesome news, I'm a big fan of his posts and his track-record as an entrepreneur/investor. He bleeds startups. Just looking at his LinkedIn profile to get a sense of his career path and where it's taken him (http://linkedin.com/profile/view?id=56309 http://linkedin.com/profile/view?id=56309)... guess he's 41 years old? (since he started undergrad in 1989) That must mean SiteAdvisor was acquired when he was 36. I know age doesn't mean much, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, esp after reading that Fast Company article on Paul Graham. I think all too often startup founders forget that big wins don't happen overnight, there's something to be said for training and having a long time horizon.

jval 14y ago

I'd be interested to see whether the NYC connection was part of why a16z offered him the job. Depending on how you read the announcement it could either be a huge win for NYC or a huge loss. Probably need to wait for some more info from people closer to the source to find out.