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I just don't see Ben being able to work effectively with things that are new, powerful, valuable, innovative, etc. As long as you don't consider app.net, Skype

I just don't see Ben being able to work effectively with things that are new, powerful, valuable, innovative, etc. As long as you don't consider app.net, Skype, Meteor, MixPanel, lyft, ifttt, FourSquare, FaceBook, github, factual, crowdtilt, cohere, bump, box, or airbnb to be new, valuable, or innovative[0]. [0]: http://a16z.com/portfolio/portfolio-venture-growth/ http://a16z.com/portfolio/portfolio-venture-growth/

graycat 13y ago
Typically when A16Z funds a company, the applied research and software development have already been done. And the evaluation of the company by a large venture firm is usually based on 'traction', not core, technical internals that might be new, innovative, with silver bullets, etc. The question relevant to the OP is what happens after the company is going and suddenly encounters a product from a competitor five times faster and for free. The present A16Z portfolio does not answer that question. Moreover, what you are pointing to as 'innovative' companies in their portfolio is not much like the 'innovation' of a "silver bullet". That is, the 'innovation' in your list from their portfolio is, on the face of it, just innovation in the business 'idea' or business model and not core, internal, technical innovation such as needed to make some software five times faster as in the OP. E.g., you mentioned AirBnb. Where is the core, technical silver bullet in that business? Maybe they have some such bullets in their server farm now, but when they got venture capital likely they had recently still been thinking air mattresses. Similarly for Facebook: Now they have one heck of a server farm with, maybe some silver bullets, but early on they were something from Zuck's dorm room typing with no bullets visible, silver or lead. I've seen some silver bullets and created several in my career and simply don't see anything in Ben's background or his many blog posts that suggests he knows how to invent or direct the invention of silver bullets; indeed, what I've seen is that, from his thinking, in any company where he was on the Board, likely he would ruin any efforts he saw to create silver bullets. Ben's technical background is just routine; otherwise, he was a 'business manager' who pushed others to work with "lead bullets". Learn a lesson: (A) No way, not a chance, will any usual, US, red-blooded, no-nonsense, bottom line oriented business manager want anything to do with any subordinate doing anything the manger would have to think about longer than 10 seconds to understand. They still want it like the Ford factory 100 years ago where the supervisor had all the knowledge and the subordinate was there just to add routine muscle to the knowledge of the supervisor. Such a manager does not want to bet even 1% of his career on any work he does not personally understand. Period. (B) In information technology, venture capital Board members are much like such managers -- they want nothing to do with pursuing silver bullets. (C) Actually, the fraction of the population at all good at creating technical silver bullets is quite small, necessarily so since in this context 'silver' means both valuable and rare. A problem is that if the company, once it's up and going, needs a silver bullet, a Board that doesn't understand how silver bullets are made won't back a silver bullet effort, even if the CEO sees his way clear to success, and will insist on lead bullet approaches. Again, I just don't see Ben as a silver bullet kind of guy. Net, the silver bullet business is fairly well understood, but nearly all the venture partners are among the worst at working with that business. Again, good work on silver bullets includes the SR-71, 22 nm line width, and most of the funded projects of NSF, NIH, and DARPA. In particular, the crucial, core technology of my startup is some silver bullets I created in some original applied math based on some advanced prerequisites in pure and applied math. I've converted that math to software, but to evaluate the real promise of the company just must trace the math. A16H has already written me that there is no way they can consider the original applied math. Okay. But once my company is up and running and needed a silver bullet, and I already know one place it will, if an A16H partner were on my Board then I can see it right in front of me like a freight train 50 feet away at 80 MPH coming right toward me, as soon as I tell the Board about the little project for the next silver bullet, they will in unison upchuck on the Board table and fire me. No way. Not a chance do I want any such person on my Board. I'll let those guys stay busy with another local, mobile, social, photo-sharing app, like Instagram except for video clips or some such. I'm not used to working with people who are afraid to work with silver bullets. Instead I've been working with silver bullets right along in all my career in applied math and computing for problems in US national security and business, in my Ph.D. work, in likely the world's best computer science lab, etc. Again, from my experience, Ben doesn't look like a silver bullet kind of guy. Neither does A16Z.

