Building a venture firm w/ Scott Kupor (a16z)

Origins - Inside Venture Capital, Hosted by a GP and an LP

In the first Origins episode of the year, ⁠Nick Chirls⁠ (Notation Capital) and ⁠Beezer Clarkson⁠ (Sapphire Partners) host Scott Kupor, a Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

In his role as managing partner, Scott invests in growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm’s investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm’s growth initiatives.

Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm’s growth from $300 million in AUM to more than $30 billion. Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of software-as-a-service at Hewlett Packard. Before that, he held numerous executive management positions at Opsware, including senior vice president of global field operations, vice president of financial planning and vice president of corporate development.

Scott is also the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and serves on the boards of Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, and SnapLogic. He also served as chairman of the board for the National Venture Capital Association.

In this episode we discuss:

- The evolution of Andreessen Horowitz as the firm approaches its 15th anniversary

- Reflections on how Scott’s role has changed since becoming the first hire at a16z

- The state of venture today with AI as an inflection point + valuation corrections

- Managing LP/GP expectations in the current environment (e.g. markdowns)

- a16z’s decentralized business model and keeping important cultural values

- How to think about (and debate) fund size and what is the TAM today

…and much more

Follow us:

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠⁠

https://twitter.com/skupor