graycat 13y ago

Typically when A16Z funds a company, the applied research and software development have already been done. And the evaluation of the company by a large venture firm is usually based on 'traction', not core, technical internals that might be new, innovative, with silver bullets, etc. The question relevant to the OP is what happens after the company is going and suddenly encounters a product from a competitor five times faster and for free. The present A16Z portfolio does not answer that question. Moreover, what you are pointing to as 'innovative' companies in their portfolio is not much like the 'innovation' of a "silver bullet". That is, the 'innovation' in your list from their portfolio is, on the face of it, just innovation in the business 'idea' or business model and not core, internal, technical innovation such as needed to make some software five times faster as in the OP. E.g., you mentioned AirBnb. Where is the core, technical silver bullet in that business? Maybe they have some such bullets in their server farm now, but when they got venture capital likely they had recently still been thinking air mattresses. Similarly for Facebook: Now they have one heck of a server farm with, maybe some silver bullets, but early on they were something from Zuck's dorm room typing with no bullets visible, silver or lead. I've seen some silver bullets and created several in my career and simply don't see anything in Ben's background or his many blog posts that suggests he knows how to invent or direct the invention of silver bullets; indeed, what I've seen is that, from his thinking, in any company where he was on the Board, likely he would ruin any efforts he saw to create silver bullets. Ben's technical background is just routine; otherwise, he was a 'business manager' who pushed others to work with "lead bullets". Learn a lesson: (A) No way, not a chance, will any usual, US, red-blooded, no-nonsense, bottom line oriented business manager want anything to do with any subordinate doing anything the manger would have to think about longer than 10 seconds to understand. They still want it like the Ford factory 100 years ago where the supervisor had all the knowledge and the subordinate was there just to add routine muscle to the knowledge of the supervisor. Such a manager does not want to bet even 1% of his career on any work he does not personally understand. Period. (B) In information technology, venture capital Board members are much like such managers -- they want nothing to do with pursuing silver bullets. (C) Actually, the fraction of the population at all good at creating technical silver bullets is quite small, necessarily so since in this context 'silver' means both valuable and rare. A problem is that if the company, once it's up and going, needs a silver bullet, a Board that doesn't understand how silver bullets are made won't back a silver bullet effort, even if the CEO sees his way clear to success, and will insist on lead bullet approaches. Again, I just don't see Ben as a silver bullet kind of guy. Net, the silver bullet business is fairly well understood, but nearly all the venture partners are among the worst at working with that business. Again, good work on silver bullets includes the SR-71, 22 nm line width, and most of the funded projects of NSF, NIH, and DARPA. In particular, the crucial, core technology of my startup is some silver bullets I created in some original applied math based on some advanced prerequisites in pure and applied math. I've converted that math to software, but to evaluate the real promise of the company just must trace the math. A16H has already written me that there is no way they can consider the original applied math. Okay. But once my company is up and running and needed a silver bullet, and I already know one place it will, if an A16H partner were on my Board then I can see it right in front of me like a freight train 50 feet away at 80 MPH coming right toward me, as soon as I tell the Board about the little project for the next silver bullet, they will in unison upchuck on the Board table and fire me. No way. Not a chance do I want any such person on my Board. I'll let those guys stay busy with another local, mobile, social, photo-sharing app, like Instagram except for video clips or some such. I'm not used to working with people who are afraid to work with silver bullets. Instead I've been working with silver bullets right along in all my career in applied math and computing for problems in US national security and business, in my Ph.D. work, in likely the world's best computer science lab, etc. Again, from my experience, Ben doesn't look like a silver bullet kind of guy. Neither does A16Z.